Popular Tamil YouTuber Mohammed Irfan has submitted an apology letter to the Directorate of Medical and Rural Health Services for posting prenatal gender reveal videos on his YouTube channel.
On May 21, the state health department had sent a notice to Irfan for violating the PCPNDT Act, 1994 and had asked the Tamil YouTuber to remove the videos about the prenatal sex determination test and subsequent disclosure.
Irfan and his wife, Aaliya, had recently gone to Dubai to take a prebirth sex determination test. He had announced that Aaliya was pregnant a few weeks ago. He then posted a video titled ‘Boy or Girl Baby? Gender Test’ on his ‘Irfan’s view’ channel on May 19 where Aaliya is shown undergoing the prenantal sex determination test at a hospital in Dubai, where it is legal, unlike in India.
On Monday, Irfan had also posted a video from a ‘gender reveal party’ attended by his family and friends, where the couple had announced that they were having a girl. During the function, he said that they had found out the sex of the foetus after a scan during their visit to Dubai, as seen in the video.
“Ascertaining and announcing the gender of a child in India is prohibited under the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) ACT 1994. Such an action will lead to a decline of the female birth rate besides leading to crimes against women,” a release from the health department read.
Hence, a memo has been issued to Irfan for violating the provisions of the said Act. Also, a letter was sent to the Cyber Crime Division asking them to immediately remove the video uploaded by Irfan from social media, it said.