Female Foeticide
Female Foeticide In India
India is a country of incredible ironies. It is a land where people worship myriad forms of female Shakti in quest of wealth, wisdom and power. In this country it is a common sight to see thousands of couples making arduous journeys every year to shrines of goddesses in order to be blessed with a child. But strangely enough, in this country, a couple is said to be ‘blessed' only when it has a male child; for a girl is never considered a blessing in our society. Her birth seems to cast a pall of gloom over the entire family. Her birth is not rejoiced, instead the entire family moans.
Gender biasness had been the typical attitude of the patriarchal Indian society since time immemorial. The Vedas contained passages which emphasized the necessity of son. ‘May you be the mother of a hundred sons'have always been a popular blessing by elders to young brides. It is indeed an undeniable fact that despite differences in social and intellectual status, almost all the sections of the society do stand on the same platform so far as their craving for male child is concerned. On the other hand, daughters are unwanted, they are considered burdensome and people who do not dare to carry this ‘burden' for long dispose them off as quickly as possible, for in Incredible India, ‘killing of the girl child is no sin.'
Initially the girl child was put to death brutally, being throttled, poisoned or drowned in a bucket of water right after her birth. These had been the common practices followed particularly in the rural areas. However the evil of killing the girl child no longer remained confined to the rural people but equally attracted the urban population too who, despite being educated, seem to show a strong preference for the male child and the subsequent avoidance of the female child. The rapid advancement of science and technology proved a boon for these people as this had made the diabolic slaughter of the female child much easier and more sophisticated
India is a country of incredible ironies. It is a land where people worship myriad forms of female Shakti in quest of wealth, wisdom and power. In this country it is a common sight to see thousands of couples making arduous journeys every year to shrines of goddesses in order to be blessed with a child. But strangely enough, in this country, a couple is said to be ‘blessed' only when it has a male child; for a girl is never considered a blessing in our society. Her birth seems to cast a pall of gloom over the entire family. Her birth is not rejoiced, instead the entire family moans.
Gender biasness had been the typical attitude of the patriarchal Indian society since time immemorial. The Vedas contained passages which emphasized the necessity of son. ‘May you be the mother of a hundred sons'have always been a popular blessing by elders to young brides. It is indeed an undeniable fact that despite differences in social and intellectual status, almost all the sections of the society do stand on the same platform so far as their craving for male child is concerned. On the other hand, daughters are unwanted, they are considered burdensome and people who do not dare to carry this ‘burden' for long dispose them off as quickly as possible, for in Incredible India, ‘killing of the girl child is no sin.'
Initially the girl child was put to death brutally, being throttled, poisoned or drowned in a bucket of water right after her birth. These had been the common practices followed particularly in the rural areas. However the evil of killing the girl child no longer remained confined to the rural people but equally attracted the urban population too who, despite being educated, seem to show a strong preference for the male child and the subsequent avoidance of the female child. The rapid advancement of science and technology proved a boon for these people as this had made the diabolic slaughter of the female child much easier and more sophisticated