<Student Name>
<Name and Section # of course>
<Instructor Name>
Gendercide in India is an issue that is not new to the country; it has been going on for centuries and today the practice is still in vogue, even though, there is much awareness on the issue today. Gendercide is practiced due to a variety of reason, mostly discrimination and that too with the female child in place of the male child; where most Indians wish they have male heirs and sons after them rather than giving birth to females. Many cultural, social, as well as religious reasons, underlie this practice, and each reason needs to be considered thoroughly. Along with India, China too has issues with this, but it is working towards curbing it, but India still remains stagnant on the issue, because it is not working towards educating and guiding people like the Chinese have striven to do.
“Women are subject to severe mistreatment, neglect, and abuse by not only their societies, but
also by the very families that should support them.” (Ufret, 117).
“This systemic destruction has led to a phenomenon called “missing
girls are meaning that there are as many as 200 million girls missing in the world today because baby girls are killed, aborted and abandoned simply because they are girls.” (Ufret, 117).
There are several reasons why this discrimination against females is carried out in the country although no religion has specified that males are better than females in any respect. No culture blatantly tells that males are supposed to be glorified while females must go through a gruesome practice such as infanticide, which is the killing of infant girls at the time of their birth. Today the country is progressing rapidly in the field of economics and is emerging as a possible economic giant, with a large population and good labor force yet it neglects the issue of gender inequality that is wreaking havoc in the country especially in the less literate and conservative areas such as villages and small towns.
“The most outrageous crime against daughters is infanticide – the killing of newborn babies for no other reason than being of the “wrong” sex.” (Dahl, 20-22).“girls are still ruthlessly discriminated against in large parts of the Asian continent and the Arab world.” (Dahl, 20-22).
In the country not only is killing female babies at their birth a big issue, but females generally are neglected, maltreated, beaten, victims of domestic and sexual abuse. The debate then rovers over what should be held responsible for the fact that the female sex is considered inferior, and the male sex is since forever, superior. Science, religion, society, and culture are all involved in this stance. However, before coming to the reasons, one must know how gendercide is practiced in India and what people actually think of it.
In the documentary names, ‘It’s a girl: The three deadliest words in the world,’ the predicament of the female genocide issue is highlighted. The documentary starts off with an Indian woman explaining that she had eight daughters whom she strangled to deaths in the fields, simply because they were girls. (It’s a Girl, n.pag). The reason for this woman practicing gendercide was probably poverty, mainly, however, it was also a strong cultural norm in the society that a male was the breadwinner and head of the family, and he had to be given due importance. “The females were, however, a burden upon their parents and family, because they could not inherit and make fortunes out of the money and land, they did not hold the strength and superiority of men and moreover they are traditionally bound to the concept of dowry, the money and items that have to be given to daughters when they are getting married off.” (It’s a Girl, n.pag).
Poorer families found this an utter burden upon their shoulders and this gave rise to the death culture and the killing of female infants at their birth. In another case, a woman upon conception was requested by her husband and mother-in-law to have an ultrasound, upon which the results showed that she was expecting twin daughters. Her in-laws wanted her to get an abortion, but she resisted. Her husband locked her up, but she managed to escape and gave birth to her daughters as well. However, after she filed a legal case in court against her husband and the crime, no action was taken against it.
“An estimate by the United States tells that in the regions of China and India, approximately 200,000 females have been reported as missing as if they just disappeared nowhere.” (Ufret, 118).
The reason lies in killing, aborting or abandoning them only because they are females. The reasons are basically religious in many cases because according to Hinduism, a man cannot attain salvation unless he gives birth to a male heir after him. This leaves behind all other things, and this is the reason why Indians have been practicing female gendercide since as long as history dates back.
“Largely, India is a developing country where the people are still in the struggle for money and social status.” (Dahl, 20-22). It has a large middle and lower middle class that constitutes most of the population. Being an agrarian country as well, it harbors farmers and laborers that are also just the poorer working class.
