Female Infanticide and Foeticide in India

I wonder a land without girls-how would it be like? Every day, I come across one or the other news or video about girl child battling between life and death.

Millions of Girls are killed before and after their birth before attaining one year in India. The main reason for the widespread female feticide and the continuing occurrence of female infanticide in different parts of India was the dowry system for payment of huge amount at the time of girls marriage to the groom and his family, which though prohibited through enactment of Dowry Prohibition Act 1961, continues to play a prominent role in Indian society.

"Female infanticide is the intentional killing of baby girls due to the preference for male babies and from the low value associated with the birth of females." Will ever the problem of female infanticide be solved in our country? Is the question I ask and ask...

With much development in science and technology we have become inhuman, My wonder is the incident is increasing day by day and is done not only in rural areas but also in urban and semi urban settings, more so by educated persons. Although disclosing the gender of a foetus is illegal, there are numerous doctors who disclose the child's sex for a good amount of under the table payment, and arrange for the abortion.

When looked from culture point of view, at one end, women are upheld and worshipped as equivalent to mother and Goddess. And, on the contrast end, culture assumes male supremacy and superiority which makes women meek, weak, submissive and sacrificial.

Very strange and contrast is the practice among tribal communities  They don't desire to know the "SEX" and don't encourage the practice of foeticede. Can we get to learn something from our so called native origins and their practices!!!

Along with men women are also responsible for this act of killing female foetus and the girl child.

In Bangalore, India the city police have filed the FIR charging Ummer Farooq, the father of three-month-old Afreen who died in a hospital after being battered by him, of Murder under section 302 and 307 of the CrPC. K G Halli police, who were handling the case, and arrested the accused, filed the FIR in a local court. Farooq, accused of attempting to kill the girl child, was arrested and sent to Parappana Agrahara central jail near here, He was accused of allegedly abusing and battering his daughter to death wanted only a son.

In Kolhapur, Maharashtra, India an attempt made to check and rescue female infanticide. www.savethebabygirl.com launched has already succeeded in checking the rising instances of female foeticide by bringing under its radar the day-to-day workings of 232 sonography centres in the district in 2009. From November 2009 till date, the website shows an online record of 230 baby girls delivered at various maternity centres. Significantly, this is higher than the number of baby boys, 204, delivered during the same period.

The sex ratio in the country is decreasing at an alarming rate. The educated, upper classes, and upper castes have started the trend of female foeticide, and it is catching up very fast. We should not be surprised if the 2011 census shows the same trend in the tribal areas too".

Urgent and sustained efforts needed to curb female foeticide, rights of the girl child, problems and solutions

******New programme called "SATYA MEVA JAYATHE"by Ace Actor Aamir Khan aired on May6, 2012 on Doordarshan DD Channel and also simultaneously in eight regional languages-The theme of the first episode was on "Female Foeticide and Infanticide"********