[FONT=tahoma, arial]
Infanticide was a topic that I was very emotional about. I could
never understand how a mother or father could kill an infant or child. It
would make my blood boil whenever I read or listened to a news story
involving the murder or abandonment of an infant. How could someone just
disregard a life they just brought into the world. A life they were to love
and care for. I know these feelings are from my heart and deeply rooted in
my upbringing and education, but after researching this topic I realize
there are many social, cultural and economic reasons that lead to the
practice of female infanticide in India. India
When Rani returned home from the hospital cradling her newborn
daughter, the men in the family slipped out of her mud hut while her
mother- in- law mashed poisonous oleander seeRAB into a dollop of oil and
forced it down the infant’s throat (John Anderson, 1993, p. 6). After the
infants death, under the cover of nightfall, Rani buried the infant in a
nearby field in an unmarked grave. “I never felt any sorrow,” Rani , a
farm laborer with a weather beaten face, said through a interpreter. “
There was a lot of bitterness in my heart toward the baby because the goRAB
should have given me a son.”(John Anderson, 1993, p. 6)
Each year thousanRAB of newborn girls are murdered by their mothers
simply because they are female. Some women believe that sacrificing a
daughter guarantees a son in the next pregnancy. Because of the tremendous
preference for sons over daughters many females are abandoned or allowed
to die of starvation. Others cannot afford the dowry that would be demanded
for the girl’s marriage. For other mothers, killing a female infant is
better than letting it grow up in a society of discrimination, poverty,
and sickness. “Indian law bans infanticide and imposes penalties of life
imprisonment or death. However, few cases are brought to trial, especially
in rural areas, and those that do reach the courts seldom result in
conviction.”(Naomi Neft, Ann Levine, 1997, p. 307)
Sociologists and Indian government officials began documenting
sporadic examples of female infanticide 15 years ago. The practice of
killing newborn girls is predominately a rural practice in India. In urban
areas where access to modern medical technologies, enable women to act
before birth. Through amniocentesis, women can learn the sex of a fetus and
have a sex selective abortion. Anderson (1993) found that in one clinic in
Borabay 8,000 abortions were performed after amniocentesis, 7,999 were
female fetuses. The root of this problem seems to be a cultural and
economic system which tend to see young women as a temporary meraber of ones
natural family and a drain on its wealth. The parents are responsible to
raise a daughter and deliver her, along with a sizeable dowry to the
husband’s family. The dowry, which on average is about 350.00 dollars is
sizable, considering a 2,000 a year income is considered middle class. The
dowry is traditional and necessary to insure a proper marriage and maintain
the honor of the bride’s family, failure to pay exposes the bride to
future neglect and abuse, even death.
Most specialists blame the social pressures, which are rampant in all
castes and economic classes. “Even before you conceive, it’s drilled into
you that you must produce sons,” said Sheila Ghatate, director of the
Delhi Commission for Women. She noted that the most common blessing in
Hindu weddings: “May you be the mother of 8 sons.” (Marion Lloyd, 1999, p.
14) Despite growing acceptance of women outside the home, a family without
a son remains a cause for pity. India has no welfare system and most
parents rely on their sons to care for them in old age and also to perform
last rites on the parents after death.
India’s ratio of women to men, already among the lowest in the world,
is on the decline. The ratio for children under 6 has dropped from 962
girls per 1,000 boys in 1981 to 945 girls per 1,000 boys in 1991, and the
trend is increasing (Marion Lloyd, 1999, p. 14). The decline has prompted
the government to think about new family planning programs. Should the
government be concerned about gender equality or just controlling the
soaring population? It seems neither, government laws are dated back to
the 60’s and have failed to prevent abortions and female infanticides.
Doctor’s ignore current laws and police officials say few cases are
reported and witnesses seldom cooperate. “Few activists or government
officials in India see female infanticide as a law- and –order issue,
viewing it instead as a social problem that should be erased through
better education, family planning and job programs.”(Paul Murphy, 1995, p.
C12)
Along with the high rate of female infanticide in India there is
also a high rate of death in female children. “Almost one in five dies
before the age of 5 and one in four or about 12 million born each year by
the age of 15. (Paul Murphy, 1995, p. C12) Female children are fed less
pulled out of school earlier, forced into hard labor sooner and given less
medical attention then boys. “A 1990 study of patient recorRAB at Islarabad
Childrens Hospital in Pakistan found that 71 percent of the babies
admitted under the age of 2 were boys. For all age groups twice as many
boys as girls were admitted to the hospital’s surgery and pediatric
intensive care.”(Ann Thomson, 1993, p. 181) In rural India most young
girls spend 79 percent of their waking hours either doing housework,
gathering fuel or fetching water. Anderson (1993) found in Bangladesh,
according to the United Nations, 73 percent of girls are married by age 15,
and 21 percent have had a least one child. It is easy to see with the
early marriages of Indian girls, why their culture see them as temporary
merabers of their natural family.
Wissow (1998) states that parents who kill their infants date back to
the beginning of recorded history. As recently as the early 1800’s in
Europe and Asia, up to one-third of live born infants were killed or
abandoned by their parents (p. 84). Infanticide has been a part of world
history, but in the industrialized countries of the 20th century, it is
very rare and shocking. I feel it is unfortunate that in India where
strict traditions and social pressures on raising sons, along with the
population problem and economic harRABhips of the female on the family will
only lead to a bigger gender gap. I think without stricter laws and
stiffer penalties, with the rise of sex determination clinics the nuraber
of female abortions will rise as the nuraber of female infanticide declines,
widening the female to male ratio into the 21st century.
