According to a UNICEF report released in December last year, 10 million girls have been killed by their parents in India in the past 20 years, either before they were born or immediately after.
The Indian Government will launch a novel
"cradle scheme" – a series of orphanages -
in a bid to reduce the number of sex-selection
abortions and female infanticides
that have ravaged the population of girls in the Asian nation.
India is facing a serious problem regarding the male-female gender ratio.
In a nation where cultural preferences favour boys,
some Indian states such as Punjab and Haryana
face male-female ratios as low as 798 girls born for every 1,000 boys
leading to a host of other social problems.
According to the new scheme,
instead of abandoning or aborting the baby girl,
parents are encouraged to hand over the baby to the state
instead which would look after her.
For the same-said purpose, empty cradles or crčche would be placed
outside every government district headquarters so that
unwanted baby girls could be placed there by their parents
without compromising on their identity.
What we are saying to the people is have your children, don't kill them.
And if you don't want a girl child, leave her to us.
The plan would be implemented soon by the Ministry for Women
and Child Development in collaboration with local governments,
Renuka Chowdhury, Minister for Women and Child Development, said.
"It's shocking figures and we are in a
national crisis if you ask me,"
Noting that 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 breadwinners
while social prejudices deny
women opportunities for education and jobs.
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."
"They bury infants into pots alive
and bury the pots.
They put tobacco into her mouth.
They hang them upside down
like a bunch of flowers to dry."
"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."
Chowdhury said the practice was spreading to more states.
"It's alarming that even liberal states like those in the northeast
have taken to disposing of girls."
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 fetuses.
According to social activists,
there are many loopholes that allow those who provide tests to remain free.
Since the law was enacted in 1994, only one doctor has been convicted.
Chowdhury said the fall in the number of females
and created shortages of girls in some states,
where in one case four brothers
had to marry one woman.
Economic empowerment of women
is key to change.
Even today when you go to a temple,
you are blessed with
'May you have many sons.
The minute you empower women 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.
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.
"It is a matter of international and national shame for us that India with an economic growth
of 9 percent still kills its daughters".
Chowdhury said her ministry was also planning to set aside
one day in the year and declare it as "National Daughter's Day."
However, Chowdhury did not say how much the orphanage plan would cost
or when or where the first orphanages would open but affirmed that
the money had been allocated in the next budget for it.
It was not clear when the first orphanages will open.
The new programme has the strong support of the Catholic Church in India, with the Archbishop Oswald Gracias of Mumbai called it a
"continuation of the good work being done by the Church for life."
According to the archbishop, the initiative of cradles
to protect little girls was necessary
"because in our social context, strong gender discrimination persists."
"The Indian Church has been working on this front for decades:
the sisters of Mother Teresa and other religious congregations
accept unwanted babies, keeping a cradle outside the door
of their institutions," the archbishop said.
He said the programme would go hand in hand with
the efforts the Catholic Church has already undertaken.
The Church "values and treasures each and every life,
male and female, from conception to its natural end."
The Catholic personnel impart ethical and moral teachings against
the "evil practice of infanticide" in health structures "
where unscrupulous doctors are often at work."
According to the sociologists,
the approach to gender bias has to be holistic, considering that it is a society where people think nothing of eliminating female fetuses;
even prenatal diagnostic techniques
are marshalled to prevent conception
of a female baby.
Discrimination against girls stems from
the traditionally low value attached
to females in Indian society.
Girls are seen as a burden on the family,
requiring a large dowry,
which many poor families cannot afford.
Females are generally the last to be educated
or to get medical treatment.
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