fbpx
Wikipedia

Female infanticide in India

Female infanticide in India has a history spanning centuries. Poverty, the dowry system, births to unmarried women, deformed infants, famine, lack of support services, and maternal illnesses such as postpartum depression are among the causes that have been proposed to explain the phenomenon of female infanticide in India.

Although infanticide has been criminalized in India, it remains an under-reported crime due to the lack of reliable data. In 2010, the National Crime Records Bureau reported approximately 100 male and female infanticides, producing an official rate of less than one case of infanticide per million people.

The Indian practice of female infanticide and of sex-selective abortion have been cited to explain in part a gender imbalance that has been reported as being increasingly distorted since the 1991 Census of India, although there are also other influences that might affect the trend.[1]

Definition edit

Section 315 of the Indian Penal Code defines infanticide as the killing of an infant in the 0–1 year age group. The Code uses this definition to differentiate between infanticide and numerous other crimes against children, such as foeticide and murder.[2][a]

Some scholarly publications on infanticide use the legal definition.[4][5] Others, such as the collaboration of Renu Dube, Reena Dube, and Rashmi Bhatnagar, who describe themselves as "postcolonial feminists", adopt a broader scope for infanticide, applying it from foeticide through to femicide at an unspecified age.[6] Barbara Miller, an anthropologist, has "for convenience" used the term to refer to all non-accidental deaths of children up to the age of around 15–16, which is culturally considered to be the age when childhood ends in rural India. She notes that the act of infanticide can be "outright", such as a physical beating, or take a "passive" form through actions such as neglect and starvation. Neonaticide, being the killing of a child within 24 hours of birth, is sometimes considered a separate study.[7]

Colonial period edit

Causation edit

From the pre colonial to the colonial era, British officials in India first became aware of the practice of female infanticide in 1789 in the Benares State, the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. It was noted among members of the ruling Rajput clan by Jonathan Duncan, then the Company Resident. Later, in 1817, in the Jamnagar kingdom in modern day Gujarat, officials noted that the practice was so entrenched that there were entire taluks of the Jadeja Rajputs where no female children of the clan existed.[8] 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 and that only after the intervention of a District Collector in 1845 did the Rajput ruler there keep a daughter alive.[9] The British identified other high-caste communities as practitioners in north, western and central areas of the country; these included the Ahirs, Bedis, Gurjars, Jats, Khatris, Lewa Kanbis, Mohyal Brahmins and Patidars.[8][10]

According to Marvin Harris, another anthropologist and among the first proponents of cultural materialism, these killings of legitimate children occurred only among the Rajputs and other elite land-owning and warrior groups. The rationale was mainly economic, lying in a desire not to split land and wealth among too many heirs and in avoiding the payment of dowries. Sisters and daughters would marry men of similar standing and thus pose a challenge to the cohesion of wealth and power, whereas concubines and their children would not and thus could be allowed to live.[11][12] He further argues that the need for warriors in the villages of a pre-industrial society meant female children were devalued, and the combination of war casualties and infanticide acted as a necessary form of population control.[13]

Sociobiologists have a different theory to Harris. Indeed, his theory and interest in the topic of infanticide are born from more generalized opposition to the sociobiological hypothesis of the procreative imperative.[14][15] According to this theory of imperative, based on the 19th-century vogue for explanations rooted in evolution and its premise of natural selection,[16] the biological differences between men and women meant that many more children could be gained among the elites through support for male offspring, whose fecundity was naturally much greater: the line would spread and grow more extensively. Harris believes this to be a fallacious explanation because the elites had sufficient wealth easily to support both male and female children.[12] Thus, Harris and others, such as William Divale, see female infanticide as a way to restrict population growth, while sociobiologists such as Mildred Dickemann view the same practice as a means of expanding it.[13]

Another anthropologist, Kristen Hawkes, has criticized both of these theories. On the one hand, opposing Harris, she says both that the quickest way to get more male warriors would have been to have more females as child-bearers and that having more females in a village would increase the potential for marriage alliances with other villages. Against the procreative imperative theory, she points out that the corollary to well-off elites such as those in northern India wanting to maximize reproduction is that poor people would want to minimize it and thus in theory should have practiced male infanticide, which it seems they did not. [13]

Reliability of colonial reports on infanticide edit

There is no data for the sex ratio in India prior to the period of colonial rule. Reliant as the British were on local high-caste communities for the collection of taxes and the maintenance of law and order, the administrators were initially reluctant to peer too deeply into their private affairs, such as the practice of infanticide. Although this did change in the 1830s, the reluctance reappeared following the cathartic events of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, which caused governance by the East India Company to be supplanted by the British Raj.[17] In 1857, John Cave Browne, a chaplain serving in Bengal Presidency, reported a Major Goldney speculating that the practice of female infanticide among the Jats in the Punjab Province originated from "Malthusian motives".[18] In the Gujarat region, the first cited examples of discrepancies in the sex ratio among Lewa Patidars and Kanbis dates from 1847.[19] These historical records have been questioned by modern scholars, as they were observed from a distance, and those making the recordings never intermingled with their subjects to understand the social, economic, and cultural issues facing them that might influence their actions.[20] Browne documented his speculations on female infanticide using "they tell" hearsay. [18] Bernard Cohn states that the British residents in India would always refrain from accusing an individual or family of infanticide as the crime was difficult to prove in court, despite commonly speculating those entire clans or social groups practiced female infanticide. Cohn says, "female infanticide thus became a 'statistical crime'" during the period of colonial rule in India. [21]

Aside from numerous reports and correspondence on infanticide from colonial officials,[10] there was also a documentation from Christian missionaries. Many of these missionaries were also ethnographers who wrote about the ethnography of India during their time there. Many of the missionaries looked down on India and its culture, characterizing it as ignorant and depraved.[22][23] Several scholars have questioned the historical narrative of female infanticide in India, as they were reported by individuals who looked down on Indian culture, with female infanticide being one of their reasons for holding said prejudiced viewpoints. Many have noted that the rate of female infanticide was no different in India than in parts of Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries.[22][24][25] Some Christian missionaries of the late 19th century, writes Daniel Grey, wrongly believed that female infanticide was sanctioned by the scriptures of Hinduism and Islam, and against which Christianity had "centuries after centuries come into victorious conflict".[22]

Location and direct method edit

 
Richard Bourke, 6th Earl of Mayo, was Governor-General of India at the time of the Female Infanticide Prevention Act, 1870.

A review of scholarship by Miller has shown that the majority of female infanticides in India during the colonial period occurred in the north-west and that it was widespread although not all groups carried out this practice.[26] David Arnold, a member of the subaltern studies group who has used a lot of contemporary sources, says that various methods of outright infanticide were used, reputedly including poisoning with opium, strangulation and suffocation. Poisonous substances such as the root of the plumbago rosea and arsenic were used for abortion, with the latter also ironically being used as an aphrodisiac and cure for male impotence. The act of direct infanticide among Rajputs was usually performed by women, often the mother herself or a nurse. Administration of poison was, in any event, a type of killing particularly associated with women; Arnold describes it as "often murder by proxy", with the man at a remove from the event and thus able to claim innocence. [27]

The passing of the Female Infanticide Prevention Act, 1870 made the practice illegal in the British Indian regions of Punjab and the North-Western Provinces.[26] The Governor-General of India had the authority to expand the Act to other regions at his discretion.[citation needed]

Impact of famines on infanticide edit

Major famines occurred in India every five to eight years in the 19th- and early 20th-centuries,[28][29] resulting in millions starving to death.[30][31] As also happened in China, these events began infanticide: desperate starving parents would either kill a suffering infant, sell a child to buy food for the rest of the family, or beg people to take them away for nothing and feed them.[32][33][34] Gupta and Shuzhou state that massive famines and poverty-related historical events had influenced historical sex ratios, and they have had deep cultural ramifications on girls and regional attitudes towards female infant mortality.[34]

Impact of economic policies on infanticide edit

According to Mara Hvistendahl, documents left behind by the colonial administration following Indian independence showed a direct correlation between the taxation policies of the East India Company and the rise in cases of female infanticide.[35]

