Prohibited born female

Indian children

We don’t know her name, though she had never had a name, the baby-girl newborn in the district of Jaisalmer in Rajasthan, has died of starvation a few days after birth. She had a fault, a serious fault in some areas of India and especially in Rajasthan, she was a little girl. 

The last Indian census (Census 2011) shows that in that Indian State live 883 girls under the age of six every 1,000 males of the same age. A decade earlier the ratio was 909 to 1.000. 

I have spoken and spoken again, but I are forced to return to this topic. 

In addition to abortions and feticides targeted against girls in that State, the local authorities refer even infanticides. In practice, the parents abandon newborn babies who die of hunger in a few days. 

Just in June deaths of five babies have been reported. One of them was born perfectly healthy, but she died after a few days. The body had obvious signs of malnutrition. 

Of the other four girls the bodies were not found and authorities are investigating, the villagers reported that their tradition is to leave in the woods the corpses of children who died before reaching six months of life. In fact, the tradition provides for the bodies of infants the burial and the police are certain that in these cases of infanticide the body is somehow removed also thanks to chemicals that accelerate the decomposition. 

Authorities are trying to react. In one case - pending the results of the autopsy - the father of one of the girls died was arrested, while the police are tracking down the parents of another baby dead who have fled to escape justice. 

The situation is terrible, if you think that only in Rajasthan in recent years has an average of 2,500 a day feticides and female infanticides: I’m not mistaken, 2,500 a day!

The world before her

Twenty beautiful Indian girls are being trained to Mumbai to look even more beautiful and glamour, sensual and elegant. Other Indian girls are being trained in the camp of Durga Vahini to learn the doctrine of Hindutva and fight those who want to colonize and destroy the Indian religion, civilization and traditions.

Miss India and a paramilitary training camp, two worlds that could not be more distant, but well summarize the current historical moment of the Indian continent.

Truly a beautiful documentary that screened in Florence in the first edition of the 'Tribeca Florence', the Italian branch of the famous film festival in New York. And at the Tribeca New York 'The world before her', the title of the documentary, won the World Documentary Award.

The filmmaker Nisha Pahuja was not limited to interview the protagonists of these two worlds, but she entered into their homes, she did talk about the family, has shown the social and cultural context in which these very different girls, misses and the Hindu fighters, live. She has showed their diverse ideals, their aspirations and their dreams.

One thing unites all these girls, they are all equally determined to reach the goal: the crown of Miss and a career in show business on the one hand and the fight, armed fight if necessary, to defend  Indian traditions on the other.

A clever document not only on the condition of women in India, but also on the two extreme choices that India today appears to be pursuing: Western consumerism and Hindu fundamentalism, without the possibility of a mediation or a third way that, in my opinion, only India could give to the world.

The male child

Children in Cochin (Kerala - India)

Having a male child is necessary, indispensable for the salvation from damnation.
In India it is especially important, I would say essential, to have a son. To understand the reasons underlying this requirement is not sufficient to refer to aspects of an economic nature. No doubt, as we have seen in this previous post, a daughter means higher costs and lower benefits from an economic point of view, but it is necessary to analyze the motives of religious nature.
One day we will talk about hell, better about the hells of Hinduism, now it suffices  to say that a soul, stripped of the body after death and before of the reincarnated in another body will suffer the consequences of actions in 'heaven' or hell. After you have enjoyed or suffered for the actions in these lokas (place) the soul is reincarnated into another living being.
To avoid ending up in hell is first necessary to be conducted properly funeral ceremonies and is also necessary to be recited daily prayers for the ancestors. This is one of the three debts men must pay in this life, as well as to the gods and the sages to, everyone has a debt to the ancestors who must be worshiped and fed. The main protagonist of these ceremonies, these rituals and prayers of these is the male child.
"This debt - A. Danielou says in "The four ways of life"- can not be paid to creating a child who can continue the lineage, race, caste, family."
Not for nothing 'son' is said in Sanskrit putra, whose etymology goes back to the put, which is a type of hell, and traye, which in Sanskrit means to save, to preserve. The son is putra,  'He who saves from hell'.
This conviction brings with it many consequences. For example, in the Laws of Manu, the Manusmirti, the most important treaty on standards of behavior, it clearly states that women were created for boys and men to have offspring (Manusmirti IX, 96) and also provides that the husband can 'replace' the wife after eight years of marriage if the wife is infertile, after ten years of marriage if the wife has given birth children died, after eleven years if the wife has given birth only daughters (Manusmirti IX, 81).
Even in the choice of the woman to marry, Manu invites men to reject women from families with no sons, and that even if these families are "full of cows, goats, sheep, wheat, or property" (Manusmirti II, 7).
It is so important to have a son that Manu (IX, 174) considers it legitimate for a married man without sons can buy one for securing the funeral rites.
In the absence of sons, a grandson will perform the duties prescribed for his grandfather.
And  father on his deathbed whispers to son: "You are Brahman, you are the sacrifice, you are the world". The son replies, "I am Brahman, I'm the sacrifice, I am the world" (Brhadaranyaka Upanishad 5, 17).
And is the son who, after three laps counterclockwise around the pyre of his dead father, sets fire during the cremation rites.

