Murder, Actually

Excerpt from A Case Study on India by by Gendercide Watch

John-Thor Dahlburg points out, "in rural India, the centuries-old practice of female infanticide can still be considered a wise course of action." (Dahlburg, "Where killing baby girls 'is no big sin'," The Los Angeles Times [in The Toronto Star, February 28, 1994.]) According to census statistics, "From 972 females for every 1,000 males in 1901 ... the gender imbalance has tilted to 929 females per 1,000 males. ... In the nearly 300 poor hamlets of the Usilampatti area of Tamil Nadu [state], as many as 196 girls died under suspicious circumstances [in 1993] ... 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." Dahlburg profiles one disturbing case from Tamil Nadu:

Lakshmi already had one 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 neighbors buried her in a small hole near Lakshmi's square thatched hut of sunbaked mud. They sympathized with Lakshmi, and in the same circumstances, some would probably have done what she did. For despite the risk of execution by hanging and about 16 months of a much-ballyhooed government scheme to assist families with daughters, in some hamlets of ... Tamil Nadu, murdering girls is still sometimes believed to be a wiser course than raising them. "A daughter is always liabilities. How can I bring up a second?" Lakshmi, 28, answered firmly when asked by a visitor how she could have taken her own child's life eight years ago. "Instead of her suffering the way I do, I thought it was better to get rid of her." (All quotes from Dahlburg, "Where killing baby girls 'is no big sin'.")
A study of Tamil Nadu by the Community Service Guild of Madras similarly found that "female infanticide is rampant" in the state, though only among Hindu (rather than Moslem or Christian) families. "Of the 1,250 families covered by the study, 740 had only one girl child and 249 agreed directly that they had done away with the unwanted girl child. More than 213 of the families had more than one male child whereas half the respondents had only one daughter." (Malavika Karlekar, "The girl child in India: does she have any rights?," Canadian Woman Studies, March 1995.
Indian state governments have sometimes taken measures to diminish the slaughter of infant girls and abortions of female fetuses. "The leaders of Tamil Nadu are holding out a tempting carrot to couples in the state with one or two daughters and no sons: if one parent undergoes sterilization, the government will give the family [U.S.] \\$160 in aid per child. The money will be paid in instalments as the girl goes through school. She will also get a small gold ring and on her 20th birthday, a lump sum of $650 to serve as her dowry or defray the expenses of higher education. Four thousand families enrolled in the first year," with 6,000 to 8,000 expected to join annually (as of 1994) (Dahlburg, "Where killing baby girls 'is no big sin'.") Such programs have, however, barely begun to address the scale of the catastrophe.

Go soft on mothers who kill girl child: HC to govt

NEW DELHI: On a day Delhi High Court ruled in favour of empowering women in Army, a co-ordinate bench strongly advocated taking a lenient view of mothers convicted for female infanticide.
A division bench comprising Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice Suresh Kait on Friday ‘‘recommended’’ to the Delhi government to frame rules that allow the government to decide if remission of sentence or clemency can be granted to women convicted of killing their own children
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Go-soft-on-mothers-who-kill-girl-child-HC-to-govt/articleshow/5678394.cms dated March 13, 2010
(source: http://www.timesofindia.com/)

Politicos hijack girl child scheme

HYDERABAD: In yet another case of politicians misusing government schemes to reap electoral dividends, it has come to light that more than one-third of the beneficiaries of the Girl Child Protection Scheme are bogus.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Politicos-hijack-girl-child-scheme/articleshow/5673971.cms dated March 12, 2010
(source: www.timesofindia.com)

The Girl Child in India

She has only half as good a chance as her brothers at good healthcare, at enrolling in school, at not dropping out by Class 5. She is as interested in sports the same as the boys, she likes her dolls but is not beholden to become a mother and wife. In fact she wants to spend her childhood like any other child – well-cared for, fed, educated, protected, and heard.

24th September is celebrated as International Girl Child Day. On this day to create awareness on the issues affecting the girl child and garner support, CRY is inviting people to sign the charter in support of girl child rights.

The doll created as a symbol of CRY's campaign for the girl child needs a name. She is a girl, she is Indian. She symbolises CRY’s fight for the rights of children.

Click here for more - http://www.cry.org/GCMicroSite/GCLandingpage09/index.html

Youngest known divorcee!

The youngest known divorced person in the world is a 10 year old girl. Will child marriages continue to terrorise our children? Read on....

A 10-Year-Old Divorcée Takes Paris

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1876652,00.html

In a dimly lit corner of a Paris bar a delighted young divorcée describes in a soft voice how she spent the day throwing snowballs for the first time in her life. That is not remarkable. This is: Nujood Ali is just 10 years old — and was, until recently, the youngest known divorced person in the world.

Girls should be seen, not heard?

Most girls have grown up hearing that "girls should be seen, not heard". Is that what you believe too? Or if you are a girl, have you exeprienced the same? Tell us what you think.

Murti's resolve...

At thirteen, Murti is much like the usual teenager. She refuses most things that her parents insist are good for her. But in this case, she is right. She had refused marriage, unlike her elder sister, who was married to a much older man.

As an active member of the ‘Kishori Vahini’, (adolescent girls’ group in 37 villages of Jharkhand) she certainly did not want the same fate for herself. While her parents were following the usual route of arranging a groom for her, Murti was busy weaving dreams of a future as a teacher.

Murti’s father, saw this as the only recourse. Unable to feed her, afraid of a hefty dowry mired in loans, and on daily wages of Rs.70, collecting forest produce like Tendu leaves and working on farms owned by the village Mahajan (moneylender). The faster, the better, he thought.

Murti’s reaction to her father’s plan was a resolute ‘no’. Inspired by the Teacher Didi, she wanted to become a teacher. Didi had done so much, even arranging for a separate toilet for girls. She also guided and counseled the girls on health and hygiene matters. It was because of her that ‘Kishori Vahini’ had become active in encouraging children to come to school. So Teacher Didi was the natural ally for Murti when she found it difficult to convince her parents not to get her married off.

“I could sense Murti’s firm resolve and decided that I should at least try to convince her parents. At first, he was unwilling to listen. He blamed me for spoiling the village girls. I explained how the chances of a safe delivery would reduce and that the child would be malnourished right from birth”. Her father finally relented. “It was a big battle that she had won and all due to her resolve,” says Kamala, Murti’s Teacher Didi.
Kishori Vahinis and supportive villagers like Kamala are helping to rewrite the future for the girl child. Small steps, that will go a long way towards a better tomorrow. Murti's is not an isolated story, there are many others across thousands of villages and slums in India. And all of them are not as fortunate as Murti.