The Genocide of Indian Daughters – Inside Story Jan 11, 2013

Supreme Court judges in India have summoned the health secretaries in seven states over a worrying fall in the number of young girls in India.

They are demanding details about clinics flouting the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act – to determine the sex of unborn babies – with potentially fatal consequences.

The judges are blaming what they call rampant foeticide and infanticide, and they say the mindset of parents and society need to change.

“The people [district medical officers] who are supposed to be enforcing the [Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act] they themselves have the same patriarchal mindset and they don’t feel that it’s wrong to kill a girl child in the desire for a boy, naturally they won’t go and prosecute anybody. Add to it corruption [within the medical profession].”

- Mitu Khurana, a pediatrician and a women’s rights activist

The UN children’s charity UNICEF says the culture of favouring males in India is costing the lives of millions of young girls.

The agency says more than 2,000 illegal abortions are being carried out every single day, and it is dramatically altering the balance of the population.

It warns: “Decades of sex determination tests and female foeticide that has acquired proportions are finally catching up with states in India. This is only the tip if the demographic and social problems confronting India in the coming years.”

Speaking in April 2011, Manmohan Singh, the Indian prime minister, called for a crusade against the widespread practice of foeticide and infanticide.

“The falling child sex ratio is an indictment of our social values. Our girls and women have done us proud in classrooms, in boardrooms and on the sports field. It is a national shame for us that despite this, female foeticide and infanticide continues.”

The 1991 Indian census showed there were 945 girls for every 1,000 boys, aged up to six. Ten years later, it dipped even further to just 914 girls for every 1,000 boys.

But that is just the average. The figures are far worse in some states.

The 2011 census found there were 830 girls for every 1,000 boys in the northern state of Haryana. It was 846 in neighbouring Punjab state. And in the national capital territory of Delhi the figure was 866.

“The main problem really is that parents don’t want girl children. As long as that underlying societal attitude continues, it’s very, very difficult especially in a country like India where all kinds of laws are not implemented properly and flouted, to find a purely legal solution to what is a societal problem.”

- Sadanand Dhume, a fellow of the American Enterprise Institute

India has very strict abortion laws. Until 1971, terminating pregnancies was only allowed if the mother’s life was at risk. Other exceptions were then allowed: for fetuses with potential birth defects; for babies conceived through rape; and for pregnancies in unmarried girls below 18.

In 1994 the government passed a new law making it illegal to use ultrasound scans to determine the sex of the baby – a crime carrying a jail term of up to three years.

So what needs to be done to change the centuries-old mindset of favouring boys?

Joining the Inside Story discussion with presenter Shiulie Ghosh are guests: Mitu Khurana, a pediatrician and a women’s rights activist; Suhas Chakma, the director of the Asian Centre for Human Rights; Sadanand Dhume, a journalist/writer and a resident fellow of the American Enterprise Institute.

On Sunday, August 12th The Rhema Project was the premier sponsor for Indianapolis’ India Day Celebration. Nearly 800 people celebrated India’s independence day (Americans think 4th of July) at Monument Circle in downtown Indianapolis.

Our goal is to encourage Indian families living in the states to join with us on the mission to end female gendercide in their home country. Many are 2nd and 3rd generation families living in America.

These are two of my favorite photos taken during the event. The first of a young Indian girl thanking our volunteers for the Indian doll handcrafted by Indian women rescued from the streets of Chennai by one of our partner organizations.

“She looks like me!”

The second photo is of a young Indian women that stopped by our booth to learn more about The Rhema Project and our mission to end female gendercide in her home country. When every Indian women has the opportunity and hope for a better tomorrow we will have been successful.

Sunday, August 12, 2012
10 am to 3 pm
Monument Circle
Downtown Indianapolis

We invite you to celebrate India’s independence day with us. Traditional Indian dance, singing and food from both north and south India.

The Rhema Project is a premier sponsor of India Day 2012 and we will be have a sponsor tent where people can learn more about our mission as well as purchase items handcrafted by Indian women employed by one of our in-country field partners.