Sita, Rama's wife

She was faithful to her husband, but she, prisoner, had lived with another man. It was not good. And Rama, Lord of Ayodhya, tell to his beloved wife that the war against Ravana, the millions of deaths, the mythical bridge linking India to Sri Lanka, none of all this had been done for her, but to restore the order, the dharma. "I cannot live with you who lived so long with another man."
Rama and Sita, the couple shown as exemple of the perfect wedding even today in India, of what must be the relationship between husband and wife and that speaks volumes about the status of women in the Indian continent.
Sita was stunned, outraged that they doubted her loyalty, "light a fire - she ordered - if I have been faithful to Rama, though I have always respected, if any other man has touched me, Agni, the god of fire, protect me. Otherwise, I burn! " And she threw herself into the flames.
Agni protected her, held her and brought her to Rama, saying, "This woman is pure and have always been faithful."
She was the goddess Lakshmi, who, like Sita, she became the wife of Rama, seventh avatar of Vishnu and hero of the Ramayana epic. Her father found her in a furrow of earth and so called Sita. He married the Prince of Ayodhya, but she was kidnapped by the demon Ravana who took her to Lanka. Rama, with the help of monkeys Sugriva and Hanuman, rescued his wife.
The couple and Rama's army returned to Ayodhya, they lived happily, but the people whispered again. "She lived for more than a year with another man, she cannot live with our King." It was not good that she lived with the example of dharma, righteousness, of what is good, of the rules that make turn the universe.
This time Rama, although his wife was pregnant, forsed Sita to leave the kingdom. She will go in the forest near the hermitage of Valmiki, where the two sons of Rama born: Lava and Kusa.
Rama knew Kusa and Lava when they had children. Once he had kwown them, Rama wanted to return Sita to Ayodhya too.
The queen again declared her loyalty to Rama and her own purity and, before the assembly convened to receive her, said: "If in my mind I had no other man that Rama, if I was always faithful to my husband, you mother, earth, where I was born, give me the grace to get my body."
Having said that the earth opened and revealed a royal throne, where Sita sat before disappearing into the earth closed over her.
In a furrow she was born, in a furrow she returned.

Femal discrimination again

Indian children - Chennai

A man is accused of beating to death his wife, six months pregnant, after learning that the fetus was a girl. The crime occurred in Andhra Pradesh. Prakash Chari, this man's name, he ordered his wife to abort. But the woman refused, and during the discussion, on May 10 last, he physically assaulted. Neighbors rushed to stop him, and immediately led the woman to a nearby hospital seriously wounded, but in vain. It 'died of wounds the following day.

The couple had two children, and after the scans revealed that the woman was wearing her lap in a third woman's husband has beaten to death.




If you want to know more can read the full article by clicking on Asia News.

Millions of unborn girls

India's sex ratio, among children aged 0-6 years, is alarming. The ratio has declined from 976 females (for every 1000 males) in 1961 to 914 in 2011. Every national census has documented a decline in the ratio, signalling a ubiquitous trend. Preliminary data from the 2011 Census have recorded many districts with sex ratios of less than 850. The ratio in urban areas is significantly lower than those in rural parts of the country. Reports suggest evidence of violence and trafficking of poor women and forced polyandry in some regions with markedly skewed ratios. The overall steep and consistent decline in the ratio mandates serious review.

Medical technology (like amniocentesis and ultrasonography), employed in the prenatal period to diagnose genetic abnormalities, are being misused in India for detecting the sex of the unborn child and subsequently for sex-selection. Female foetuses, thus identified, are aborted.

Many studies have concluded that prenatal sex determination, followed by abortion of female foetuses, is the most plausible explanation for the low sex ratio at birth in India.

Girls of Cochin



The steady decline in the sex ratio suggests that marked improvements in the economy and literacy rates do not seem to have had any impact on this index. In fact, the availability of new technology and its easy access for the urban, wealthy and the educated have worsened the trend and harmed the status of women in Indian society.

The social system of patriarchy, with males as the primary authority figures, is central to the organisation of much of Indian society. The system upholds the institutions of male rule and privilege and mandates female subordination. Patriarchy manifests itself in social, religious, legal, political and economic organisation of society. It continues to strongly influence Indian society, despite the Constitution's attempt to bring about an egalitarian social order.

Patriarchal societies in most parts of India have translated their prejudice and bigotry into a compulsive preference for boys and discrimination against the girl child. They have also spawned practices such as female infanticide, dowry, bride-burning and sati. They have led to the neglect of nutrition, health care, education, and employment for girls. Women's work is also socially devalued with limited autonomy in decision-making. The intersections of caste, class and gender worsen the situation. Despite its social construction, patriarchal culture, reinforced by the major religions in the country, maintains its stranglehold on gender inequality. The prevalent patriarchal framework places an ideological bar on the discussion of alternative approaches to achieve gender justice.

The declining sex ratio cannot be simply viewed as a medical or legal issue. It is embedded within the social construction of patriarchy and is reinforced by tradition, culture and religion. Female foeticide and infanticide are just the tip of the iceberg; there is a whole set of subtle and blatant discriminatory practices against girls and women under various pretexts. It is this large base of discrimination against women that supports the declining sex ratio.

While women are guaranteed equality under the Constitution, legal protection has little effect in the face of the prevailing patriarchal culture. India needs to confront its gender bias openly. It would appear that nothing short of a social revolution would bring about an improvement in the health and status of women in the country. Irony and hypocrisy are the two words that come to mind when patriarchal societies talk about justice for their women. Surely, the disappearance of millions of girls in India is reason enough to question the acceptance of patriarchy and search for an egalitarian social order.

(Professor K.S. Jacob, Faculty of the Christian Medical College, Vellore)

Read full text of the essay on The Hindu