WHAT IS FEMALE INFANTICIDE?

It is the intentional killing of a baby girl or the killing of a human infant, within one year of its birth. On the other hand female feticide is the termination of the life of a fetus within the womb on the grounds that its sex is female and is also known as sex selective abortion. It has been reported that female infanticide existed in India since 1789 Why? What are the reasons why female babies are being killed? 1. Discrimination Men are believed to be stronger than women. Earning higher than women. 2. Men take care of their parents when they get old because women leave after marriage. Daughters leave their families of origin; they are often regarded as temporary members of their families and a drain on its wealth 3. Although the dowry was legally prohibited in 1961, it continues to be highly institutionalized. Dowry system in India, where the brides pay large amounts of money or goods to the groom and his family. a. Threats of divorce are often used to entice the bride's parents to give more dowry. In a country where shame is brought down on the divorcee, parents of the bride will do whatever they can to save their daughters this shame. b. Upon marriage, a son makes a daughter-in-law an addition and asset to the family providing additional assistance in household work and brings an economic reward through dowry payments c. The combination of dowry and wedding expenses usually add up to more than a million rupees ([US] $35,000). In India the average civil servant earns about 100,000 rupees ($3,500) a year. Given these figures combined with the low status of women, it seems not so illogical that the poorer Indian families would want only male children. d. The practice of giving dowry was meant to assist a newly wed couple to start their life together with ease. However, now it has degenerated into a sordid commercial transaction in which monetary considerations receive priority over the personal merits of the bride. e. Their husbands often abandon women if the appropriate amount of 'Dowry' as demanded is not gifted to his family and him. To be a single woman in India with a child is the worst stigma a woman could live with, that is the fate worse than death. Facts: 1. According to a recent report by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) up to 50 million girls and women are missing in India's population 2. Of the12million female babies, 1 million do not see their first birthday 3. China as of 2000 census was eliminating one million girls annually but present trends suggest that India is likely to overtake China in less than a decade. 4. A report that at one clinic in Bombay, of 8,000 abortions performed after amniocentesis, 7,999 were of female fetuses. 5. The United Nations says an estimated 2,000 unborn girls are illegally aborted every day in India. 6. Areas with the worst sex ratios are the richest, best-educated ones

First-born daughters are often allowed to live because they will help with the household chores When girls get sick, the family is much less likely to seek medical assistance What they do: Some were fed dry, unhulled rice that punctured their windpipes, or were made to swallow poisonous powdered fertilizer. Others were smothered with a wet towel, strangled or allowed to starve to death. Either directly by using poisonous organic and inorganic chemicals or indirectly by deliberate neglect to feed the infant by either one of the parents or other family member There are a number of methods for killing the infants that have been handed down through the generations, much like recipes are. Sometimes the infants are fed milk laced with sap from poisonous plants or pesticides. Others are given paddy (rice with the husks still attached) to swallow which slit their throats. Other methods include feeding them salt to increase blood pressure, being stuffed in clay pots, holding the baby by the waist and shaking it - which snaps the spinal cord - or simply snapping their necks. These methods are all believed to be quick and painless, but invite scrutiny by authorities. Examples: One-day-old girl thrown into canal was found alive in Kurukshetra in 2008 and obsessed with the desire to give birth to a son; a frustrated mother killed all her three daughters in Orissa in 2007. I killed my child to save it from the lifelong ignominy of being the daughter of a poor family that cannot afford to pay a decent dowry. But all the same, it was extremely difficult to steel myself for the act. A mother who has borne a child cannot bear to see it suffer even for a little while, let alone bring herself to kill it. But I had to do it, because my husband and I concluded that it was better to let our child suffer an hour or two and die than suffer throughout life Testimony: "I didn't want to kill my daughter. But my neighbors came and told me: "You have three girls, you have to kill one. Two are enough. How are you going to feed and marry them?" My family used to say that girls are useless. But I couldn't kill her. She was gorgeous, very beautiful. She was not destined to die... She was born in our house at 4 am. Our neigbors said "we'll kill her with smoke solution". They prepared a solution with crushed smoke plant leaves. I didn't want to do it. In the morning I prayed to God and I gave her one spoon of the smoke solution. I was miserable. I layed down next to her but I couldn't look at her. The baby didn't die at once, she died in the evening. When I saw that she was still alive, I couldn't bear it anymore - I told my mother to save her, to give her sugarwater so she can wake up. My mother gave her it with her hands but it was too late... She died... My mother buried her in the garden behind our house. I couldn't do it myself. Later I planted flowers and a tree in that spot. She would have been 10 years old today. I never forgot about her. It is impossible. How can I ever forget her