Regional and religious demographics edit

The decennial census of India from 1881 through 1941 recorded a consistently skewed ratio whereby the number of males exceeded the number of females. The gender difference was particularly high in the north and western regions of India, with an overall sex ratio – males per 100 females – of between 110.2 and 113.7 in the north over the 60-year period, and 105.8 to 109.8 males for every 100 females in western India for all ages. Visaria states that the female deficit among Muslims was markedly higher, next only to Sikhs. South India region was an exception reporting excess females overall, which scholars attribute partly to selective emigration of males.[36]

The overall sex ratios, and excess males, in various regions, were highest among the Muslim population of India from 1881 to 1941, and the sex ratio of each region correlated with the proportion of its Muslim population, with the exception of the eastern region of India where the overall sex ratio was relatively low while it had a high percentage of Muslims in the population. [37] If regions that are now part of modern Pakistan are excluded (Baluchistan, Northwest Frontier, Sind for example), Visaria states that the regional and overall sex ratios for the rest of India over the 1881–1941 period improve in favor of females, with a lesser gap between male and female population. [38]

Contemporary data and statistics edit

Infanticide in India, and elsewhere in the world, is a difficult issue to objectively access because reliable data is unavailable. [39][40] Scrimshaw states that not only the accurate frequency of female infanticide is unknown, differential care between male and female infants is even more elusive data.[41] Reliable data for female infanticide is unavailable. Its frequency, and that of sex-selective abortion, is indirectly estimated from the observed high birth sex ratio; that is, the ratio of boys to girls at birth or 0–1 age group infants, or 0–6 age group child sex ratio.[42] The natural ratio is assumed to be 106, or somewhere between 103 and 107, and any number above or below this range is considered as suggestive of female or male foeticide respectively.[43][44]

Higher sex ratios than in India have been reported for the last 20 years in China, Pakistan, Vietnam, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia and some Southeast European countries, and attributed in part to female infanticide, among other factors.[45] There is an ongoing debate as to the cause of high sex ratios in the 0–1 and 0–6 age groups in India. The suggested reasons for high birth sex ratio include regional female foeticide using amniocentesis regardless of income or poverty because of patrilineal culture,[46][47] the under-reporting of female births,[48] smaller family size and selective stopping of family size once a male is born.[49][50]

Sheetal Ranjan reports that the total male and female infanticide reported cases in India were 139 in 1995, 86 in 2005 and 111 in 2010;[51] the National Crime Records Bureau summary for 2010 gives a figure of 100.[52] Scholars state that infanticide is an under-reported crime.[53]

Reports of regional cases of female infanticide have appeared in the media, such as those in Usilampatti in southern Tamil Nadu. [54]

One of the biggest reasons for the increase in female infanticide is being associated with the increase in the number of private Ultrasound Scanning Centres which often tell the sex of a baby, and as they become more accessible and affordable people who could not find out the sex of baby historically, have started finding it out and often results in abortion in case of a girl child.

A report released by United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in 2020 said that nearly 45.8 million girls were missing in India due to pre and post-birth selection practices in the country.[55] A study by Washington based think tank Pew Research said that at least 9 million girls are ‘missing’ in India between 2009-2019 as a result of female infanticide.[56]

Reasons edit

Extreme poverty with an inability to afford raising a child is one of the reasons given for female infanticide in India.[57][58][clarification needed] Such poverty has been a major reason for high infanticide rates in various cultures, throughout history, including England, France and India.[24][59][60]

The dowry system in India is another reason that is given for female infanticide. Although India has taken steps to abolish the dowry system,[61] the practice persists. Still female infanticide and gender-selective abortion is attributed to the fear of being unable to raise a suitable dowry and then being socially ostracised. [62]

Other major reasons given for infanticide, both female and male, include unwanted children, such as those conceived after rape, deformed children born to impoverished families, and those born to unmarried mothers lacking reliable, safe, and affordable birth control.[57][63][64] Relationship difficulties, low income, lack of support coupled with mental illness such as postpartum depression have also been reported as reasons for female infanticide in India.[65][66][67][clarification needed]

Elaine Rose 1999 reported that disproportionately high female mortality is correlated to poverty, infrastructure, and means to feed one's family and that there has been an increase in the ratio of the probability that a girl survives to the probability that a boy survives with favorable rainfall each year and the consequent ability to irrigate farms in rural India.[68]

Ian Darnton-Hill et al. state that the effect of malnutrition, particularly micronutrient and vitamin deficiency, depends on sex, and it adversely impacts female infant mortality.[69]

State response edit

In 1991 the Girl Child Protection Scheme was launched. This operates as a long-term financial incentive, with rural families having to meet certain obligations such as sterilisation of the mother. Once the obligations are met, the state puts aside 2000 in a state-run fund. The fund, which should grow to 10,000, is released to the daughter when she is 20: she can use it either to marry or to pursue higher education.[70]

In 1992 the Government of India started the "baby cradle scheme". This allows families anonymously to give their child up for adoption without having to go through the formal procedure. The scheme has been praised for possibly saving the lives of thousands of baby girls but also criticised by human rights groups, who say that the scheme encourages child abandonment and also reinforces the low status in which women are held.[71] The scheme, which was piloted in Tamil Nadu, saw cradles placed outside state-operated health facilities. The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu added another incentive, giving money to families that had more than one daughter. 136 baby girls were given for adoption during the first four years of the scheme. In 2000, 1,218 cases of female infanticide were reported, the scheme was deemed a failure and it was abandoned. It was reinstated in the following year.[72]

The 2011 census data showed a significant decline in the child sex ratio (CSR). Alarmed by the decline, the Government of India introduced Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao (BBBP) initiative. The program is intended to prevent gender discrimination and to ensure survival, protection and education of girls.[73]

International reactions edit

The Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) wrote in their 2005 report, Women in an Insecure World, that at a time when the number of casualties in war had fallen, a "secret genocide" was being carried out against women.[74] According to DCAF the demographic shortfall of women who have died for gender related issues is in the same range as the 191 million estimated dead from all conflicts in the 20th century.[75] In 2012, the documentary It's a Girl: The Three Deadliest Words in the World was released. This focused on female infanticide in China and in India.[76]

In 1991 Elisabeth Bumiller wrote May You be the Mother of a Hundred Sons: A Journey Among the Women of India around the subject of infanticide.[77] In the chapter on female infanticide, titled No More Little Girls, she said that the prevailing reason for the practice is "not as the act of monsters in a barbarian society but as the last resort of impoverished, uneducated women driven to do what they thought was best for themselves and their families."[78]

Gift of A Girl Female Infanticide is a 1998 documentary that explores the prevalence of female infanticide in southern India, as well as steps which have been taken to help eradicate the practice. The documentary won an award from the Association for Asian Studies.[79][80]

See also edit

References edit

Notes

  1. ^ According to statistics published by the National Crime Records Bureau, a department of the Government of India, kidnapping and abduction represented 40.3 percent of recorded crimes against children in 2010, rape was 20.5 percent, murder (other than infanticide) was 5.3 percent, and exposure and abandonment was 2.7 percent. All other crimes against children accounted for 31.5 percent.[3]