Join us!

This fall The Rhema Project will be hosting several premier showings of the documentary film, “It’s a Girl.” The release date is early September 2012 and we are in the process of securing a venue for the premier showing the 3rd week of September. Once we know the dates and times we will post a link but if you would like to reserve your tickets just drop us a line.

Here is a brief synopsis of the film.

In India, China and many other parts of the world today, girls are killed, aborted and abandoned simply because they are girls. The United Nations estimates as many as 200 million girls(1) are missing in the world today because of this so-called “gendercide”.

Girls who survive infancy are often subject to neglect, and many grow up to face extreme violence and even death at the hands of their own husbands or other family members.

The war against girls is rooted in centuries-old tradition and sustained by deeply ingrained cultural dynamics which, in combination with government policies, accelerate the elimination of girls.

Shot on location in India and China, It’s a Girl explores the issue. It asks why this is happening, and why so little is being done to save girls and women.

The film tells the stories of abandoned and trafficked girls, of women who suffer extreme dowry-related violence, of brave mothers fighting to save their daughters’ lives, and of other mothers who would kill for a son. Global experts and grassroots activists put the stories in context and advocate different paths towards change, while collectively lamenting the lack of any truly effective action against this injustice.

We know how to stop the gendercide of millions of girl babies each year. It is our hope that this film will be the catalyst to move us from spectators to champions for those whom have no voice.

DATELINE – MAY 10, 2012 Times of India. Miss India World Vanya Mishra is taking her win seriously and says she wants to eradicate female foeticide and infanticide across the country. She also recently walked the ramp to celebrate womanhood.

Reportedly, she feels earlier, she was just a known face in her college and city, but now after the win she is a global face, and she wants to use her power to help eradicate female foeticide and infanticide from the country.

Indian celebrities like Miss Mishra are beginning to bring their voice to this issue. This is a good thing. However, to truly want to help eradicate the killing of millions of her Indian “sisters” each year more than words are needed. We encourage Miss India to leverage her ability to attract a crowd and visit with one of the many great organizations. There, she and the world can begin to see and understand how to change the cultural value of Indian girls.

Miss Mishra – you are the living example of the change we wish to see in India!

By Rupan Jain Nair (AFP). This is a reprint of an article first published in India (February 2012)
It is a good first step that Indians begin to understand the scope and depth of the problem of female infanticide, sex determination f(o)eticide and gender discrimination against the Indian girl child. Together we can find solutions to end this gendercide that may take the lives of up to 3 million girls each year in India.

Padma Kanwar Bhatti is the only girl in her noisy classroom of 22 boys, in Devda, a village in Rajasthan (AFP/File, Roberto Schmidt)

DEVDA, India — As the only girl in her noisy classroom of 22 boys, Padma Kanwar Bhatti is one defiant symbol of the toll exacted by India’s deadly preference for male children.

Padma, 15, lives with her parents and two elder brothers in Devda, a village of 2,500 residents in the Rajasthan state district of Jaisalmer, which has one of the worst female sex ratios in the country.

“There is no other girl in my class and there are very few girls in our village,” she says hesitantly.

Padma chooses to stare at her social science text book when asked why there are less girls and more boys in her village set in the barren lands of the Thar desert.

“Girls die,” she says in Marwari, the main language of Rajasthan.

Almost everyone in Devda and neighbouring villages acknowledges the reality of female infanticide, a crime based in ancient custom and continued today even as much of India experiences rapid economic and social change.

“We are crazy for boys. We mourn when girls are born,” says Rajan Singhi, a farmer in Devda and a father of two boys, who is proud of his long ancestry as a member of the warrior Bhatti Rajput clan.

In most cases the killing takes place within 24 hours of a baby’s birth and the crime is committed either by the mother or the midwife, he says.

“I have heard that people administer opium or thrust a small but heavy sack filled with sand or mustard seeds on the baby’s face. Many mothers do not breast feed their daughter, starving the child to death,” Singhi says.

