More Trouble For Baba Ramdev, Uttarakhand Govt Says Patanjali's Fertility Pill 'Putrajeevak Beej' Violates PNDT Act

The Uttarakhand health department has said Patanjali Ayurveda's Putrajeevak Beej is in "utter violation" of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act 1994. In a report, the Congress-led government also termed it "blatantly violative" of the Drug and Cosmetic Rules, 1945.

Economictimes

The report says that "the label of the medicine clearly states that the name of the drug is Putrajeevak which is beneficial for improvement in semen quality and stabilisation of pregnancy. The clinical direction which comes out of this information basically means that it is a drug which improves the count of sperms in the semen and makes pregnancy stable and the ultimate advantage to the user is that she will have only a live male child as the outcome of using this drug during the prenatal period."

Om Prakash, principal secretary of health, said that the health department had taken a legal opinion on the product and experts were also of the view that the Putrajeevak Beej violates both the Drug and Cosmetic Rules 1945 and the PCPNDT Act, which has in its ambit the prevention of practices like promoting of male sex preference in society. "The product is acting as a catalyst in suppressing the state's efforts to spread awareness against female foeticide," he said.

Incidentally, the Uttarakhand ayurvedic and unani department had given a clean chit to Putrajeevak Beej in October last year

Elaborating on the reasons behind this, Dr Arun Kumar Tripathi, director of Uttarakhand ayurvedic and unani department, justified his stand saying that Putrajeevak Beej is not a name given by Patanjali. "The name has been drawn from a 16th century ayurveda book titled Bhaav Prakash. From ayurveda's perspective, there is nothing wrong with the medicine. It is an internationally recognized nomenclature. Putrajeevak mean child, not son, as per ayurveda, something that needs to be told to the patients clearly while prescribing the medicine."

Meanwhile, Acharya Balakrishna of Patanjali questioned the state government's motives behind "the decision to paint a negative picture of the product". He said, "The findings of the report put a question mark on the intentions of the state government as they are trying to put the blame of poor sex ratio on ayurveda, not Patanajali. The health department on 14 May, 2009 had given a license to manufacture Putrajeevak Beej and now it is preaching against it. The state has failed in controlling female foeticide, which is evident in national health reports, and it is now dragging Patanjali into its dirty politics."