We have heard news about un-born foetus in drains, sacks and all other places. They were the stories of murder in daylight but still it continues.
The methods adopted to kill unwanted children in India are often cold-blooded and cruel.
The ritual is performed by a family member or a professional killer, by swaddling a new-born in a wet cloth or simply giving her a spoonful of paddy grain with milk.
It simply cuts her tender throat, suffocating her to death.
At times, the mother is forced to hire a sweeper for a small sum of 25 -100 rupees to dispose of the child by simply poisoning the baby with the latex of the calitropis plant, or holding her so close to a table that she cannot breath.
In the early 19th century, British colonel Alexander Walker recorded his horror at seeing a mother drowning her newborn girl in a trough of milk in the western Gujarat region.
But now abortion of female foetuses or "female foeticide" has become common with the easy availability of ultrasound sex tests.
It's an unholy alliance of tradition and technology. Ultrasound was not meant for sex selection.
It is a myth that who seeks to find out the sex of their unborn child is poor, rural and illiterate. We the so called educated savages are in front killing the un-born miracles for no fault of them & only because of their gender!!!!!
The consequence of female infanticide and, more recently, abortion is India's awkwardly skewed gender ratio, among the most imbalanced in the world. Infanticide is illegal in India (though never prosecuted), and laws are also in place to stop sex- selective abortions. But in some places, national rules don't hold enough sway to overcome local religious and social customs - which remain biased in favor of sons over daughters.
Campaigners have been trying to alert the government to the potential long-term social impact of the phenomenon, warning that, among other problems, it will make it harder for men to find wives. In China, where a one-child policy is strictly enforced, prenatal sex selection has resulted in an estimated 40 million bachelors.
Technology is simply making it easier to eliminate the girl child. And in a society where the girl itself is seen as a genetic product to be eliminated, this has frightening implications
India stipulates that only a government hospital, registered facility, or medical practitioner with appropriate qualifications may perform an abortion. The reality, however, is that only about 15 percent of all abortions take place under such circumstances, according to the Indian Medical Association. About 11.2 million illegal abortions are performed each year off the record. Such abortions are often "female feticide," experts say.
In Salem district, for instance, signs posted in towns reinforce the societal message: “Pay 500 rupees and save 50,000 rupees later,” a suggestion that aborting a female fetus now could save a fortune in wedding expenses in the future.
Nearly 60 percent of girls born in Salem District are killed within three days of birth, according to the local social welfare department. That doesn't count the growing number of abortions there to ensure a girl baby won't be carried to term.
Amid such stubborn statistics, activists are at work to counter the forces of tradition. A focus of their work: improving the standing and self-image of women themselves.
In pockets of India where female infanticide persists, the practice is rooted in a complex mix of economic, social, and cultural factors. Parents' preference for a boy derives from the widespread belief that a son lighting his parents' funeral pyre will ensure that their souls ascend to heaven; that he will be a provider in their later and that he will preserve the family inheritance.
Personally I prefer to be in hell rather than heaven built on the poor souls of my sisters & daughters. How could God give permission to these murderers to enter heaven? A girl or boy both are the divine form of God. Why should we discriminate against each other? By killing the un-born child we are not booking our seat in heaven but securing a free visa to hell.
Trivia
This is not a story of India alone; we can find these dark stories from every continent from every country;
In the case of China, social scientists are talking about a future in which 15 percent of men won't have wives. According to Asia expert Nicholas Eberstadt, the trend, termed the "marriage squeeze," is an anthropological phenomenon partly due to China's "one child" policy that began in 1978 with the intent of slowing growth in the world's most populous country.
"The world has never before seen the likes of the bride shortage that will be unfolding in China in the decades ahead," writes Mr. Eberstadt of the American Enterprise Institute, in a recent study, "Power and Population in Asia."
- Characteristics of Gender-Ratio Imbalances in India: http://www.unfpa.org/gender/docs/studies/india.pdf
- Lost mothers of India: http://zoomview.blogspot.com/2009/03/lost-mothers-of-india.html
