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Female foeticide and infanticide in India

Definition

Female Infanticide is the practice of deliberately killing a girl child once she is born due to preference for male babies and the low value associated with females. It is the most common form of infanticide, both nowadays and in past. It can also be described as gender-selective killing. Although illegal, many people continue to practice it, especially in countries like India, Pakistan and China. Along with female infanticide, female foeticide is also practiced in countries like India. Female foeticide is the abortion of female foetus outside of legal means.

History in India

Female foeticide and infanticide are not modern phenomena. These custom were very much prevalent in peninsular Gujarat, Punjab and North Western provinces during the pre-colonial India (Wilson,1855) and (Brown, 1857). Rather, these customs were not uniformly followed either throughout India or throughout castes.

British colonists first became aware of the the practice of female infanticide in 1789. It was noted among members of Rajput clan (from Sanskrit raja-putra, "son of a king" is a member of one of the patrilineal clans of western, central, northern India and current eastern Pakistan. They seem to have risen to prominence from the late 6th century CE and governed the majority of princely states in Rajasthan and Surashtra during the period of the British rule) by Jonathan Duncan (Governor of Bombay from 1795 to 1811) and later in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

Later, in 1817, officials noted that the practice was so entrenched that there were entire taluks (an administrative division of some countries of South Asia) of the Jadeja (a Rajput clan who claim to be descended from mythological Lord Krishna and thus belong to the Lunar Dynasty) Rajputs in Gujarat where no female children of the clan existed (Vishwanath, 2007). In the mid-19th century, a magistrate who was stationed in the north-west of the country claimed that for several hundred years no daughter had ever been raised in the strongholds of the Rajahs of Mynpoorie (one of the districts in Agra division of Uttar Pradesh state of India) and that only after the intervention of District Collecter in 1845 did the Rajput ruler there keep a daughter alive (Miller, 1987). The Britishers identified other high-caste communities as practitioners in north, western and central areas of the country; these include the Bedis, Khatris (castes from northern Indian subcontinent and are mostly from the Punjab region), Mohyals (name of an endogamous ethnic group that originates from the Gandhara region and consists of seven Brahmin lineages of that area that left the usual priestly occupation of Brahmins long ago to serve as soldiers and in government services) and Patidars (a caste found primarily in the state of Gujarat, India). (Vishwanath, 2007; Snehi, 2003)

British administrators in colonial India concluded that female infanticide was a problem of enormous proportions. They decided that the killing of infant girls was rooted not in individual deviance but in the culture of the zenana, or the women's quarters of the Indian home. These perceptions shaped countermeasures that sought to identify "infanticidal" communities and restructure the power relations within the infanticidal household. The project received cautious support from native elites who, it has been suggested, were typically reluctant to allow British interference in the "Indian" home.

In 1870, after an exhaustive internal debate, the colonial government of India passed the Act for the Prevention of Female Infanticide (FI Act). The law gave provincial governments sweeping powers to intervene in what was increasingly seen as a major problem in Indian society: the apparent killing of female infants by members of their own families.

Factors that lead to female foeticide and infanticide

Climate of poverty

Sex-selective abortion in India occurs due to a multitude of familial, societal and economic factors. The Hindu culture (the religion followed by the majority of India) believes that only a male descendent of a family can carry the family forward and that a daughter is meant to carry the heir of her husband's family.

The attitudes towards the economic ‘value’ of females as compared to their male counterparts is influenced by the belief that only men should be allowed to work. This mindset makes many people of the society believe that raising a girl child is expensive and adds to financial support to the family. Furthermore, many parents also think that a girl will not be able to support them in their old age. This factor plays a very crucial role in rural parts of India where poverty is a more common factor in comparison to metropolitan cities.

Just like many parts of the world, India too faces the problem of a gender-based wage gap. This makes people believe that even though women are allowed to work freely, they may not earn as much as a man.

A section of the Indian society still believes that due to the difference in earnings between the genders, raising a girl child will increase the economic burden and decrease the household income, hence putting more pressure on the earning members of the household (primarily men). Therefore, it can be concluded that in an environment with poverty, girls are the main victims of infanticide.

Marriage practices  

Dowry is a practice that requires the bride's family to give gifts to the groom's family. These gifts usually consist of gold, jewellery, property, money and other goods of high monetary value. Dowry is one of the economic costs measured for raising a girl child by an Indian family.

This transaction is done as the only way to get rid of the girl child who had been an economic burden on her family and send her to a family that may not even be willing to truly accept her. As said by Mohammed Adel Chowdhury in their paper, the “putative purpose of dowry is to compensate the groom’s family for the acquisition of a non-productive dependant” (Chowdhury, 2016). In most cases, the bride's family is also required to bear all the expenses of the wedding and other events that lead to it. Thus, families often use dowry to account for female foeticide and infanticide, claiming that it was their only route to get out of the process of finding a husband and sending their daughter into a family where she is not welcome.

In a nutshell, it is the interaction of economic status and societal structures and attitudes that explains why it is primarily females that are victims of foeticide and infanticide in India.