Citations

  1. ^ Hundal (2013)
  2. ^ National Crime Records Bureau (2010), p. 1
  3. ^ National Crime Records Bureau (2010), p. 6
  4. ^ Craig (2004): referring to the United Kingdom Infanticide Act 1938.
  5. ^ Miller (1987), p. 97: "Most broadly defined, infanticide applies to the killing of children under the age of twelve months (deaths after that age would generally be classified as child homicide, although the definition and, hence, duration of childhood is culturally variable)."
  6. ^ Dube, Dube & Bhatnagar (1999), p. 74
  7. ^ Miller (1987), pp. 96–97
  8. ^ a b Vishwanath (2007), p. 270
  9. ^ Miller (1987), pp. 97–98
  10. ^ a b Snehi (2003)
  11. ^ Scott (2001), pp. 6–7: Citing Harris, Marvin (1989). Our Kind: Who We Are, Where We Came From, Where We Are Going. Harper & Row. pp. 213, 226–227.
  12. ^ a b Harris (1998), p. 558
  13. ^ a b c Hawkes (1981)
  14. ^ Scott (2001), p. 6
  15. ^ Kuznar & Sanderson (2007), p. 209
  16. ^ Scott (2001), pp. 3–4
  17. ^ Vishwanath (2007), pp. 268–269
  18. ^ a b Browne (1857), pp. 121–122
  19. ^ Vishwanath (2007), p. 278
  20. ^ Cohn (1996), p. 10
  21. ^ Cohn (1996), pp. 10–11
  22. ^ a b c Grey (2011)
  23. ^ Dirks (2001), pp. 173–174
  24. ^ a b Anagol (2002)
  25. ^ GA Oddie (1994), Orientalism and British Protestant missionary constructions of India in the nineteenth century, Journal of South Asian Studies, 17(2), pp. 27–42
  26. ^ a b Miller (1987), p. 99
  27. ^ Arnold (2013), pp. 176, 179
  28. ^ B Murton (2000), Famine, in The Cambridge World History of Food 2, pp. 1411–1427, Cambridge University Press
  29. ^ Mike Davis (2001), Late Victorian Holocausts: El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World, pp. 7–8, Verso
  30. ^ Mike Davis (2004), Liberation Ecologies: Environment, Development, and Social Movements, pp. 44–49, Routledge
  31. ^ A Sen (1983), Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation, Oxford University Press
  32. ^ Cormac Ó Gráda, Famine: A Short History, pp. 61–67, Princeton University Press
  33. ^ William Digby, The Famine Campaign in Southern India (Madras and Bombay): 1876–1878, pp. 458–459, Longmans London
  34. ^ a b Gupta & Shuzhuo (1999)
  35. ^ Hvistendahl (2011), p. 67
  36. ^ Visaria, Visaria & Patel (1983), pp. 496–499
  37. ^ Visaria, Visaria & Patel (1983), p. 499 with footnote 2
  38. ^ Visaria, Visaria & Patel (1983), p. 499 with footnote 1
  39. ^ Hausfater (2008), pp. 445–450 (Susan Scrimshaw)
  40. ^ Cole (1996), p. 14
  41. ^ Hausfater (2008), pp. 445–450 (Susan Scrimshaw)
  42. ^ Kumm, Laland & Feldman (1994)
  43. ^ Therese Hesketh and Zhu Wei Xing, Abnormal sex ratios in human populations: Causes and consequences, PNAS, 5 September 2006, vol. 103, no. 36, pp 13271-13275
  44. ^ James W.H. (July 2008). "Hypothesis:Evidence that Mammalian Sex Ratios at birth are partially controlled by parental hormonal levels around the time of conception". Journal of Endocrinology. 198 (1): 3–15. doi:10.1677/JOE-07-0446. PMID 18577567.
  45. ^ Guilmoto (2012), pp. 15–28
  46. ^ Jeffery, Jeffery & Lyon (1984)
  47. ^ Goodkind (1999)
  48. ^ Smith (2008), p. 354
  49. ^ Shelley Clark, Son preference and sex composition of children: Evidence from India, Demography, February 2000, Volume 37, Issue 1, pp 95–108
  50. ^ Perwez & Jeffrey, Declining Child Sex Ratio and Sex-Selection in India – A Demographic Epiphany?, E&P Weekly, 18 August 2012, Vol. XLVII, No. 33, pp. 73–77
  51. ^ Ranjan (2013), p. 257
  52. ^ National Crime Records Bureau (2010), p. 95
  53. ^ M Spinelli (2002), Infanticide: contrasting views, Archives of Women’s Mental Health, 8(1), pp. 15–24
  54. ^ George (1997), pp. 124–132
  55. ^ "About 4.6 crore females 'missing' in India due to son preference: UNFPA report". The Week. Retrieved 4 March 2023.
  56. ^ "Foeticide: More 'Missing' Girls Among Hindus Than Muslims in Last Two Decades, Official Data Shows". The Wire. Retrieved 4 March 2023.
  57. ^ a b Giriraj, R. (2004). "Changing Attitude to Female Infanticide in Salem". Journal of Social Welfare. 50 (11): 13–14 & 34–35.
  58. ^ Tandon, Sl; Sharma, R (2006). "Female Foeticide and Infanticide in India: An Analysis of Crimes against Girl Children". International Journal of Criminal Justice Sciences. 1 (1): 1–7.
  59. ^ Sauer, R (1978). "Infanticide and abortion in nineteenth-century Britain". Population Studies. 32 (1): 81–93. doi:10.2307/2173842. JSTOR 2173842. PMID 11630571.
  60. ^ Kellum, B.A. (1974). "Infanticide in England in the later Middle Ages". History of Childhood Quarterly. 1 (3): 367–88. PMID 11614565.
  61. ^ Parrot & Cummings (2006), p. 160
  62. ^ Oberman (2005), pp. 5–6
  63. ^ Alder & Polk (2001), p. 4-5
  64. ^ Hausfater (2008), pp. 445–450 (Susan Scrimshaw)
  65. ^ Chandran et al (2002), Post-partum depression in a cohort of women from a rural area of Tamil Nadu, India: Incidence and risk factors, The British Journal of Psychiatry, 181(6), pp. 499–504
  66. ^ Chandra et al, Infanticidal ideas and infanticidal behavior in Indian women with severe postpartum psychiatric disorders, J Nerv Ment Dis. 2002 Jul 190(7), pp. 457–61
  67. ^ Hatters Friedman, S; Resnick, P. J. (2007), "Child murder by mothers: Patterns and prevention", World Psychiatry, 6 (3): 37–141, PMC 2174580, PMID 18188430
  68. ^ Rose (1999)
  69. ^ Darnton-Hill et al. (2005)
  70. ^ Perwez (2011), p. 250-251
  71. ^ Bhalla (2013)
  72. ^ Parrot & Cummings (2006), pp. 64–65
  73. ^ "'Beti Bachao Beti Padhao' programme extended to all 640 districts to improve child sex ratio". The Times of India. Retrieved 29 January 2018.
  74. ^ Mashru (2012)
  75. ^ Winkler (2005), p. 7
  76. ^ DeLugan (2013), pp. 649–650
  77. ^ Bumiller (1998), p. 1
  78. ^ Dehejia (1990)
  79. ^ Al-Malazi (1998)
  80. ^ Merry (2008)

