Girl Child Killing:- The murder of a female infant. It occurs often as a deliberate murder or abandonment of a young girl or infant.
Selective Abortion: Also called gender-selective abortion, sex-selective abortion, or female feticide-selective abortion. It involves the abortion of a fetus because it is a girl. Many women from communities or cultures with a preference for boys practice selective abortion.
Female Genital Cutting (FGC): The practice that involves the removal or the alteration of the female genitalia. It is a centuries-old practice found in many countries among people from various religions and beliefs.
Honour Killing: The practice of killing girls and women who are perceived to have dishonoured a family’s reputation by allegedly engaging in sexual activity or other improprieties before or outside of marriage. ‘Improper’ behaviour justifies grounds for killing. It has expanded to include transgressions, which are not initiated by the girl, including rape and incest. Currently, 60 million girls are reported as “missing” as a result of infanticide, sex selective abortions, and neglect.
Some Heart-rendering Statistics and Data:-
1. At least 130 million girls alive today have undergone Female Genital Mutilation, and 2 million more are at risk every year.
2. It is reported that at least 5,000 women and girls are murdered each year for “honour’s sake” by members of their own families.
3. The plight of girls In Pakistan and India, a girl has a 30-50% higher chance of dying than a boy between the age of one and five.
4. In rural areas, poverty, lack of education, economic resources and inadequate healthcare facilities lead to the killing of infant girls whereas in urban areas selective abortion is commonly employed by individuals with access to modern technology that allows for early sex detection.
India has been one of the first countries to introduce family planning in 1952. The tragedy lies in the misconception that a male heir is all that is needed. But how many people realise that to have the male heir, a woman is needed to reproduce. Biologically she is the carrier of the child.
In many homes across the country, girls are treated with indifference. Daughters are considered as liabilities. Outside one sex determination clinic in Haryana, it was written, pay Rs. 50 now rather than pay Rs. 50, 000 later (as dowry).
There is malnutrition, poverty, high illiteracy and infant mortality ailing the society today in India. Only 40-50 percent women get antenatal care. In Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa and Gujarat the registration for health services for mother and child are low (5-22% in rural) and (21-51% in urban) areas.
A pregnant woman is dependent on the mother-in-law and husband for any treatment that she needs. Atrocities against girls have risen. Every 26 minutes a woman is molested. Every 34 minutes a rape takes place. Every 42 minutes a sexual harassment incident occurs. Every 43 minutes a girl is kidnapped. And every 93 minutes an underage girl is burnt to death over dowry. One-quarter of the reported rapes involve girls under the age of 16 but they are never reported.
In 1970 when the contraception was introduced, nearly 90 % of all sterilization was female! Most women were prone to breast their girls for shorter times than boys. They are eager to get pregnant again. After a boy is born, the thrust is more on looking after the male child. There was a study done in 20 villages of Maharastra by Swayam Shikshan Prayog (SSP).
All women were trying to survive with insufficient incomes, hard work and lived without basic necessities like food, water and shelter. Nearly 85% of the women workforce was finding it difficult to sustain the family with bare minimum care. For them surviving to see the next day is the biggest challenge.
Status of girl child in India: If a girl child gets sick in the village, the parents expect the illness to pass off naturally. In a rich state like Punjab, medical facilities for boys are 2.3 times higher than girls. If a girl does grow up there are fewer health care facilities for her. India has the highest maternal mortality rates in rural areas worldwide.
The fact that girls are being murdered quietly after sex determination tests, what can one say of rights of girl child in India? As per UNICEF guidelines the girl child must get equal opportunities to education, medicine, health care facilities and workplace.
Although the democratic constitution and laws state there have to be equal and full opportunities, the girl child, if she survives barley gets to see her 15th birthday. Out of the 15 million baby girls born in the country, every year nearly 25% of them do not reach their 15th birthday.
Posted by Deepti Dubey 11008
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