Female infanticide is the deliberate killing of newborn female
children. In countries with a history of female infanticide, the modern
practice of sex-selective abortion is often discussed as a closely related issue. Female infanticide is a major cause of concern in several nations such as China, India and Pakistan. It has been argued that the low status in which women are viewed in patriarchal societies creates a bias against females.
In 1978, anthropologist Laila Williamson, in a summary of data she had collated on how widespread infanticide was, found that infanticide had occurred on every continent and was carried out by groups ranging from hunter gatherers to highly developed societies, and that, rather than this practice being an exception, it has been commonplace. The practice has been well documented among the indigenous peoples of Australia, Northern Alaska and South Asia, and Barbara Miller argues the practice to be "almost universal," even in the West. Miller contends that female infanticide is commonplace in regions where women are not employed in agriculture and regions in which dowries are the norm. In 1871 in The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, Charles Darwin wrote that the practice was commonplace among the aboriginal tribes of Australia.
In 1990, Amartya Sen writing in the New York Review of Books estimated that there were 100 million fewer women in Asia than would be expected, and that this amount of "missing" women "tell[s] us, quietly, a terrible story of inequality and neglect leading to the excess mortality of women." Initially Sen's suggestion of gender bias was contested and it was suggested that hepatitis B was the cause of the alteration in the natural sex ratio. However it is now widely accepted that the numerical worldwide deficit in women is due to gender specific abortions, infanticide and neglect.
In seventh-century Arabia, before Islamic culture became established, female infanticide was widely practiced. This is attributed by scholars to the fact that women were deemed "property" within those societies. Others have speculated that to prevent their daughters from a life of misery, the mothers would kill the child. With the arrival of Islamic rule the practice was made illegal.
In 1978, anthropologist Laila Williamson, in a summary of data she had collated on how widespread infanticide was, found that infanticide had occurred on every continent and was carried out by groups ranging from hunter gatherers to highly developed societies, and that, rather than this practice being an exception, it has been commonplace. The practice has been well documented among the indigenous peoples of Australia, Northern Alaska and South Asia, and Barbara Miller argues the practice to be "almost universal," even in the West. Miller contends that female infanticide is commonplace in regions where women are not employed in agriculture and regions in which dowries are the norm. In 1871 in The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, Charles Darwin wrote that the practice was commonplace among the aboriginal tribes of Australia.
In 1990, Amartya Sen writing in the New York Review of Books estimated that there were 100 million fewer women in Asia than would be expected, and that this amount of "missing" women "tell[s] us, quietly, a terrible story of inequality and neglect leading to the excess mortality of women." Initially Sen's suggestion of gender bias was contested and it was suggested that hepatitis B was the cause of the alteration in the natural sex ratio. However it is now widely accepted that the numerical worldwide deficit in women is due to gender specific abortions, infanticide and neglect.
In seventh-century Arabia, before Islamic culture became established, female infanticide was widely practiced. This is attributed by scholars to the fact that women were deemed "property" within those societies. Others have speculated that to prevent their daughters from a life of misery, the mothers would kill the child. With the arrival of Islamic rule the practice was made illegal.
China
Matteo Ricci
China has a history of female infanticide spanning 2,000 years.
With the arrival of Christian missionaries in the late sixteenth
century, the missionaries discovered female infanticide was being
practiced – newborns were seen thrown into rivers or onto rubbish piles.
In the seventeenth century, Matteo Ricci documented that the practice occurred in several of China's provinces and that the primary reason for the practice was poverty.
In 19th-century China, female infanticide was widespread. Readings from Qing texts show a prevalence of the term ni nü
("to drown girls"), and drowning was the common method used to kill
female children. Other methods used were suffocation and starvation.
Leaving a child exposed to the elements was another method of killing
an infant: the child would be placed in a basket which was then placed
in a tree. Buddhist
nunneries created "baby towers" for people to leave a child; it is
however unclear as to whether the child was being left for adoption or
if it had already died and was being left for burial. In 1845 in the
province of Jiangxi,
a missionary wrote that these children survived for up to two days
while exposed to the elements, and that those passing by would pay no
attention.
The majority of China's provinces practiced female infanticide during the 19th century. In 1878, French Jesuit missionary Gabriel Palatre collected documents from 13 provinces, and the Annales de la Sainte-Enfance (Annals of the Holy Childhood) also found evidence of infanticide in Shanxi and Sichuan.
According to the information collected by Palatre, the practice was
more widely spread in the southeastern provinces and in the Lower Yangzi
River region.
Chinese anti infanticide tract circa 1800.
In China, the practice of female infanticide was not wholly condoned.
Buddhism in particular was quite forceful in its condemnation of it.
Buddhists wrote that the killing of young girls would bring bad karma;
conversely, those who saved a young girl's life either through
intervening or through presents of money or food would earn good karma,
leading to a prosperous life, a long life and success for their sons.
However the Buddhist belief in reincarnation
meant that the death of an infant was not final, as the child would be
reborn; this belief eased the guilt felt over female infanticide.