Consequences and impacts of female foeticide and infanticide

Maternal illnesses

In the scenarios where the parents are able to find out the gender of the child, they choose to abort the child based on its gender. This can cause many health issues to the mother, such as

1. Stress and depression
2. Haemorrhage
3. Genital trauma

Though most of the physical issues can occur even if the mother is willing to abort the child, issues such as stress and depression mostly appear when the abortion is forced upon by the members of the family. This is a factor that was faced by handmaids in The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood where the women in the Republic of Gilead were always expected to obey men, especially the handmaids who were forced to conceive children by the commanders, and the commanders were not required to seek consent from the handmaids. In India, this happens when a lady is forced to conceive and is expected to give her family a male heir.

Imbalance in the gender ratio

Due to a lack of women in many parts of India, the reproduction rates are rapidly decreasing.

Many Indian states are subject to this issue, especially Haryana and Punjab which are among the states with the most unbalanced gender ratio.

This imbalance in the gender ratio plays a role in various other acts of violence against women

Such as:

1. Increase in sexual violence and abuse
2. Female sex trafficking

Though this may not be the only reason for such crimes to occur, it can be said to be one of the primary reasons. An absence of female companionship creates a demand for prostitution and many illegal organisations conduct sex trafficking to make a profit from this demand, women are kidnapped or pressurised into this. Many times women from bordering countries are also subject to such crimes. Sexual violence has the same reason though instead of illegal organisations, acts of sexual violence are usually conducted by individuals or small groups of people who may not be related to such organisations.

Child marriages

A lack of women in the society creates a scarcity of suitable brides in many rural areas and this scarcity, in turn, influences families to get their children married at a very young age in hopes of grooming the girl themselves as per their liking. This is also influenced by the bride's parents who may want to get rid of her as they consider her to be an economic burden.

Public opinion

Public opinion seems to favour a preference for male births especially in the northern states and this is reflected upon the gender ratio. Uttar Pradesh showed the highest deficit in female births. Researchers predicted that the cumulative number of missing female births in the state will be approximately 2 million between 2017 and 2030. This north-south divide can be derived from the belief that women are thought of as a lower status as compared to southern Indian states like Karnataka and Kerala. Many researchers opine that many years will be taken to remove the deep-rooted custom and belief. India is estimated to have 63 million fewer women since sex determination tests took off in the 1970s. India’s ratio of men to women – currently between 900-930 females per 1,000 males – reflects India’s deep-seated attitude towards women. Men are seen as wage earners whereas women are seen as a burden across every social class. Boys are more likely to receive more nutritious food and better medical care than girls.

The fear and cyclical effects of dowry have had an additional detrimental effect. The fear of Dowry has worsened the public opinion as families don’t want to pay exorbitant amounts for weddings and rather shamefully prefer to just have an illegal abortion instead.

The government, voluntary organisations, the media and some Bollywood stars have initiated many pro-girl life campaigns, and in some states, government officials visit the homes where baby girls are born to make a point of celebrating their arrival.

Rajasthan’s gender ratio in its 33 districts is the worst in all of the nation , according to the 2011 census – 888 girls born per 1,000 boys.

Early marriage plays a part in aborting female foetuses as girls are often neither well-informed nor confident enough to challenge anyone in their husband’s family. In 1991, 945 girls were born for every 1,000 boys in India. In 2011, the gender ratio was 1000:918. Every year, 400,000 Indian girls go “missing,” according to the United Nations Population Fund, the result of selective abortion, infanticide, and neglect.

Those numbers reflect a deep cultural bias against girls, especially in the country’s north. Parents want sons to inherit property and look after them in their old age. A girl is often seen as a financial burden since money spent feeding, clothing, and educating her is considered lost when she marries and goes to live with her new husband’s family as tradition dictates. The public opinion seems to remain unchanged in at least the non-urban areas.

Banning of gender reveals- a step towards progress

Initially, gender abortion was determined as legal In India in 1971 by the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act. The conditions under which was to legally procure an abortion included reasons like causing her serious mental or physical harm to the mother, endangering her physical life, the pregnancy being the result of a rape, the birth leading to a child with serious physical or mental deformities or the pregnancy being the result of a contraceptive failure if that woman is married. The act also puts constraints on who is allowed to conduct the test, so it could still be deemed illegal if it is not done in a sanctioned medical facility by a professionally trained medical practitioner

In 1994, with the passage of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, the Indian government made it illegal to reveal the sex of an unborn child except for strictly medical purposes. However, enforcement of the law varied by jurisdiction, and in much of the country, the sex ratio at birth continued to worsen. Many underground testing agencies started to conduct tests in vans illegally and used veterinary devices and Chinese counterparts the size of a smartphone as a substitute.

An interesting observation to be made is that even after various restrictions on gender reveal by various medical practitioners, hospitals, doctors, and government bodies female sex ratios continue to plummet. The research indicates that in 1961, gender ratios under six years of age were 976:1000 and it degraded to 914 per 1000 by 2011. This implies that the government's effort to restrain the female infanticide pandemic might have been somewhat successful, it was not so in changing parents goal to reach the desired child preference