“There lies a great economic cause behind this action as well. Dowry in India is a practice that need not be underestimated because it ranges from three thousand U.S dollars to a whopping hundred and two-fifty thousand dollars.” (Ufret, 119).
This amount is neither feasible nor affordable by all and alike in the country. And not giving dowry means that the family lost its honor at the hands of the daughter; also the groom’s family won’t accept her unless she brings something with her. Here, girls become a liability on the family and boys are only a profitable asset because they can work on the fields, inherit their father’s lands and work to make a fortune out of that
“The scientific portion of the argument lies that now science and technology have progressed to allow sex selection by the couple, where they can prevent the birth of a girl and encourage the birth of a boy.” (Dahl, 20-22).
Many people render this as the excuse as to why the country is discriminated, however, this is only an expensive and far-reaching experimental process that also carries serious ethical concerns with it.
However, an interesting point to notice is that the first child if born a female is not often as disliked or discouraged as an offspring as is the case with the second or the third. The reason lies that the parents know that the child after could be a boy. The first born female child is also treated as equally as a boy would have been treated. Hence, their intentions and incentives are rational and based on their economic conditions rather than emotional concerns. Yet for the richer people, the case is a little different. Richer parents like to put in more of their investment into raising their sons while the poorer people give their investment into girls. The reason behind this as well is the economy. The girls, when married off while only be able to have a couple of children in the future, however if a boy becomes successful enough, he will be able to father a whole lot of off springs and he can spread the fortune.
“It is true that the gendercide situation is not as bad in India today as it was in the past because education and laws have paved the way for a better and more tolerant society.” (Ufret, 122). However, even today, the literacy rate in India for females is behind that for males, and they are not coping up with it. There has been an improvement in the life expectancy rates yet the literacy rates remain at low levels.
It is yet significant to discover that how could mothers of the female babies kill their own daughters and them, being female themselves, have the heart to do so. The documentary speaks to this issue boldly.
“Women were reported of strangling their daughters, putting a cloth over their mouths or would poison their milk. The women said that they killed their daughters so that they would not have to love the same lives as them, lives of suffering, poverty, abuse and humiliation and moreover, they would be forced to abort their children by their husbands and family because of the cost affiliated with the female rearing and upbringing” (It’s a Girl, n.pag).
The need here is to understand what drives these people to practice gendercide and what the solutions to it are. The main reason is poverty because people consider females to be only a loss and a commodity without any profit. The Indian culture does not allow many women into the labor force which is why there are lesser women benefitting the economy, whereas if they were allowed to work in bulk, the economy would improve and so would these people’s financial conditions. (Ufret, 125).
“If religion or the cultural norm does not succumb to the modern times, then there comes science and technology that can prevent many ill-doings and killings in the society.” (Dahl, 20-22).
If the sex selection technology is practiced for people that have issues with females then it can help to save a lot of lives of girls that would have otherwise been killed or murdered or just left away in a ditch or thrown in a river. There need to positive aspects of a system as well because long-practiced rituals cannot be gotten rid off very easily.
Conclusively, gendercide in India is a major issue concerning discrimination and lack of preference for having girls as daughters, rather than rearing boys. Girls are killed at birth, or later on in life because their families cannot handle their burden of dowry and upbringing them. However, improving education, allowing more women in the workforce and establishing laws practicing equality can help to curb the evil of gendercide in the Indian society.
References.
Dahl, Edgar. Gendercide? A Commentary on The Economist's Report About the Worldwide War
on Baby Girls. Journal of Evolution and Technology. Web. Oct 2002. P. 20-22.
N.a. It’s a Girl: The Three Deadliest Words in the World. Hulu.com. Web. 2012. N.pag.
Ufret, Samantha. No One Wants a Baby Girl: Analyzing Gendercide in China and India. Global
Majority E-Journal. Web. Dec, 2014. P. 117-127.