Local historians believe infanticide in the region may have its roots in wars fought generations ago when Rajput Hindu clan elders chose the drastic step of killing their daughters to save them from rape by Muslim invaders.

The Muslim attackers would plunder Hindu villages, rape girls and throw them in the village wells.

“Unable to deal with the dishonour, the Rajputs chose to kill their daughters,” Umashankar Tyagi, a social historian in Jaipur, the state capital of Rajasthan, told AFP.

In peace time, the custom continued to thrive, Tyagi said, explaining that “the expense of dowries, illiteracy, poverty are the new justification for infanticide”.

Clan elders and state government officials say that just two Devda girls have had weddings in the village in the last 100 years.

The situation reflects a nationwide crisis in India, where the preference for boys is partly due to the key role that sons play in Hindu funeral ceremonies.

Other factors are the substantial — and illegal — dowries that a father must provide for his daughter’s new family at her wedding, and the fact that sons are often seen as breadwinners and daughters as financial burdens.

As many as half a million female foetuses are estimated to be aborted each year in India, according to a study by British medical journal The Lancet.

In Rajasthan, local administration and senior police officials say they are aware of the atrocities committed against female infants, but the authorities appear reluctant to intervene into private family lives.

“Infanticide is an open secret but it is next to impossible to prove the crime,” says Mamta Bishnoi, senior police officer of Jaisalmer district.

“Girls are buried in the desert and no one in the clan ever inquires about the newborn or mourns the loss,” says Bishnoi, adding “we cannot dig up the entire desert to hunt for the girls.”

The Jaisalmer district has one of the worst child gender ratios in India. It stands at 868 girls under six per 1,000 boys, compared with 914 girls per 1,000 boys across India, according to 2011 census data.

In Devda, women are relegated to the innermost chamber of the house, and can step out only for a visit to the temple.

They walk in pairs, covering their faces with bright coloured scarves like a screen, so that even the shadow of a man does not fall on them.

“I don’t send my daughter to the school because I don’t like idea of girls talking to male teachers,” says Bimla Devi Bhatti, a mother of two daughters.

“We have to give gold, silver, cash, vessels, beds, television sets, air coolers, clothes to the groom’s family and also arrange for a three-day village feast during a daughter’s wedding,” says Bhatti.

“We have to start saving for the dowry since the day a daughter is born. I will have to sell my land to get them married.”

In an attempt to end the killing, the state government has proposed to open a bank account for every girl child born in the state and deposit 25,000 rupees (500 dollars).

Once the girl turns 18, the government will gift her the amount to give the family a financial incentive to save their daughters.

“But this proposal is yet to be implemented,” says Yashveer Pokharan, who works in a private school in Devda. “Daughters here desperately need this financial support to survive.”

Any hope that the modernisation of Indian life could provide better prospects for the unborn girls of Devda may be misplaced.

Cheap prenatal sex-determination technology such as ultrasound scans and blood tests has only worsened the problem of female foeticide in India’s middle-class city suburbs.

ABC News (20/20) aired a news report last Friday night (12/9/2011) about the issue of female infanticide and sex identification feticide in India. They did a very good job outlining the issue and how many Indian families are choosing to abort their daughters even though the determination of the sex of the fetus is illegal in India.

Go to www.abc.go.com/watch/2020 to link to the program.

The Rhema Project has been nominated as a Force for Good. Less than 20 non profit organizations have been nominated and approved. Beginning, Friday August 12th at 5:00 PM (EST) nominees will be asked to gather votes from supporters and friends of their organizations. The top vote getting organizations will then be reviewed with one organizations receiving a $5000 gift for brand development and marketing strategy.

Friends can vote once a day from August 12th thru the 26th by going to Force for Good/The Rhema Project.

Vote every day. Tell your friends! The future of these girls depends upon it.

(photo by Elle White)

Next week a small group of us will be headed to Tamil Nadu, India. We will be visiting with our field partners in South India.

While in country we will be attempting to post photos and brief updates via Twitter (TheRhemaProject). These posts should also link directly to our Facebook and website (on blog page).