'Disappearing Daughters': The Killing of Indian Girls

Catholic Online ^ | 6/26/08 | Nirmala Carvalho

[tcg]

In India baby girls are being disproportionately aborted or neglected and left to die. In one area in the state of Punjab, there are only 300 girls for every 1,000 boys among high cast families, the report claims. The vice president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) reacts to the situation by discussing about what the Church is doing and about his hopes for the future

Findings from areas across five states in north and north-west India reveal that the asymmetrical sex ratio between girls and boys has not only worsened but is accelerating compared to the last national census in 2001. In many rural areas tradition dictates preference for sons, who work in the fields, over daughters.

The report shows that girls are less likely to survive in areas with more limited access to public health services and modern ultrasound technology. However, the deliberate neglect of girls, including allowing the umbilical cord to become infected, is used as a way to dispose of unwanted daughters.

The rejection of daughters rises proportionately to the number of offspring. In all areas surveyed, there is a decline in the proportion of girls among second-born children; even more so among third-born, a sign of frequent selective abortion, often with the illegal but well-paid assistance of doctors and nurses.

It is estimated that around 500,000 female foetuses are currently being aborted every year; 10 million may have been aborted in India over the last two decades.

CBCI Vice President Card Oswald Gracias told AsiaNews that “in India the Catholic Church has been striving selflessly to promote life from conception to its natural end, through our medical centres and nursing homes. In the most rural and remote areas of our country, the Church has been defending life irrespective of caste and creed.” ...

[tcg]

Alarm bells are sounded as the number of female feticides and newborn girls left to die grows in India.Cardinal Gracias discusses the role of the Church and his hopes for a better future.

[nobama08]

Shouldn’t NOW care about this????

[TruthConquers]

So much for feminism and “choice”. Bah!

So how does killing little girls help women be “empowered?”

[Publius]

In Hindu Indian society, the birth of a female child is an unmitigated disaster. When it comes time for her to marry, the groom's family will force the bride's family to pay a dowry that will bankrupt her parents. When she moves into her husband's home, she becomes the slave of her mother-in-law. It is common policy to abuse daughters-in-law to the point of suicide -- and then the groom's family gets to financially rape another bride's family.

In the old days before the British arrived, a widow was expected to stand on her husband's funeral pyre and burn with this body. Look up the word "suttee" if you don't believe me.

[Seruzawa]

How dare they criticize a different but equal culture? Next thing you know they’ll be complaining about Mauritanian slavery. Sheesh.

[Dilbert San Diego]

Yes NOW should be concerned about this. Whether they care because it’s happening in another country, that’s the question.

NOW is a joke in some ways anyway. At the time of the allegations of sex harrassment against Clarence Thomas, they were ready for a crucifixion. When continual allegations were made against Bill Clinton, which reached its climax with Monica Lewinsky, NOW was not concerned. In fact one official from NOW publicly said that she would perform a sex act on Bill Clinton, because of all he had done for women’s rights and abortion rights.

Unbelievable isn’t it? How are we to be convinced to take a subject such as sexual harrassment seriously when NOW considers the political affiliations of people in determining whether or not to have outrage about such behavior?

[AZ .44 MAG]

Societies with excess males in their populations are bad news. If men can’t breed with women they tend to breed trouble.

[Viking2002]

'there are only 300 girls for every 1,000 boys among high cast families, the report claims'

A generation from now, they'll be wondering why so many Indians are queering each other........ignoramuses.

[Dumpster Baby]

Yup.

[ozzymandus]

We can’t. Some ACLU lawyers will argue it conflicts with Sharia law.

[Travis McGee]

What happens to China and India, when they each have about 50 million “excess” males with no chance of ever finding a wife?

[Windcatcher]

"What happens to China and India, when they each have about 50 million “excess” males with no chance of ever finding a wife?"

There's parity here, but you have to sift a bit. On the personals site I'm on I'm closing matches who mention that they support Obama in their profile. It's a lot more common than you might think, unfortunately.

[mohresearcher]

Obama would prefer to tear the daughters out of their mothers’ wombs with partial birth abortion. Obama is obsessed with death to innocents.

[heartwood]

Men can marry down a little but it is not acceptable for a woman to do so. The bride’s family will pay a premium dowry to marry up. You wouldn’t think high caste families would have an incentive to kill their girls, but they do - and they have the access to prenatal testing and the means to pay the required bribe (sex disclosure is forbidden.)

[AZ .44 MAG]

Exactly my point. They will either sublimate their urges into productive avenues or use their frustrations for evil. Witness the hoarding of women by the elites in Islamic societies and the excess (and destructive) energy directed towards outside targets.

Or they all become interior designers.

[monkeycard]

They’re gonna marvel at the carnage that ensued during the India-Chinese conflict.

Exactly.

[television is just wrong]

now didn’t care about the abused women in the clintoon situation, why would they care about anything like this.