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Female Infanticide in India. Female Infanticide: the intentional killing of baby girls because of a preference for male babies. This is murder. A parent does not wish to harm their own children. This is an act of desperation. Why Does This Murder Happen?.
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Female Infanticide: the intentional killing of baby girls because of a preference for male babies.
This is murder. • A parent does not wish to harm their own children. This is an act of desperation.
Why Does This Murder Happen? • Males are considered better than women in some parts of Indian society. • Women are considered sub-serviant. • They are thought of as the legal and economic properties of men.
What is the Cause of This Sexism? • 83% of India’s population is Hindu. • The Hindu texts, The Ramayana and The Laws of Manu, represent a good woman as being obedient, submissive, and dependent. • This demeans the value of women.
What is the Cause of This Sexism? • Islam, another major religion in India, promotes men over women. • Islam permits polygamy and gives women fewer rights than men.
What Drives People to Such Desperation? • The institution of a dowry is a tradition in India. • The dowry is a large sum of money given to the husband’s family from the wife’s family. • Sometimes, when the amount of money is not seen as suitable, the husband will murder his wife so that he may marry again and collect another dowry.
The institution of a dowry has been made illegal. • However, it is estimated that every 93 minutes a dowry death occurs. Having a girl is considered an economic burden.
Where Does This Murder Happen? • Newborn baby girls are often killed in the poorer regions of India. • Over the past few years, more than 4,500 baby girls have been killed in the Salem District of Southern India. • These women kill their children by forcing them to swallow rice husks and choke, by feeding them poisonous fertilizer powders, by drowning them, or by letting them starve. • "Instead of her suffering the way I do, I thought it was better to get rid of her.” –Lakshmi, a woman living in Tamil Nadu. As recently as 1998, 200 baby girls were killed annually in Tamil Nadu.
The Alternative • Murdering babies is obviously morally incorrect. • So how about selectively aborting female fetuses?
Technology Makes an Impact • This practice was originally only done by the upper class, who had access to the medical equipment. • Now, ultra-sound machines have become cheaper and therefore more readily available to the lower class as well. • This practice of aborting fetuses based on gender has been illegal since 1994.
Is This the Solution? • In India, 500,000 female fetuses are aborted every year. • Does this violate women’s rights? • It is violence against women. • But is it better than murdering newborn female babies?
A poster in Bombay reads: “It is better to pay 500 Rs now than 50,000 Rs (in dowry) later.”
Multiple Views • Some people are in strong support of making ultra-sound machines and abortion readily available to all, believing that this will lower the cases of killing newborn girls. • Others believe that this is violence against all women, and that further measures should be taken to end sexism in India.
The Effect • Selectively aborting female fetuses and killing baby girls has caused a severe gender imbalance in India. • There are 880 females for every 1,000 males. • In the United States, there are 955 females for every 1,000 males.
Laws Alone Cannot Stop This • The government in India has not been blind to this issue. • Laws have been made to prevent female infanticide and the selective abortion of female fetuses. • But it is still going on, right now.
It’s Up to You • These murders are happening halfway across the world, but that does not mean you can’t help. • It is up to you to decide what the best solution is. To decide the best way you can help.
Support an Individual • A $30 monthly donation to the Promiseland Orphanage will support a child. Sending this young girl letters will show her support, and give her the love that she needs to grow up feeling wanted. Below is the website. • http://www.abolishfemaleinfanticide.com/donations.html
Relief Projects India • This organization has a variety of projects that it supports. • The Mercy Home is located in Tamil Nadu and takes in abandoned children. • The SHE Program helps mothers find government aid and get medical check-ups. They also help aid children and mothers in obtaining an education. This program actively reports any unnatural deaths so as to put a stop to the female infanticide. • These are a few of the programs. To donate and find out more, visit: • http://www.reliefprojects.org/index.html.
There are many ways in which you can show your support. • Decide where you stand on the issue, and take action. • You can help these girls.
Sources • "Despite Economic Growth, India Lets Its Girls Die - Health News." Free Email Addresses: Web Based and Secure Email - Mail.com. 4 May 2011. Web. 22 May 2011. <http://www.mail.com/scitech/health/391394-despite-economic-growth-india-girls-die.html>. • "India Aborts 500,000 Female Fetuses a Year: Study - World - CBC News." CBC News. 9 Jan. 2006. Web. 22 May 2011. <http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2006/01/09/indiababies060109.html>. • Grewal, Indu, and J. Kishore. "Female Foeticide in India." International Humanist and Ethical Union | The World Union of Humanist Organizations. 1 May 2004. Web. 22 May 2011. <http://www.iheu.org/female-foeticide-in-india>. • added: • "Grim Motives behind Infant Killings." Featured Articles from CNN. CNN World, 07 July 2003. Web. 22 May 2011. <http://articles.cnn.com/2003-07-07/world/india.infanticide.pt1_1_baby-girls-killings-fewer-girls?_s=PM:asiapcf>. • Jones, Adam. "Case Study: Female Infanticide." Gendercide Watch. 2000. Web. 22 May 2011. <http://www.gendercide.org/case_infanticide.html>.
