To stop child murder the government subsidises female births
New Delhi (AsiaNews) – In efforts to combat abortion and the cruel murder of new born girls, the government is studying plans to give insurance coverage for female children, comprising health assistance and education. The move was revealed yesterday in the Lok Sabha (Lower chamber of the Indian Parliament).
Minister of state for Women and Child Development Renuka Chowdhury, explains that “"The proposal is under consideration under the 11th plan and is meant to ensure the girl child's survival and overall development”. As such “the transfers are based on fulfilment of four important conditions viz. birth and registration of the girl child, immunisation, her retention in school and delaying her age of marriage beyond 18 years”.
Among tribal populations female children are regarded as a burden and social attitudes permit both foeticide and infanticide. In 2006 eleven newborn girl babies were starved to death by their parents in a tribal hamlet of Ranga Reddy district, 80 km from Hyderabad. It is a long-standing practice to wrap the unwanted girl child in a cloth and leave them to die.
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”.
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.
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