–Jessica Wagoner
Females are worth less then males so what do we want to do? Take them out! Although this idea is over embellished, there are many people throughout the world that believe this idea and carry out the practice of female infanticide. Female infanticide occurs all over the world today. Female infanticide is the “deliberate and initial act of killing a female child within one year of its birth either by directly using poisonous organic and inorganic chemicals or indirectly by deliberate neglect to feed the infant by either one of the parents or other family members or neighbors or by the midwife.”[1] To get a better understanding of the severity of this practice we can look at both India and China. In the year 1990, “40-50 million girls have gone ‘missing’ in India”[2] and “around 50 million girls were reported to have “gone missing” in china in 1997.”[3]
So why does this occur? One explanation is males are favored more than females, and that there is very low value associated with the birth of a girl. This means that boys are seen as more useful in a society than girls. One example of this can be seen in India, where boys are seen as more useful because they can participate in politics and religious ceremonies whereas girls can not. Poverty, pressure on mothers from the family, educational level, standard of living, ratio of health facilities to population, couple’s tendency to cohabit with an elderly parent, and strict family planning rules can all affect a family’s decision to practice female infanticide.
There are many organizations and efforts being put into place to stop female infanticide. The National Plan of action (exclusively for female children), was created in 1992, to help ensure the survival of female children and recognized the rights of the girl child to equal opportunity. The National Plan of Action for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) decade of the girl child looks to ensure the equality of status for the girl child as well as lay specific goals for her survival without discrimination. Other efforts working toward eliminating female infanticide are more localized efforts such as recording the accurately births and deaths of babies in the community, which would get the attention of state officials, committees at village level to keep track of any demographic changes that may be occurring, and welfare programs directed at female infants. These are only a handful of the many organizations and efforts put into place to protect female children. Knowledge and involvement can make all the difference in a cause such as this. It is important for the world to know there is still hope out there for the female children of the world.