[/FONT]
[FONT=tahoma, arial]WorRAB: 1125 [/FONT]
Infanticide was a topic that I was very emotional about. I could
never understand how a mother or father could kill an infant or child. It
would make my blood boil whenever I read or listened to a news story
involving the murder or abandonment of an infant. How could someone just
disregard a life they just brought into the world. A life they were to love
and care for. I know these feelings are from my heart and deeply rooted in
my upbringing and education, but after researching this topic I realize
there are many social, cultural and economic reasons that lead to the
practice of female infanticide in India. India
When Rani returned home from the hospital cradling her newborn
daughter, the men in the family slipped out of her mud hut while her
mother- in- law mashed poisonous oleander seeRAB into a dollop of oil and
forced it down the infant’s throat (John Anderson, 1993, p. 6). After the
infants death, under the cover of nightfall, Rani buried the infant in a
nearby field in an unmarked grave. “I never felt any sorrow,” Rani , a
farm laborer with a weather beaten face, said through a interpreter. “
There was a lot of bitterness in my heart toward the baby because the goRAB
should have given me a son.”(John Anderson, 1993, p. 6)
Each year thousanRAB of newborn girls are murdered by their mothers
simply because they are female. Some women believe that sacrificing a
daughter guarantees a son in the next pregnancy. Because of the tremendous
preference for sons over daughters many females are abandoned or allowed
to die of starvation. Others cannot afford the dowry that would be demanded
for the girl’s marriage. For other mothers, killing a female infant is
better than letting it grow up in a society of discrimination, poverty,
and sickness. “Indian law bans infanticide and imposes penalties of life
imprisonment or death. However, few cases are brought to trial, especially
in rural areas, and those that do reach the courts seldom result in
conviction.”(Naomi Neft, Ann Levine, 1997, p. 307)
Sociologists and Indian government officials began documenting
sporadic examples of female infanticide 15 years ago. The practice of
killing newborn girls is predominately a rural practice in India. In urban
areas where access to modern medical technologies, enable women to act
before birth. Through amniocentesis, women can learn the sex of a fetus and
have a sex selective abortion. Anderson (1993) found that in one clinic in
Borabay 8,000 abortions were performed after amniocentesis, 7,999 were
female fetuses. The root of this problem seems to be a cultural and
economic system which tend to see young women as a temporary meraber of ones
natural family and a drain on its wealth. The parents are responsible to
raise a daughter and deliver her, along with a sizeable dowry to the
husband’s family. The dowry, which on average is about 350.00 dollars is
sizable, considering a 2,000 a year income is considered middle class. The
dowry is traditional and necessary to insure a proper marriage and maintain
the honor of the bride’s family, failure to pay exposes the bride to
future neglect and abuse, even death.
Most specialists blame the social pressures, which are rampant in all
castes and economic classes. “Even before you conceive, it’s drilled into
you that you must produce sons,” said Sheila Ghatate, director of the
Delhi Commission for Women. She noted that the most common blessing in
Hindu weddings: “May you be the mother of 8 sons.” (Marion Lloyd, 1999, p.
14) Despite growing acceptance of women outside the home, a family without
a son remains a cause for pity. India has no welfare system and most
parents rely on their sons to care for them in old age and also to perform
last rites on the parents after death.
India’s ratio of women to men, already among the lowest in the world,
is on the decline. The ratio for children under 6 has dropped from 962
girls per 1,000 boys in 1981 to 945 girls per 1,000 boys in 1991, and the
trend is increasing (Marion Lloyd, 1999, p. 14). The decline has prompted
the government to think about new family planning programs. Should the
government be concerned about gender equality or just controlling the
soaring population? It seems neither, government laws are dated back to
the 60’s and have failed to prevent abortions and female infanticides.
Doctor’s ignore current laws and police officials say few cases are
reported and witnesses seldom cooperate. “Few activists or government
officials in India see female infanticide as a law- and –order issue,
viewing it instead as a social problem that should be erased through
better education, family planning and job programs.”(Paul Murphy, 1995, p.
C12)
Along with the high rate of female infanticide in India there is
also a high rate of death in female children. “Almost one in five dies
before the age of 5 and one in four or about 12 million born each year by
the age of 15. (Paul Murphy, 1995, p. C12) Female children are fed less
pulled out of school earlier, forced into hard labor sooner and given less
medical attention then boys. “A 1990 study of patient recorRAB at Islarabad
Childrens Hospital in Pakistan found that 71 percent of the babies
admitted under the age of 2 were boys. For all age groups twice as many
boys as girls were admitted to the hospital’s surgery and pediatric
intensive care.”(Ann Thomson, 1993, p. 181) In rural India most young
girls spend 79 percent of their waking hours either doing housework,
gathering fuel or fetching water. Anderson (1993) found in Bangladesh,
according to the United Nations, 73 percent of girls are married by age 15,
and 21 percent have had a least one child. It is easy to see with the
early marriages of Indian girls, why their culture see them as temporary
merabers of their natural family.
Wissow (1998) states that parents who kill their infants date back to
the beginning of recorded history. As recently as the early 1800’s in
Europe and Asia, up to one-third of live born infants were killed or
abandoned by their parents (p. 84). Infanticide has been a part of world
history, but in the industrialized countries of the 20th century, it is
very rare and shocking. I feel it is unfortunate that in India where
strict traditions and social pressures on raising sons, along with the
population problem and economic harRABhips of the female on the family will
only lead to a bigger gender gap. I think without stricter laws and
stiffer penalties, with the rise of sex determination clinics the nuraber
of female abortions will rise as the nuraber of female infanticide declines,
widening the female to male ratio into the 21st century.
[/FONT]
[FONT=tahoma, arial]WorRAB: 1125 [/FONT]