Bibliography

  • Al-Malazi, Mayyasa (1998), "Gift of A Girl Female Infanticide", Academic Video Store, Filmakers Library, retrieved 27 May 2015
  • Alder, Christine; Polk, Ken (2001), Child Victims of Homicide, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-00251-6
  • Anagol, Padma (Spring 2002). "The Emergence of the Female Criminal in India: Infanticide and Survival under the Raj". History Workshop Journal. 53 (53): 73–93. doi:10.1093/hwj/53.1.73. JSTOR 4289774. PMID 12166484.
  • Arnold, David (2013), "The Politics of Poison: Healing, Empowerment and Subbversion in Nineteenth-Century India", in Hardiman, David; Mukharji, Projit Bihari (eds.), Medical Marginality in South Asia: Situating Subaltern Therapeutics, Routledge, ISBN 978-1-136-28403-8
  • Bhalla, Nita (3 December 2013). "India's Cradle Baby scheme hopes to end female infanticide". Reuters. from the original on 12 June 2016. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
  • Browne, John Cave (1857), Indian infanticide: its origin, progress, and suppression, W. H. Allen & Co.
  • Bumiller, Elisabeth (1998), May You be the Mother of a Hundred Sons: A Journey Among the Women of India (2nd ed.), South Asia Books, ISBN 978-0-14-015671-3
  • Cohn, Bernard S. (1996), Colonialism and Its Forms of Knowledge: The British in India, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0-691-00043-5
  • Cole, John (1996), Geography of the World's major regions, Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-11742-5
  • Craig, Michael (February 2004), "Perinatal risk factors for neonaticide and infant homicide: can we identify those at risk?", Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 97 (2): 57–61, doi:10.1177/014107680409700203, PMC 1079289, PMID 14749398
  • Darnton-Hill, Ian; Webb, Patrick; Harvey, Philip WJ; Hunt, Joseph M; et al. (May 2005), "Micronutrient deficiencies and gender: social and economic costs", American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 81 (5): 1198S–1205S, doi:10.1093/ajcn/81.5.1198, PMID 15883452
  • Dehejia, Vidya (28 July 1990). "Books of The Times; Status of India's Women Offers Hope and Despair". The New York Times. Retrieved 23 October 2014.
  • DeLugan, Robin Maria (2013), "Review: Exposing Gendercide in India and China (Davis, Brown, and Denier's It's a Girl—the Three Deadliest Words in the World )", Current Anthropology, 54 (5): 649–650, doi:10.1086/672365, JSTOR 10.1086/672365, S2CID 142658205
  • Dirks, Nicholas B. (2001), Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India, Princeton University Press, ISBN 0-691-08895-0
  • Dube, Renu; Dube, Reena; Bhatnagar, Rashmi (1999), "Women Without Choice: Female Infanticide and the Rhetoric of Overpopulation in Postcolonial India", Women's Studies Quarterly, 27 (1/2): 73–86, JSTOR 40003400
  • George, Sabu M. (1997). "Female Infanticide in Tamil Nadu, India: From Recognition Back to Denial?". Reproductive Health Matters. 5 (10): 124–132. doi:10.1016/S0968-8080(97)90093-8. JSTOR 3775470.
  • Goodkind, Daniel (1999), "Should Prenatal Sex Selection be Restricted?: Ethical Questions and Their Implications for Research and Policy", Population Studies, 53 (1): 49–61, doi:10.1080/00324720308069
  • Grey, Daniel (Fall 2011), "Gender, Religion, and Infanticide in Colonial India, 1870–1906", Victorian Review, 37 (2): 107–120, doi:10.1353/vcr.2011.0043, JSTOR 23646661, S2CID 162196032
  • Guilmoto, Christophe (2012). Sex imbalances at birth : current trends, consequences and policy implications. Bangkok, Thailand: UNFPA Asia and the Pacific Regional Office. ISBN 978-974-680-338-0.
  • Gupta, Monica Das; Shuzhuo, Li (July 1999). "Gender Bias in China, South Korea and India 1920–1990: Effects of War, Famine and Fertility Decline". Development and Change. 30 (3): 619–652. doi:10.1111/1467-7660.00131. PMID 20175302. Policy Researh Working Paper 2140 (PDF) (Report). The World Bank. June 1999. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
  • Harris, Marvin (1998), "Marvin Harris", in Loptson, Peter (ed.), Readings on Human Nature, Broadview Press, ISBN 978-1-55111-156-8
  • Hausfater, Glenn (2008), Infanticide: comparative and evolutionary perspectives, New Brunswick, NJ: AldineTransaction, ISBN 978-0-202-36221-2
  • Hawkes, Kristen (March 1981), "A Third Explanation for Female Infanticide", Human Ecology, 9 (1): 79–96, doi:10.1007/bf00887856, JSTOR 4602585, PMID 12279255, S2CID 41423153
  • Hundal, Sunny (8 August 2013), "India's 60 million women that never were", Al Jazeera, retrieved 26 May 2015
  • Hvistendahl, Mara (2011), Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men, Public Affairs, ISBN 978-1-58648-850-5
  • Jeffery, R.; Jeffery, P.; Lyon, A. (1984), "Female infanticide and amniocentesis", Social Science & Medicine, 19 (11): 1207–1212, doi:10.1016/0277-9536(84)90372-1, PMID 6395348
  • Kumm, J.; Laland, K. N.; Feldman, M. W. (December 1994). "Gene-culture coevolution and sex ratios: the effects of infanticide, sex-selective abortion, sex selection, and sex-biased parental investment on the evolution of sex ratios". Theoretical Population Biology. 46 (3): 249–278. doi:10.1006/tpbi.1994.1027. PMID 7846643.
  • Kuznar, Lawrence A.; Sanderson, Stephen K., eds. (2007), Studying Societies and Cultures: Marvin Harris's Cultural Materialism and Its Legacy, Paradigm Publishers, ISBN 978-1-59451-287-2
  • Mashru, Ram (18 January 2012). . The Independent. Archived from the original on 12 December 2013.
  • Merry, Sally Engle (2008), Gender Violence: A Cultural Perspective, Wiley-Blackwell, ISBN 978-0-631-22359-7
  • Miller, Barbara D. (1987), "Female Infanticide and Child Neglect in Rural India", in Scheper-Hughes, Nancy (ed.), Child Survival: Anthropological Perspectives on the Treatment and Maltreatment of Children, D. Reidel Publishing, ISBN 978-1-55608-028-9
  • National Crime Records Bureau (2010), (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on 10 November 2011, retrieved 26 May 2015
  • Oberman, Michelle (2005). "A Brief History of Infanticide and the Law". In Margaret G. Spinelli (ed.). Infanticide Psychosocial and Legal Perspectives on Mothers Who Kill (1st ed.). American Psychiatric Publishing. ISBN 1-58562-097-1.
  • Parrot, Andrea; Cummings, Andrea (2006), Forsaken Females: The Global Brutalization of Women, Rowman & Littlefield, ISBN 978-0-7425-4579-3
  • Perwez, Shahid (2011). "Female Infanticide and the Civilizing Mission in Post Colonial India: A Case Study from Tamil Nadu c. 1980–2006". In Carey Anthony Watt; Michael Mann (eds.). Civilizing Missions in Colonial and Postcolonial South Asia: From Improvement to Development. Anthem Press. pp. 243–316. ISBN 978-1-84331-864-4.
  • Ranjan, Sheetal (2013), "Crimes Against Women in India", in Unnithan, N. Prabha (ed.), Crime and Justice in India, SAGE Publications, ISBN 978-8-13210-977-8
  • Rose, Elaine (1999), "Consumption smoothing and excess female mortality in rural India", The Review of Economics and Statistics, 81 (1): 41–49, doi:10.1162/003465399767923809, JSTOR 2646784, S2CID 57567737
  • Scott, Eleanor (2001), "Killing the Female? Archaeological Narratives of Infanticide", in Arnold, Bettina; Wicker, Nancy L. (eds.), Gender and the Archaeology of Death, AltaMira Press, ISBN 978-0-7591-0137-1
  • Smith, Bonnie (2008), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0195148909
  • Snehi, Yogesh (11 October 2003), "Female Infanticide and Gender in Punjab: Imperial Claims and Contemporary Discourse", Economic and Political Weekly, 38 (41): 4302–4305, JSTOR 4414126
  • Visaria, Leela; Visaria, Pravin; Patel, Sardar (1983), "Population (1757–1947)", in Tapan Raychaudhuri; Irfan Habib; Dharma Kumar (eds.), The Cambridge Economic History of India (Volume 2 ed.), Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-22802-2
  • Vishwanath, L. S. (2007), "Female Infanticide, Property and the Colonial State", in Patel, Tulsi (ed.), Sex-Selective Abortion in India: Gender, Society and New Reproductive Technologies, SAGE, ISBN 978-0-76193-539-1
  • Winkler, Theodor H. (2005). (PDF). Women in an Insecure World. Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 October 2019. Retrieved 29 December 2013.