The Confucian attitude towards female infanticide was conflicted. By placing value on age over youth, Confucian filial piety
lessened the value of children. The Confucian emphasis on the family
led to increasing dowries which in turn led to a girl being far more
expensive to raise than a boy, causing families to feel they could not
afford as many daughters. The Confucian custom of keeping the male
within the family meant that the money spent on a daughter's upbringing
along with the dowry would be lost when she married, and as such girls
were called "money-losing merchandise". Conversely the Confucian belief
of Ren
led Confucian intellectuals to support the idea that female infanticide
was wrong and that the practice would upset the balance between yin and yang.
A white paper published by the Chinese government in 1980 stated
that the practice of female infanticide was a "feudalistic evil". The state's official position on the practice is that it is a carryover from feudal times, and is not a result of the states one-child policy. Jing-Bao Nie argues however that it would be "inconceivable" to believe there is no link between the state's family planning policies and female infanticide.
India
A map of India's child sex ratio, 2011.
The dowry system in India is one given reason for female infanticide;
over a time period spanning centuries it has become embedded within
Indian culture. Although the state has taken steps[c]
to abolish the dowry system, the practice persists, and for poorer
families in rural regions female infanticide and gender selective
abortion is attributed to the fear of being unable to raise a suitable
dowry and then being socially ostracized.
In 1789 during British colonial rule in India the British discovered that female infanticide in Uttar Pradesh
was openly acknowledged. A letter from a magistrate who was stationed
in the North West of India during this period spoke of the fact that for
several hundred years no daughter had ever been raised in the
strongholds of the Rajahs of Mynpoorie. In 1845 however the ruler at
that time did keep a daughter alive after a district collector named
Unwin intervened.
A review of scholarship has shown that the majority of female
infanticides in India during the colonial period occurred for the most
part in the North West, and that although not all groups carried out
this practice, it was indeed widespread. In 1870, after an investigation
by the colonial authorities the practice was made illegal, with the Female Infanticide Prevention Act, 1870.
According to women's rights
activist Donna Fernandes, some practices are so deeply embedded within
Indian culture it is "almost impossible to do away with them", and she
has said that India is undergoing a type of "female genocide".
The United Nations has declared that India is the most deadly country
for female children, and that in 2012 female children aged between 1 and
5 were 75 percent more likely to die as opposed to boys. The children's rights group CRY has estimated that of the 12 million females born yearly in India, 1 million will have died within their first year of life. During British rule, the practice of female infanticide in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu among the Kallars and the Todas was reported. More recently in June 1986 it was reported by India Today in a cover story Born to Die that female infanticide was still in practice in Usilampatti in southern Tamil Nadu. The practice was mostly prevalent among the dominant caste of the region, Kallars.
Pakistan
In
Pakistan female infanticide is practiced as female children are seen as
a financial burden due to the dowry the parents have to pay when their
daughter reaches a marriageable age. Pakistan is still a male-dominated
nation and remains a patriarchal society. In addition, the boys in the family are given preferential treatment, receiving food and medical care before the girls do.
Socio-economics
Eliminating
females poses an issue, as this reduces the number of females that will
be able to bear children. It also poses an issue with feelings of
female worth, as families wanting to eradicate female babies teach the
young girls in their society that they are inferior to the opposite sex,
making it more likely that they face oppression and have reduced access
to jobs. The dowry system has an effect on the families and poverty
line, as some families struggle to pay a dowry while earning below the
minimum wage.
As of 2017 Pakistani women earn less than their male
counterparts, earning under a hundred rupees a month, and are often
unable to receive an education that would allow them to have better
working hours and pay. Some are also restricted to only working within the home, while men are allowed to do the majority of crop work and herding.
Solutions/Programs
There
are Non-Government Developmental Organizations (NGDOS) which have
gender awareness policies that are designed to prevent female
discrimination all over the world. For instance, these NGDOS, starting
off in small groups, go to corporations to educate the staff about
gender discrimination. The organization mostly sees the importance of
educating the men who are in the work force on the issues of women
within society. Therefore, the men are able to sympathize with the women
in terms of how being a women in society may make you feel inferior.
Another solution would be to eradicate the dowry system so that
families will not have pay such a heavy price for their daughters. Also,
with the eradication of the system it will eliminate the idea that
females are seen as financial burdens. Thus will allow females to become
individuals being able to raise their social status in terms of women
being provided with a better salary.
The Girl Child Protection Scheme is an organization that is
designed to set up cradles near stores so that families who have mostly
daughters may leave them in a safe place, instead of engaging in the
practice of killing the female.
Therefore, this allows the government to take over and place the female
child up for adoption. Educating young girls and women about the
purpose of female infanticide will help them to become aware of how
important women are in society being able to become independent. Also,
with more women being able to contribute to the work force, society will
be able to move above the poverty line.
Reactions
The Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) wrote in their 2005 report, Women in an Insecure World, that at a time when the number of casualties in war had fallen, a "secret genocide" was being carried out against women.
According to DCAF the demographic shortfall of women who have died for
gender related issues is in the same range as the 191 million estimated
dead from all conflicts in the twentieth century. In 2012, the documentary It's a Girl: The Three Deadliest Words in the World was released, and in one interview, an Indian woman claimed she had killed eight of her daughters.
