Ten million girls have been killed by their parents in India in the past 20 years, either before they were born or immediately after, a government minister said, describing it as a "national crisis".
A United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) report released this week said 7 000 fewer girls are born in the country every day than the global average would suggest, largely because female foetuses are aborted after sex determination tests, but also through murder of new borns.
"[These are] shocking figures and we are in a national crisis if you ask me," Minister for Women and Child Development Renuka Chowdhury told Reuters.
"[These are] shocking figures and we are in a national crisis if you ask me," Minister for Women and Child Development Renuka Chowdhury told Reuters.
Girls are seen as liabilities by many Indians, especially because of the banned but rampant practice of dowry, where the bride's parents pay cash and goods to the groom's family.Men are also seen as bread-winners while social prejudices deny women opportunities for education and jobs.
"Today, we have the odd distinction of having lost 10-million girl children in the past 20 years," Chowdhury told a seminar in Delhi University."Who has killed these girl children? Their own parents."
In some states, the minister said, newborn girls have been killed by pouring sand or tobacco juice into their nostrils."The minute the child is born and she opens her mouth to cry, they put sand into her mouth and her nostrils so she chokes and dies," Chowdhury said, referring to cases in the western desert state of Rajasthan.
"They bury infants alive into pots and bury the pots. They put tobacco into [their] mouths. They hang them upside down like a bunch of flowers to dry," she said."We have more passion for tigers of this country. We have people fighting for stray dogs on the road. But you have a whole society that ruthlessly hunts down girl children.
"According to the 2001 census, the national sex ratio was 933 girls to 1 000 boys, while in the worst-affected northern state of Punjab, it was 798 girls to 1 000 boys.The ratio has fallen since 1991, due to the availability of ultrasound sex-determination tests.Although these are illegal they are still widely available and often lead to abortion of girl foetuses.
Chowdhury said the fall in the number of females had cost 1% of India's GDP and created shortages of girls in some states like Haryana, where in one case four brothers had to marry one woman.Economic empowerment of women was key to change, she said."Even today when you go to a temple, you are blessed with 'May you have many sons'," she said."The minute you empower them to earn more or equal [to men], social prejudices vanish."
The practice of killing the girl child is more prevalent among the educated, including in upmarket districts of New Delhi, making it more challenging for the government, the minister said."How do we tell educated people that you must not do it? And these are people who would visit all the female deities and pray for strength but don't hesitate to kill a girl child," she said. – Reuters
Foeticide report : 7 000 fewer girls a day in India
Seven thousand fewer girls are born in India each day than the global average would suggest, largely because female foetuses are aborted after sex-determination tests, the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) said on Tuesday.The problem of female foeticide has significantly worsened since 1991, Unicef said at the India launch of its State of the World's Children 2007 report.
Out of 71 000 children born every day in India, just 31 000 are girls -- giving a sex ratio of 882 girls to 1 000 boys.But the global sex ratio -- which is 954 girls to 1 000 boys -- suggests that 38,000 girls should be born in India every day.
Despite laws banning sex-determination tests, female foeticide is common in much of India, where families view boys as being a better asset than girls."Modern diagnostic techniques for monitoring the health of a foetus, such as amniocentesis and ultrasound, have made it possible to ascertain sex in the earliest phase of gestation," the report stated."In countries where there is a strong preference for sons, these newer, sophisticated technologies can be misused, facilitating female foeticide."Social activists say local authorities have been slow to implement legislation that has been in force since 1996.
There has been only one conviction from hundreds of cases lodged under the Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques Act.Unicef says India is one of the few countries worldwide with an adverse child-sex ratio in favour of boys.In 80% of India's districts, UN officials say the situation is getting worse. For example, in 14 districts across the northern states of Haryana and Punjab, there are even fewer than 800 girls per 1 000 boys.
After birth, discrimination continues against girls in India, Unicef said, limiting their access to nutrition, healthcare, education and maternal care.Only 67,7% of females between the ages of 15 to 24 are literate in India, compared with 84,2% of males, and against 98,5% of women of the same age group in China.About 45% of Indian women are still being forced into marriage before the age of 18 in violation of the law.That in turn contributes to high rates of maternal mortality, with one woman dying every seven minutes in India from a pregnancy related cause."
Premature pregnancy and motherhood are an inevitable consequence of child marriage," the report said. "Girls under 15 are five times more likely to die during pregnancy and childbirth than women in their twenties." -- Reuters