Further reading edit

  • Barlow, Sally H.; Clayton, Claudia J. (1998). "When Mothers Murder: Understanding Infanticide by Females". In Hall, Harold V. (ed.). Lethal Violence: A Sourcebook on Fatal Domestic, Acquaintance and Stranger Violence. CRC Press. ISBN 978-0-8493-7003-8.
  • Bhatnagar, Rashmi Dube; Dube, Renu; Dube, Reena (2005). Female Infanticide in India: A Feminist Cultural History. State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-6327-7.
  • Bunting, Madeleine (22 July 2011). "India's missing women". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 May 2015.
  • Kannabiran, Kalpana (2011). "Gender Cleansing". In Dobhal, Harsh (ed.). Writings on Human Rights, Law and Society in India: Combat Law Anthology 2002–2010. Human Rights Law Network, India (Socio-Legal Information Centre). ISBN 978-81-89479-78-7. Female Foeticide and female infanticide satisfy four of the five criteria set out in the Genocide Convention
  • Meyer, Cheryl L.; Oberman, Michelle (2001). Mothers Who Kill Their Children: Inside the Minds of Moms from Susan Smith to the "Prom Mom". New York University Press. ISBN 978-0-8147-5643-0.
  • Krishnan, Murali (20 March 2012). Shamil Shams (ed.). "Female infanticide in India mocks claims of progress". Deutsche Welle.
  • Nelson, Dean (1 February 2012). "India 'most dangerous place in world to be born a girl'". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 26 May 2015.
  • Pennington, Brian K. (2005). . Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 30 May 2015. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
  • Ramachandran, Nira (2014). Persisting Undernutrition in India: Causes, Consequences and Possible Solutions. Springer. ISBN 978-8-13221-831-9.
  • Sadhak, H. (2013). Pension Reform in India: The Unfinished Agenda. Sage Publications. ISBN 978-8-13211-649-3.
  • Smith, M (1999). Homicide : a sourcebook of social research. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage Publications. ISBN 978-0-7619-0765-7.

