“Lakshmi already had a daughter, so when she gave birth to a second girl, she killed her. For the three days of her second child’s short life, Lakshmi admits, she refused to nurse her. To silence the infant’s famished cries, the impoverished village woman squeezed the milky sap from an oleander shrub, mixed it with castor oil, and forced the poisonous potion down the newborn’s throat. The baby bled from the nose, then died soon afterward. Female neighbours buried her in a small hole near Lakshmi’s square thatched hut of sun-baked mud. They sympathized with Lakshmi, and in the same circumstances, some would probably have done what she did.”
The phenomenon of female infanticide is as old as many cultures, and has accounted for millions of gender selective deaths throughout history. It remains a critical concern in a number of Third World countries today, notably China and India, and is arguably the most vicious and repugnant manifestation of the anti female bias.
Female infanticide has long been a matter of shame for “modern” India, and just keeps getting worse. Despite booming growth rates and rising literacy, more and more girl children are being killed at or before birth. According to medical research, more than 10 million female births in India may have been lost to abortion and sex selection in the past 20 years. The sex ratio in the country has been recorded at as low as 933 females per 1,000 males in the 2001 census. Northern states fare the worst, with national capital Delhi having the lowest sex ratio at 821. In Haryana, the sex ratio has been recorded at 861, while Punjab is only slightly better with a figure of 876. The sex ratio is so skewed in some states, men cannot find brides.
The dismal state of affairs in India is largely related to the fact that sons are seen as the wage earners, and hence as a type of insurance. Moreover, amongst the more orthodox, there exists the widespread belief that a son lighting his parents’ funeral pyre will ensure that their souls ascend to heaven. The problem is also intimately tied to the institution of dowry. Given the precarious financial status of the average citizen, being the parents of a male child, and consequently on the receiving end of the dowry, makes all the difference. As a result, the misuse of pre-natal diagnostic techniques and the consequent increase in cases of female foeticide are prevalent in almost every state. Amniocentesis was introduced in 1974 “to ascertain birth defects in a sample population,” but “was quickly appropriated by medical entrepreneurs. A spate of sex-selective abortions followed.” (Karlekar, “The Girl Child in India.”) Too many couples are electing to end a pregnancy if the foetus is female.
In a bid to halt this widespread practice, the Ministry of Women and Child Development, in coordination with state governments, plans to set up a series of orphanages to raise unwanted baby girls. Under the proposed ‘palna’ or cradle scheme, the government plans to open a centre in each district, where parents can leave their girl child if they do not want to bring them up themselves. However, the scheme has come in for a lot of criticism from social activists, who claim that it will encourage families to abandon their girl children. Questions are also being raised on the safety and kind of care to be provided in these orphanages. Most importantly, attention is being drawn to a glaring flaw in the scheme – the policy makers seem to have forgotten that most girls are eliminated while they are still in the foetal stage!
Transforming an entrenched system of gender discrimination is not going to happen overnight, and although this initiative is the first step to check an inhuman trend, statistics show that much more needs to be done to improve the country’s gender imbalance. UNICEF has warned the Government that, unless steps are taken to address the problem across the country, India will soon face unexpected social problems, ranging from gaps in the workforce to increased incidences of trafficking of women. The only way to wipe out this evil is to bring about a sweeping change in the attitudes of the women who subscribe to this practice, by educating them, and empowering them to stand up for the rights of their unborn daughters.