Female Infanticides In India

It was an usual morning for a farmer in south India. While he was on his way towards his farm some villagers had gathered near a corner. "There is a child buried in here", said one of them. They dug the ground to find, one day old baby girl struggling for life and breath. He soon took the child to the hospital and informed Mrs. Sandhya.

Sandhyaji has been taking care of Arti Childrens' home. She is a well educated wise angel for these abandoned babies. In her opinion the villagers don't understand the importance of a girl child. Ever since the ultrasonography technology has been introduced it has emerged as a murderer for the female child. In 2007, a village in Andrapradesh protested for a cruel act the clinics had performed.
More than 40 female foetus were found in a well near the clinic. Some of them were 9 months mature. It is easy to identify the sex of the baby in the womb after 16-17 weeks. Hence if the family members come to know the sex of the child & the force the mother to go for abortion after the 5th month. The number of ultrasonography scans clinics have increased 400 times in the past two years. Although it is illegal in India, to know the sex of ones child; the doctors don't answer their patients directly. The nurses are bribed for this purpose. Many a times they are wrong in their findings and it is more painful to see the mothers cry in vain.
Why are these babies aborted?

1. The dowry system is the main culprit. An act that is out of the law but it is still performed as marriage gifts to one's daughter.
2. There are some customs in India that say 'only the male child performs their parents last rituals so they get a place in heaven'.
3. The girl child is considered burdensome because all that her parents invest in her upbringing doesn't have any return. In fact it is the other way round. Today women take care of their family like the male members. A girl is more sensitive and responsive to emotions.

According to the care taker of Arti children's home it is not just the illiterate but also the educated people in the society that think similar. When she got her second child, her relatives moaned that it is a baby girl.
Every year the sex ratio in India is increasing its imbalance, creating trouble for the men to find their life partner. It is a very pathetic situation for the society! I am lucky and thankful that my mother didn't abort me!!