female, infanticide, india, this, article, needs, updated, please, help, update, this, article, reflect, recent, events, newly, available, information, september, 2021, history, spanning, centuries, poverty, dowry, system, births, unmarried, women, deformed, i. This article needs to be updated Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information September 2021 Female infanticide in India has a history spanning centuries Poverty the dowry system births to unmarried women deformed infants famine lack of support services and maternal illnesses such as postpartum depression are among the causes that have been proposed to explain the phenomenon of female infanticide in India Although infanticide has been criminalized in India it remains an under reported crime due to the lack of reliable data In 2010 the National Crime Records Bureau reported approximately 100 male and female infanticides producing an official rate of less than one case of infanticide per million people The Indian practice of female infanticide and of sex selective abortion have been cited to explain in part a gender imbalance that has been reported as being increasingly distorted since the 1991 Census of India although there are also other influences that might affect the trend 1 Contents 1 Definition 2 Colonial period 2 1 Causation 2 2 Reliability of colonial reports on infanticide 2 3 Location and direct method 2 4 Impact of famines on infanticide 2 5 Impact of economic policies on infanticide 2 6 Regional and religious demographics 3 Contemporary data and statistics 4 Reasons 5 State response 6 International reactions 7 See also 8 References 9 Further readingDefinition editSection 315 of the Indian Penal Code defines infanticide as the killing of an infant in the 0 1 year age group The Code uses this definition to differentiate between infanticide and numerous other crimes against children such as foeticide and murder 2 a Some scholarly publications on infanticide use the legal definition 4 5 Others such as the collaboration of Renu Dube Reena Dube and Rashmi Bhatnagar who describe themselves as postcolonial feminists adopt a broader scope for infanticide applying it from foeticide through to femicide at an unspecified age 6 Barbara Miller an anthropologist has for convenience used the term to refer to all non accidental deaths of children up to the age of around 15 16 which is culturally considered to be the age when childhood ends in rural India She notes that the act of infanticide can be outright such as a physical beating or take a passive form through actions such as neglect and starvation Neonaticide being the killing of a child within 24 hours of birth is sometimes considered a separate study 7 Colonial period editCausation edit From the pre colonial to the colonial era British officials in India first became aware of the practice of female infanticide in 1789 in the Benares State the northern state of Uttar Pradesh It was noted among members of the ruling Rajput clan by Jonathan Duncan then the Company Resident Later in 1817 in the Jamnagar kingdom in modern day Gujarat officials noted that the practice was so entrenched that there were entire taluks of the Jadeja Rajputs where no female children of the clan existed 8 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 and that only after the intervention of a District Collector in 1845 did the Rajput ruler there keep a daughter alive 9 The British identified other high caste communities as practitioners in north western and central areas of the country these included the Ahirs Bedis Gurjars Jats Khatris Lewa Kanbis Mohyal Brahmins and Patidars 8 10 According to Marvin Harris another anthropologist and among the first proponents of cultural materialism these killings of legitimate children occurred only among the Rajputs and other elite land owning and warrior groups The rationale was mainly economic lying in a desire not to split land and wealth among too many heirs and in avoiding the payment of dowries Sisters and daughters would marry men of similar standing and thus pose a challenge to the cohesion of wealth and power whereas concubines and their children would not and thus could be allowed to live 11 12 He further argues that the need for warriors in the villages of a pre industrial society meant female children were devalued and the combination of war casualties and infanticide acted as a necessary form of population control 13 Sociobiologists have a different theory to Harris Indeed his theory and interest in the topic of infanticide are born from more generalized opposition to the sociobiological hypothesis of the procreative imperative 14 15 According to this theory of imperative based on the 19th century vogue for explanations rooted in evolution and its premise of natural selection 16 the biological differences between men and women meant that many more children could be gained among the elites through support for male offspring whose fecundity was naturally much greater the line would spread and grow more extensively Harris believes this to be a fallacious explanation because the elites had sufficient wealth easily to support both male and female children 12 Thus Harris and others such as William Divale see female infanticide as a way to restrict population growth while sociobiologists such as Mildred Dickemann view the same practice as a means of expanding it 13 Another anthropologist Kristen Hawkes has criticized both of these theories On the one hand opposing Harris she says both that the quickest way to get more male warriors would have been to have more females as child bearers and that having more females in a village would increase the potential for marriage alliances with other villages Against the procreative imperative theory she points out that the corollary to well off elites such as those in northern India wanting to maximize reproduction is that poor people would want to minimize it and thus in theory should have practiced male infanticide which it seems they did not 13 Reliability of colonial reports on infanticide edit There is no data for the sex ratio in India prior to the period of colonial rule Reliant as the British were on local high caste communities for the collection of taxes and the maintenance of law and order the administrators were initially reluctant to peer too deeply into their private affairs such as the practice of infanticide Although this did change in the 1830s the reluctance reappeared following the cathartic events of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 which caused governance by the East India Company to be supplanted by the British Raj 17 In 1857 John Cave Browne a chaplain serving in Bengal Presidency reported a Major Goldney speculating that the practice of female infanticide among the Jats in the Punjab Province originated from Malthusian motives 18 In the Gujarat region the first cited examples of discrepancies in the sex ratio among Lewa Patidars and Kanbis dates from 1847 19 These historical records have been questioned by modern scholars as they were observed from a distance and those making the recordings never intermingled with their subjects to understand the social economic and cultural issues facing them that might influence their actions 20 Browne documented his speculations on female infanticide using they tell hearsay 18 Bernard Cohn states that the British residents in India would always refrain from accusing an individual or family of infanticide as the crime was difficult to prove in court despite commonly speculating those entire clans or social groups practiced female infanticide Cohn says female infanticide thus became a statistical crime during the period of colonial rule in India 21 Aside from numerous reports and correspondence on infanticide from colonial officials 10 there was also a documentation from Christian missionaries Many of these missionaries were also ethnographers who wrote about the ethnography of India during their time there Many of the missionaries looked down on India and its culture characterizing it as ignorant and depraved 22 23 Several scholars have questioned the historical narrative of female infanticide in India as they were reported by individuals who looked down on Indian culture with female infanticide being one of their reasons for holding said prejudiced viewpoints Many have noted that the rate of female infanticide was no different in India than in parts of Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries 22 24 25 Some Christian missionaries of the late 19th century writes Daniel Grey wrongly believed that female infanticide was sanctioned by the scriptures of Hinduism and Islam and against which Christianity had centuries after centuries come into victorious conflict 22 Location and direct method edit nbsp Richard Bourke 6th Earl of Mayo was Governor General of India at the time of the Female Infanticide Prevention Act 1870 A review of scholarship by Miller has shown that the majority of female infanticides in India during the colonial period occurred in the north west and that it was widespread although not all groups carried out this practice 26 David Arnold a member of the subaltern studies group who has used a lot of contemporary sources says that various methods of outright infanticide were used reputedly including poisoning with opium strangulation and suffocation Poisonous substances such as the root of the plumbago rosea and arsenic were used for abortion with the latter also ironically being used as an aphrodisiac and cure for male impotence The act of direct infanticide among Rajputs was usually performed by women often the mother herself or a nurse Administration of poison was in any event a type of killing particularly associated with women Arnold describes it as often murder by proxy with the man at a remove from the event and thus able to claim innocence 27 The passing of the Female Infanticide Prevention Act 1870 made the practice illegal in the British Indian regions of Punjab and the North Western Provinces 26 The Governor General of India had the authority to expand the Act to other regions at his discretion citation needed Impact of famines on infanticide edit Major famines occurred in India every five to eight years in the 19th and early 20th centuries 28 29 resulting in millions starving to death 30 31 As also happened in China these events began infanticide desperate starving parents would either kill a suffering infant sell a child to buy food for the rest of the family or beg people to take them away for nothing and feed them 32 33 34 Gupta and Shuzhou state that massive famines and poverty related historical events had influenced historical sex ratios and they have had deep cultural ramifications on girls and regional attitudes towards female infant mortality 34 Impact of economic policies on infanticide edit According to Mara Hvistendahl documents left behind by the colonial administration following Indian independence showed a direct correlation between the taxation policies of the East India Company and the rise in cases of female infanticide 35 Regional and religious demographics edit The decennial census of India from 1881 through 1941 recorded a consistently skewed ratio whereby the number of males exceeded the number of females The gender difference was particularly high in the north and western regions of India with an overall sex ratio males per 100 females of between 110 2 and 