Female Infanticide - India

May 1997
In India's southern state of Tamil Nadu, female infanticide is so frequent that all second daughters are known as 'the girl born for the burial pit'.

Desperately poor families routinely kill girl babies after birth for fear they can't afford to raise them or provide the extortionate dowry required by a groom's family. Pavati's husband killed her second daughter the day she was born. She went home to her father's house and didn't eat for a month following the death but with two other children she had to return to her tiny hut and carry on. Another baby, Hymera was luckier, brought to a safe house by her uncle despite fierce opposition from his neighbours. Now she is cared for by people who value her life. Teenage girls sit in a circle in a coconut grove discussing the strengths they will need as India's next generation of mothers. A report on the attempts of agencies, such as the Indian Council for Child Welfare, to stop infanticide through re-education, training of women and providing homes for unwanted girl babies. So far prosecuting local mothers for murder has done little more than punish the saddest victims of a social tragedy.

Produced by ABC Australia
Distributed by Journeyman Pictures

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Female
• Infanticide
• India
• Daughters
• dowry
• Tamil
• Nadu
• poor
• social
• tragedy
• Journeyman
• Pictures
• women's
• rights
• news
• documentary
• current affairs
• journeyman
• journeyman pictures

[TraceyLouise2260]

Without women, those men wouldn't be there!

[thelastdineropen]

Stop your custom of giving Dowery to the husband, its whats killing these girls.

If the girls family won't be subjected to this unaffordable expense they won't kill their daughter.

[glishteach]

If you defend the right to have an abortion then you can not be opposed to infanticide because murder is murder no matter what name you give it.

[Truth128]

Fuck all those baby boys, they are the most useless to the society.

[stealth592]

Monkeys



[anastasia81472]

Combine post pardum depression - or post pardum psychosis, with a strong cultural bias like this, and the woman gets life in prison but the men don't? My heart goes out to everyone. Think of all the men and women damaged psychologically in such a setting.

[anastasia81472]

They are getting paid for their sons, and paying for their daughters. Interesting.  I don't like how the Indian peoples' words aren't translated in this documentary.

[LoveNaturalSelection]

Can you add titles so we can understand what is being said?

[Spriggangirl]

These men will never be able to have a family without a woman.

[Mzembe]

@caitlinisreggaegirl : I agree with you 100%. The sad thing is u will find tons of Indians criticizing everything else that is non-Indian (like Americans, Africans, Xtians et al) yet they will never open their mouths to criticize this or denounce it or even support anyone who is oppressed. Go 2 any video about say Islam in India and watch how tons of them butcher that religion or anything about Pakistan or even Indians born in America and see how they shred them to pieces.