Indian Govt. mulls sponsoring girl babies in bid to stop sex–selective abortions

Just a month after Renuka Chowdhury, Union Minister for Women and Child Development, announced that the Indian Government would launch a new scheme called 'Cradle' or 'Palna' – a series of orphanages – in a bid to curb the rise in number of sex–selection abortions and female infanticides in the nation, the Government has gone a step further and is now pondering about giving state–funded insurance coverage for female children, including medial help and education assistance.

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.

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.

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, persuading the government to call it as a 'national crisis.'

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 crèche 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.

"The [sponsorship] proposal is under consideration under the 11th Plan and is meant to ensure the girl child's survival and overall development," explained Chowdhury. "[It would be] based on fulfillment of four important conditions viz. birth and registration of the girl child, immunization, her retention in school and delaying her age of marriage beyond 18 years."

The new proposal has been put before the Lok Sabha (Lower House of the Indian Parliament), she said, adding that it is "under consideration."

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.

"We make accessible orphanages, day care centers and hostels where infants can be taken care or and brought up with tender loving care," he said.

"While we appreciate this initiative of the government, we reiterate our policy against the grave evil of abortion. We make accessible orphanages, day care centres and hostels where infants can be taken care or and brought up with tender loving care," he said.

The Church "values and treasures each and every life, male and female, from conception to its natural end," he said, adding that Catholic personnel impart ethical and moral teachings against the "evil practice of infanticide" in health structures "where unscrupulous doctors are often at work."

Female children in many tribal and impoverished regions in India are seen as a hindrance and many infant girls are simply abandoned after birth or taken to remote areas and left to die.

Even in towns and cities, 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.

According to the 2001 census, the national sex ratio was 933 girls to 1,000 boys, with northern states faring the worst. The worst–affected state is Punjab (798 girls to 1,000 boys) followed by Delhi (821 girls to 1000 boys) and Haryana (861 girls to 1000 boys).

Overall, India has 927 girls for every 1,000 boys under the age of six, as opposed to the worldwide average of 1,050 girls.

"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 had noted.

Shockingly, the parents of the girls have no qualms killing or abandoning their own baby as they feel it a necessity to do so in order to survive.

According to local press reports Jarpula Peerya Nayak, a 27 year old father said "My wife gave birth to a female baby for the third time, a daughter is a burden and we decided not to feed her. So she died."

"It is very difficult to bring up girls and marry them off," he said.

On February 25, his cousin J. Ravi and wife Sujatha let their newborn baby starve to death. "My daughter died two days after birth since we did not feed her," admitted Ravi. "We already have two girl children and can't afford to have one more." A tribal leader outlines the dowry he is expected to give for his daughter in marriage "a scooter, five to six tolas of gold and Rs. 50,000 cash to a good groom."

After starving and killing the girl children, the tribals dig a grave in their fields and bury them. Then they put a stone on the grave.

Villagers said that dogs had eaten parts of the body of Ravi's daughter and he had to bury her again. Most of the 40–odd families in the village have either witnessed such killings or have performed it themselves over the years.

Jarpula Lokya Nayak has starved to death two daughters.

Female infanticide is also practised in Rokatigutta Tanda of Ipavapalli panchayat, Gorigadda Tanda of K. Samudram and Nerellagadda Tanda.

On March 9, schoolteachers of Gorigadda Tanda, prevented K. Buggamma and Pandya Nayak from killing their fifth child, which also turned out to be daughter.

Rajesh Rathod, headmaster of the local Upper Primary School describes that "Buggamma had said beforehand that she will kill the child if it was female. After the baby was born, we told her that Lakshmi (the divinity of beauty and wellbeing) had come to her home. Only after that she fed the baby."

Kulkacharla deputy mandal revenue officer Y.B.N. Avataram explains that in general news of child murders comes too late, and that usually "the villagers tell our constables that the babies were stillborn or were premature."

For example Keshulamma, a midwife of Cheruvu Mundali Tanda, said that she had delivered 11 female babies in her village but all of them 'died' soon after birth.

However, it is not only the girl child who are stigmatized but also the adult women.

In India, Hindu women are often regarded as commodities. When they marry, father must pay up. He gives TV, DVD, cash and more to the future husband. If the husband then is not satisfied with the goods, he can demand more. If he does not get it, the bride may be found aflame in the night, set on fire in the meadow.

Hindu women are discarded, mistreated. They are expected to give birth to male children. If they do not, they are beaten or slain.

There are the baby girls who, simply because they are female, are put on piles of dry grass and burned. Or they are placed in bags and fatally stabbed.

Then, there are the acid attacks. If a woman refuses a man's advances, he may throw sulfuric acid in her face, disfiguring her and rendering the woman unfit for marriage. Women are defenseless against such attacks as criminal prosecution is rare.

"The father doesn't kill the man who rapes his daughter; instead, they dispose of her," said Dr. Veronica Jacob, a volunteer with human rights advocacy group Sakhi Kendra. "The thinking here is warped. Even if India has advanced far in technology, the mind–set has not changed."

"Sahki Kendra is sheltering one doe–eyed young woman, Aradhana Rawat, 17, whose father would tie her to a bed and sexually abuse her. At one point, he tried to slit her throat with a machete. Tears pour down her face as she clutches a blue scarf and tells her story through a translator," Dr. Jacob said.

"My father said, 'If you tell others about this, I'll make sure others do the same thing to you,'" Rawat recalled. A brother finally brought her to Sakhi Kendra.

"Other cases brought to Sakhi Kendra include a mother who was told she must not feed her fourth daughter. Then there is the woman whose husband poured hot coals on her abdomen after she bore a daughter. And a wife who was tortured with cigarette butts by her husband because she bore only girls. Summoned to the scene, local police only took a report," Dr. Jacob said.