113 7 in the north over the 60 year period and 105 8 to 109 8 males for every 100 females in western India for all ages Visaria states that the female deficit among Muslims was markedly higher next only to Sikhs South India region was an exception reporting excess females overall which scholars attribute partly to selective emigration of males 36 The overall sex ratios and excess males in various regions were highest among the Muslim population of India from 1881 to 1941 and the sex ratio of each region correlated with the proportion of its Muslim population with the exception of the eastern region of India where the overall sex ratio was relatively low while it had a high percentage of Muslims in the population 37 If regions that are now part of modern Pakistan are excluded Baluchistan Northwest Frontier Sind for example Visaria states that the regional and overall sex ratios for the rest of India over the 1881 1941 period improve in favor of females with a lesser gap between male and female population 38 Contemporary data and statistics editInfanticide in India and elsewhere in the world is a difficult issue to objectively access because reliable data is unavailable 39 40 Scrimshaw states that not only the accurate frequency of female infanticide is unknown differential care between male and female infants is even more elusive data 41 Reliable data for female infanticide is unavailable Its frequency and that of sex selective abortion is indirectly estimated from the observed high birth sex ratio that is the ratio of boys to girls at birth or 0 1 age group infants or 0 6 age group child sex ratio 42 The natural ratio is assumed to be 106 or somewhere between 103 and 107 and any number above or below this range is considered as suggestive of female or male foeticide respectively 43 44 Higher sex ratios than in India have been reported for the last 20 years in China Pakistan Vietnam Azerbaijan Armenia Georgia and some Southeast European countries and attributed in part to female infanticide among other factors 45 There is an ongoing debate as to the cause of high sex ratios in the 0 1 and 0 6 age groups in India The suggested reasons for high birth sex ratio include regional female foeticide using amniocentesis regardless of income or poverty because of patrilineal culture 46 47 the under reporting of female births 48 smaller family size and selective stopping of family size once a male is born 49 50 Sheetal Ranjan reports that the total male and female infanticide reported cases in India were 139 in 1995 86 in 2005 and 111 in 2010 51 the National Crime Records Bureau summary for 2010 gives a figure of 100 52 Scholars state that infanticide is an under reported crime 53 Reports of regional cases of female infanticide have appeared in the media such as those in Usilampatti in southern Tamil Nadu 54 One of the biggest reasons for the increase in female infanticide is being associated with the increase in the number of private Ultrasound Scanning Centres which often tell the sex of a baby and as they become more accessible and affordable people who could not find out the sex of baby historically have started finding it out and often results in abortion in case of a girl child A report released by United Nations Population Fund UNFPA in 2020 said that nearly 45 8 million girls were missing in India due to pre and post birth selection practices in the country 55 A study by Washington based think tank Pew Research said that at least 9 million girls are missing in India between 2009 2019 as a result of female infanticide 56 Reasons editExtreme poverty with an inability to afford raising a child is one of the reasons given for female infanticide in India 57 58 clarification needed Such poverty has been a major reason for high infanticide rates in various cultures throughout history including England France and India 24 59 60 The dowry system in India is another reason that is given for female infanticide Although India has taken steps to abolish the dowry system 61 the practice persists Still female infanticide and gender selective abortion is attributed to the fear of being unable to raise a suitable dowry and then being socially ostracised 62 Other major reasons given for infanticide both female and male include unwanted children such as those conceived after rape deformed children born to impoverished families and those born to unmarried mothers lacking reliable safe and affordable birth control 57 63 64 Relationship difficulties low income lack of support coupled with mental illness such as postpartum depression have also been reported as reasons for female infanticide in India 65 66 67 clarification needed Elaine Rose 1999 reported that disproportionately high female mortality is correlated to poverty infrastructure and means to feed one s family and that there has been an increase in the ratio of the probability that a girl survives to the probability that a boy survives with favorable rainfall each year and the consequent ability to irrigate farms in rural India 68 Ian Darnton Hill et al state that the effect of malnutrition particularly micronutrient and vitamin deficiency depends on sex and it adversely impacts female infant mortality 69 State response editIn 1991 the Girl Child Protection Scheme was launched This operates as a long term financial incentive with rural families having to meet certain obligations such as sterilisation of the mother Once the obligations are met the state puts aside 2000 in a state run fund The fund which should grow to 10 000 is released to the daughter when she is 20 she can use it either to marry or to pursue higher education 70 In 1992 the Government of India started the baby cradle scheme This allows families anonymously to give their child up for adoption without having to go through the formal procedure The scheme has been praised for possibly saving the lives of thousands of baby girls but also criticised by human rights groups who say that the scheme encourages child abandonment and also reinforces the low status in which women are held 71 The scheme which was piloted in Tamil Nadu saw cradles placed outside state operated health facilities The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu added another incentive giving money to families that had more than one daughter 136 baby girls were given for adoption during the first four years of the scheme In 2000 1 218 cases of female infanticide were reported the scheme was deemed a failure and it was abandoned It was reinstated in the following year 72 The 2011 census data showed a significant decline in the child sex ratio CSR Alarmed by the decline the Government of India introduced Beti Bachao Beti Padhao BBBP initiative The program is intended to prevent gender discrimination and to ensure survival protection and education of girls 73 International reactions editThe Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces DCAF wrote in their 2005 report Women in an Insecure World that at a time when the number of casualties in war had fallen a secret genocide was being carried out against women 74 According to DCAF the demographic shortfall of women who have died for gender related issues is in the same range as the 191 million estimated dead from all conflicts in the 20th century 75 In 2012 the documentary It s a Girl The Three Deadliest Words in the World was released This focused on female infanticide in China and in India 76 In 1991 Elisabeth Bumiller wrote May You be the Mother of a Hundred Sons A Journey Among the Women of India around the subject of infanticide 77 In the chapter on female infanticide titled No More Little Girls she said that the prevailing reason for the practice is not as the act of monsters in a barbarian society but as the last resort of impoverished uneducated women driven to do what they thought was best for themselves and their families 78 Gift of A Girl Female Infanticide is a 1998 documentary that explores the prevalence of female infanticide in southern India as well as steps which have been taken to help eradicate the practice The documentary won an award from the Association for Asian Studies 79 80 See also editKuri Mar Female foeticide in India Female infanticide in China Femicide Gendercide Misogyny Sati Sexism Sex selective abortion India Violence against women Violence against women in India Women and religionReferences editNotes According to statistics published by the National Crime Records Bureau a department of the Government of India kidnapping and abduction represented 40 3 percent of recorded crimes against children in 2010 rape was 20 5 percent murder other than infanticide was 5 3 percent and exposure and abandonment was 2 7 percent All other crimes against children accounted for 31 5 percent 3 Citations Hundal 2013 National Crime Records Bureau 2010 p 1 National Crime Records Bureau 2010 p 6 Craig 2004 referring to the United Kingdom Infanticide Act 1938 Miller 1987 p 97 Most broadly defined infanticide applies to the killing of children under the age of twelve months deaths after that age would generally be classified as child homicide although the definition and hence duration of childhood is culturally variable Dube Dube amp Bhatnagar 1999 p 74 Miller 1987 pp 96 97 a b Vishwanath 2007 p 270 Miller 1987 pp 97 98 a b Snehi 2003 Scott 2001 pp 6 7 Citing Harris Marvin 1989 Our Kind Who We Are Where We Came From Where We Are Going Harper amp Row pp 213 226 227 a b Harris 1998 p 558 a b c Hawkes 1981 Scott 2001 p 6 Kuznar amp Sanderson 2007 p 209 Scott 2001 pp 3 4 Vishwanath 2007 pp 268 269 a b Browne 1857 pp 121 122 Vishwanath 2007 p 278 Cohn 1996 p 10 Cohn 1996 pp 10 11 a b c Grey 2011 Dirks 2001 pp 173 174 a b Anagol 2002 GA Oddie 1994 Orientalism and British Protestant missionary constructions of India in the nineteenth century Journal of South Asian Studies 17 2 pp 27 42 a b Miller 1987 p 99 Arnold 2013 pp 176 179 B Murton 2000 Famine in The Cambridge World History of Food 2 pp 1411 1427 Cambridge University Press Mike Davis 2001 Late Victorian Holocausts El Nino Famines and the Making of the Third World pp 7 8 Verso Mike Davis 2004 Liberation Ecologies Environment Development and Social Movements pp 44 49 Routledge A Sen 1983 Poverty and Famines An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation Oxford University Press Cormac o Grada Famine A Short History pp 61 67 Princeton University Press William Digby The Famine Campaign in Southern India Madras and Bombay 1876 1878 pp 458 459 Longmans London a b Gupta amp Shuzhuo 1999 Hvistendahl 2011 p 67 Visaria Visaria amp Patel 1983 pp 496 499 Visaria Visaria amp Patel 1983 p 499 with footnote 2 Visaria Visaria amp Patel 1983 p 499 with footnote 1 Hausfater 2008 pp 445 450 Susan Scrimshaw Cole 1996 p 14 Hausfater 2008 pp 445 450 Susan Scrimshaw Kumm Laland amp Feldman 1994 Therese Hesketh and Zhu Wei Xing Abnormal sex ratios in human populations Causes and consequences PNAS 5 September 2006 vol 103 no 36 pp 13271 13275 James W H July 2008 Hypothesis Evidence that Mammalian Sex Ratios at birth are partially controlled by parental hormonal levels around the time of conception Journal of Endocrinology 198 1 3 15 doi 10 1677 JOE 07 0446 PMID 18577567 Guilmoto 2012 pp 15 28 Jeffery Jeffery amp Lyon 1984 Goodkind 1999 Smith 2008 p 354 Shelley Clark Son preference and sex composition of children Evidence from India Demography February 2000 Volume 37 Issue 1 pp 95 108 Perwez amp Jeffrey Declining Child Sex Ratio and Sex Selection in India A Demographic Epiphany E amp P Weekly 18 August 2012 Vol XLVII No 33 pp 73 77 Ranjan 2013 p 257 National Crime Records Bureau 2010 p 95 M Spinelli 2002 Infanticide contrasting views Archives of Women s Mental Health 8 1 pp 15 24 George 1997 pp 124 132 About 4 6 crore females missing in India due to son preference UNFPA report The Week Retrieved 4 March 2023 Foeticide More Missing Girls Among Hindus Than Muslims in Last Two Decades Official Data Shows The Wire Retrieved 4 March 2023 a b Giriraj R 2004 Changing Attitude to Female Infanticide in Salem Journal of Social Welfare 50 11 13 14 amp 34 35 Tandon Sl Sharma R 2006 Female Foeticide and Infanticide in India An Analysis of Crimes against Girl Children International Journal of Criminal Justice Sciences 1 1 1 7 Sauer R 1978 Infanticide and abortion in nineteenth century Britain Population Studies 32 1 81 93 doi 10 2307 2173842 JSTOR 2173842 PMID 11630571 Kellum B A 1974 Infanticide in England in the later Middle Ages History of Childhood Quarterly 1 3 367 88 PMID 11614565 Parrot amp Cummings 2006 p 160 Oberman 2005 pp 5 6 Alder amp Polk 2001 p 4 5 Hausfater 2008 pp 445 450 Susan Scrimshaw Chandran et al 2002 Post partum depression in a cohort of women from a rural area of Tamil Nadu India Incidence and risk factors The British Journal of Psychiatry 181 6 pp 499 504 Chandra et al Infanticidal ideas and infanticidal behavior in Indian women with severe postpartum psychiatric disorders J Nerv Ment Dis 2002 Jul 190 7 pp 457 61 Hatters Friedman S Resnick P J 2007 Child murder by mothers Patterns and prevention World Psychiatry 6 3 37 141 PMC 2174580 PMID 18188430 Rose 1999 Darnton Hill et al 2005 Perwez 2011 p 250 251 Bhalla 2013 Parrot amp Cummings 2006 pp 64 65 Beti Bachao Beti Padhao programme extended to all 640 districts to improve child sex ratio The Times of India Retrieved 29 January 2018 Mashru 2012 Winkler 2005 p 7 DeLugan 2013 pp 649 650 Bumiller 1998 p 1 Dehejia 1990 Al Malazi 1998 Merry 2008 Bibliography Al Malazi Mayyasa 1998 Gift of A Girl Female Infanticide Academic Video Store Filmakers Library retrieved 27 May 2015 Alder Christine Polk Ken 2001 Child Victims of Homicide Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0 521 00251 6 Anagol Padma Spring 2002 The Emergence of the Female Criminal in India Infanticide and Survival under the Raj History Workshop Journal 53 53 73 93 doi 10 1093 hwj 53 1 73 JSTOR 4289774 PMID 12166484 Arnold David 2013 The Politics of Poison Healing Empowerment and Subbversion in Nineteenth Century India in Hardiman David Mukharji Projit Bihari eds Medical Marginality in South Asia Situating Subaltern Therapeutics Routledge ISBN 978 1 136 28403 8 Bhalla Nita 3 December 2013 India s Cradle Baby scheme hopes to end female infanticide Reuters Archived from the original on 12 June 2016 Retrieved 13 June 2021 Browne John Cave 1857 Indian infanticide its origin progress and suppression W H Allen amp Co Bumiller Elisabeth 1998 May You be the Mother of a Hundred Sons A Journey Among the Women of India 2nd ed South Asia Books ISBN 978 0 14 015671 3 Cohn Bernard S 1996 Colonialism and Its Forms of Knowledge The British in India Princeton University Press ISBN 978 0 691 00043 5 Cole John 1996 Geography of the World s major regions Routledge ISBN 978 0 415 11742 5 Craig Michael February 2004 Perinatal risk factors for neonaticide and infant homicide can we identify those at risk Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 97 2 57 61 doi 10 1177 014107680409700203 PMC 1079289 PMID 14749398 Darnton Hill Ian Webb Patrick Harvey Philip WJ Hunt Joseph M et al May 2005 Micronutrient deficiencies and gender social and economic costs American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 81 5 1198S 1205S doi 10 1093 ajcn 81 5 1198 PMID 15883452 Dehejia Vidya 28 July 1990 Books of The Times Status of India s Women Offers Hope and Despair The New York Times Retrieved 23 October 2014 DeLugan Robin Maria 2013 Review Exposing Gendercide in India and China Davis Brown and Denier s It s a Girl the Three Deadliest Words in the World Current Anthropology 54 5 649 650 doi 10 1086 672365 JSTOR 10 1086 672365 S2CID 142658205 Dirks Nicholas B 2001 Castes of Mind Colonialism and the Making of Modern India Princeton University Press ISBN 0 691 08895 0 Dube Renu Dube Reena Bhatnagar Rashmi 1999 Women Without Choice Female Infanticide and the Rhetoric of Overpopulation in Postcolonial India Women s Studies Quarterly 27 1 2 73 86 JSTOR 40003400 George Sabu M 1997 Female Infanticide in Tamil Nadu India From Recognition Back to Denial Reproductive Health Matters 5 10 124 132 doi 10 1016 S0968 8080 97 90093 8 JSTOR 3775470 Goodkind Daniel 1999 Should Prenatal Sex Selection be Restricted Ethical Questions and Their Implications for Research and Policy Population Studies 53 1 49 61 doi 10 1080 00324720308069 Grey Daniel Fall 2011 Gender Religion and Infanticide in Colonial India 1870 1906 Victorian Review 37 2 107 120 doi 10 1353 vcr 2011 0043 JSTOR 23646661 S2CID 162196032 Guilmoto Christophe 2012 Sex imbalances at birth current trends consequences and policy implications Bangkok Thailand UNFPA Asia and the Pacific Regional Office ISBN 978 974 680 338 0 Gupta Monica Das Shuzhuo Li July 1999 Gender Bias in China South Korea and India 1920 1990 Effects of War Famine and Fertility Decline Development and Change 30 3 619 652 doi 10 1111 1467 7660 00131 PMID 20175302 Policy Researh Working Paper 2140 PDF Report The World Bank June 1999 Retrieved 13 June 2021 Harris Marvin 1998 Marvin Harris in Loptson Peter ed Readings on Human Nature Broadview Press ISBN 978 1 55111 156 8 Hausfater Glenn 2008 Infanticide comparative and evolutionary perspectives New Brunswick NJ AldineTransaction ISBN 978 0 202 36221 2 Hawkes Kristen March 1981 A Third Explanation for Female Infanticide Human Ecology 9 1 79 96 doi 10 1007 bf00887856 JSTOR 4602585 PMID 12279255 S2CID 41423153 Hundal Sunny 8 August 2013 India s 60 million women that never were Al Jazeera retrieved 26 May 2015 Hvistendahl Mara 2011 Unnatural Selection Choosing Boys Over Girls and the Consequences of a World Full of Men Public Affairs ISBN 978 1 58648 850 5 Jeffery R Jeffery P Lyon A 1984 Female infanticide and amniocentesis Social Science amp Medicine 19 11 1207 1212 doi 10 1016 0277 9536 84 90372 1 PMID 6395348 Kumm J Laland K N Feldman M W December 1994 Gene culture coevolution and sex ratios the effects of infanticide sex selective abortion sex selection and sex biased parental investment on the evolution of sex ratios Theoretical Population Biology 46 3 249 278 doi 10 1006 tpbi 1994 1027 PMID 7846643 Kuznar Lawrence A Sanderson Stephen K eds 2007 Studying Societies and Cultures Marvin Harris s Cultural Materialism and Its Legacy Paradigm Publishers ISBN 978 1 59451 287 2 Mashru Ram 18 January 2012 It s a girl The three deadliest words in the world The Independent Archived from the original on 12 December 2013 Merry Sally Engle 2008 Gender Violence A Cultural Perspective Wiley Blackwell ISBN 978 0 631 22359 7 Miller Barbara D 1987 Female Infanticide and Child Neglect in Rural India in Scheper Hughes Nancy ed Child Survival Anthropological Perspectives on the Treatment and Maltreatment of Children D Reidel Publishing ISBN 978 1 55608 028 9 National Crime Records Bureau 2010 Crimes Against Children PDF archived from the original PDF on 10 November 2011 retrieved 26 May 2015 Oberman Michelle 2005 A Brief History of Infanticide and the Law In Margaret G Spinelli ed Infanticide Psychosocial and Legal Perspectives on Mothers Who Kill 1st ed American Psychiatric Publishing ISBN 1 58562 097 1 Parrot Andrea Cummings Andrea 2006 Forsaken Females The Global Brutalization of Women Rowman amp Littlefield ISBN 978 0 7425 4579 3 Perwez Shahid 2011 Female Infanticide and the Civilizing Mission in Post Colonial India A Case Study from Tamil Nadu c 1980 2006 In Carey Anthony Watt Michael Mann eds Civilizing Missions in Colonial and Postcolonial South Asia From Improvement to Development Anthem Press pp 243 316 ISBN 978 1 84331 864 4 Ranjan Sheetal 2013 Crimes Against Women in India in Unnithan N Prabha ed Crime and Justice in India SAGE Publications ISBN 978 8 13210 977 8 Rose Elaine 1999 Consumption smoothing and excess female mortality in rural India The Review of Economics and Statistics 81 1 41 49 doi 10 1162 003465399767923809 JSTOR 2646784 S2CID 57567737 Scott Eleanor 2001 Killing the Female Archaeological Narratives of Infanticide in Arnold Bettina Wicker Nancy L eds Gender and the Archaeology of Death AltaMira Press ISBN 978 0 7591 0137 1 Smith Bonnie 2008 The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0195148909 Snehi Yogesh 11 October 2003 Female Infanticide and Gender in Punjab Imperial Claims and Contemporary Discourse Economic and Political Weekly 38 41 4302 4305 JSTOR 4414126 Visaria Leela Visaria Pravin Patel Sardar 1983 Population 1757 1947 in Tapan Raychaudhuri Irfan Habib Dharma Kumar eds The Cambridge Economic History of India Volume 2 ed Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0 521 22802 2 Vishwanath L S 2007 Female Infanticide Property and the Colonial State in Patel Tulsi ed Sex Selective Abortion in India Gender Society and New Reproductive Technologies SAGE ISBN 978 0 76193 539 1 Winkler Theodor H 2005 Slaughtering Eve The Hidden Gendercide PDF Women in an Insecure World Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces Archived from the original PDF on 7 October 2019 Retrieved 29 December 2013 Further reading editBarlow Sally H Clayton Claudia J 1998 When Mothers Murder Understanding Infanticide by Females In Hall Harold V ed Lethal Violence A Sourcebook on Fatal Domestic Acquaintance and Stranger Violence CRC Press ISBN 978 0 8493 7003 8 Bhatnagar Rashmi Dube Dube Renu Dube Reena 2005 Female Infanticide in India A Feminist Cultural History State University of New York Press ISBN 978 0 7914 6327 7 Bunting Madeleine 22 July 2011 India s missing women The Guardian Retrieved 26 May 2015 Kannabiran Kalpana 2011 Gender Cleansing In Dobhal Harsh ed Writings on Human Rights Law and Society in India Combat Law Anthology 2002 2010 Human Rights Law Network India Socio Legal Information Centre ISBN 978 81 89479 78 7 Female Foeticide and female infanticide satisfy four of the five criteria set out in the Genocide Convention Meyer Cheryl L Oberman Michelle 2001 Mothers Who Kill Their Children Inside the Minds of Moms from Susan Smith to the Prom Mom New York University Press ISBN 978 0 8147 5643 0 Krishnan Murali 20 March 2012 Shamil Shams ed Female infanticide in India mocks claims of progress Deutsche Welle Nelson Dean 1 February 2012 India most dangerous place in world to be born a girl The Daily Telegraph Retrieved 26 May 2015 Pennington Brian K 2005 Was Hinduism Invented Britons Indians and the Colonial Construction Oxford University Press Archived from the original on 30 May 2015 Retrieved 30 May 2015 Ramachandran Nira 2014 Persisting Undernutrition in India Causes Consequences and Possible Solutions Springer ISBN 978 8 13221 831 9 Sadhak H 2013 Pension Reform in India The Unfinished Agenda Sage Publications ISBN 978 8 13211 649 3 Smith M 1999 Homicide a sourcebook of social research Thousand Oaks Calif Sage Publications ISBN 978 0 7619 0765 7 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Female infanticide in India amp oldid 1194477736, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.