Gendercide-Shame on humanity
It was a chilly afternoon when I came to visit my friend in the hospital whose wife was expecting a baby. After an hour when ward boy informed us that baby has been born, we rushed to the interior with smile on our faces. I was greeting everybody to cheer the newcomer but i was anxiously surprised to see the pale faces and cold behaviour from the receiving end. The female corner was mourning and chilly sobs were increasing my surprise. I did not understand anything what was happening there suddenly a middle aged lady wispers “Alas! He again became the kori moul (a daughter’s father). This is second in his family.”
We are surely growing dynamically in every field. Today, the boom in economy, innovative technologies and improved infrastructure has become nation’s pride. The country has witnessed advancements in all fields but bias against a girl child is still prevailing in the country. There is a little-known battle for survival going in some parts of the world. Those at risk are baby girls, and the casualties are in the millions each year. The weapons being used against them are prenatal sex selection, abortion and female infanticide — the systematic killing of girls soon after they are born.
The nation of mothers still follows a culture where people idolizes son and mourns daughters. UN figures out that about 750,000 girls are aborted every year in India. Abortion rates are increasing in almost 80% of the India states, mainly Punjab and Haryana. These two states have the highest number of abortions every year. If the practice continues, then no longer a day will come when Mother India will have no mothers, potentially, no life. According to a recent United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) State of the World Population Report, these practices, combined with neglect, have resulted in at least 60 million "missing" girls in Asia, creating gender imbalances and other serious problems that experts say will have far reaching consequences for years to come.
Amniocentesis (one of the procedures to check out the gender of baby) started in India in 1974 to detect fetal abnormalities. These tests were used to detect gender for the first time in 1979 in Amritsar, Punjab. Later the test was stopped by the Indian Council of Medical Research but it was too late. The benefits of these tests were leaked out and people started using it as an instrument for killing an innocent and unborn girl child. Many of the traditional women organizations also took up cudgels to stop this illegal practice but all failed and with the passage of time these tests became a major contributor to bias against a girl child.
In Kashmir, kori moul (a daughter’s father) is a commonly used phrase and everyone understands the melancholy of both the man and the word. A kori moul is seen as poor, wronged and burdened because he has a daughter. At some point, the families decided that they could do without a daughter and slowly but surely the daughters have started to disappear.
When sex ratio statistics from the 2010 Census were made public, many Kashmiris were shocked. But not the experts in the field, working at Srinagar’s only maternity hospital, Lalla Ded, knew that the girl child was fast becoming an unwanted species in Kashmiri households. Jammu & Kashmir, which was once hailed by Unicef in its 1994-96 study as a place where no female foeticide took place, has suddenly become averse to the fairer sex. The child sex ratio of J&K in the age group of zero to six years has nosedived from 941 females per 1,000 males in 2001 to 859:1,000 in 2010. In the nationwide hall of shame, J&K is at second spot, just behind Haryana, which has a ratio of 834:1,000.
In 2001, six districts showed a positive sex ratio in the 0-6 age group, including Kulgam (1,046:1,000), Kupwara (1,021), Shopian (1,011) and Ganderbal (1,014). In the latest census, the number of girl children in these districts has slipped into the 800s. The reasons for aborting the girl child were pressure from the husband (in 30 percent of the cases), pressure from in-laws (40 percent), joint decision of the couple (20 percent) and the wife’s choice (10 percent).
Islam prohibits female infanticide. This is considered a serious crime of murder. Allah Says “When the female (infant), buried alive, is questioned, for what crime she was killed.” (81: 8-9) (17:31), (6:15)
In pre-Islamic Arabia killing of female infants was very common and very often the moment a female was born she was buried alive. Islam not only prohibits female infanticide, but it forbids all types of infanticide, irrespective of whether the infant is a male or female. It is mentioned in Surah Al-Anam chapter 6, Verse 151 (6:151). “Kill not your children on a plea of want. We provide sustenance for you and for them. Come not near shameful deeds, whether open or secret. Take not life which Allah has made sacred.”
A similar guidance is repeated in Surah Al-Isra Chapter 17, Verse 31 (17:31). “Kill not your children for fear of want: We shall provide sustenance for them as well as for you. Verily the killing of them is a great sin.”
It was a chilly afternoon when I came to visit my friend in the hospital whose wife was expecting a baby. After an hour when ward boy informed us that baby has been born, we rushed to the interior with smile on our faces. I was greeting everybody to cheer the newcomer but i was anxiously surprised to see the pale faces and cold behaviour from the receiving end. The female corner was mourning and chilly sobs were increasing my surprise. I did not understand anything what was happening there suddenly a middle aged lady wispers “Alas! He again became the kori moul (a daughter’s father). This is second in his family.”
We are surely growing dynamically in every field. Today, the boom in economy, innovative technologies and improved infrastructure has become nation’s pride. The country has witnessed advancements in all fields but bias against a girl child is still prevailing in the country. There is a little-known battle for survival going in some parts of the world. Those at risk are baby girls, and the casualties are in the millions each year. The weapons being used against them are prenatal sex selection, abortion and female infanticide — the systematic killing of girls soon after they are born.
The nation of mothers still follows a culture where people idolizes son and mourns daughters. UN figures out that about 750,000 girls are aborted every year in India. Abortion rates are increasing in almost 80% of the India states, mainly Punjab and Haryana. These two states have the highest number of abortions every year. If the practice continues, then no longer a day will come when Mother India will have no mothers, potentially, no life. According to a recent United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) State of the World Population Report, these practices, combined with neglect, have resulted in at least 60 million "missing" girls in Asia, creating gender imbalances and other serious problems that experts say will have far reaching consequences for years to come.
Amniocentesis (one of the procedures to check out the gender of baby) started in India in 1974 to detect fetal abnormalities. These tests were used to detect gender for the first time in 1979 in Amritsar, Punjab. Later the test was stopped by the Indian Council of Medical Research but it was too late. The benefits of these tests were leaked out and people started using it as an instrument for killing an innocent and unborn girl child. Many of the traditional women organizations also took up cudgels to stop this illegal practice but all failed and with the passage of time these tests became a major contributor to bias against a girl child.
In Kashmir, kori moul (a daughter’s father) is a commonly used phrase and everyone understands the melancholy of both the man and the word. A kori moul is seen as poor, wronged and burdened because he has a daughter. At some point, the families decided that they could do without a daughter and slowly but surely the daughters have started to disappear.
When sex ratio statistics from the 2010 Census were made public, many Kashmiris were shocked. But not the experts in the field, working at Srinagar’s only maternity hospital, Lalla Ded, knew that the girl child was fast becoming an unwanted species in Kashmiri households. Jammu & Kashmir, which was once hailed by Unicef in its 1994-96 study as a place where no female foeticide took place, has suddenly become averse to the fairer sex. The child sex ratio of J&K in the age group of zero to six years has nosedived from 941 females per 1,000 males in 2001 to 859:1,000 in 2010. In the nationwide hall of shame, J&K is at second spot, just behind Haryana, which has a ratio of 834:1,000.
In 2001, six districts showed a positive sex ratio in the 0-6 age group, including Kulgam (1,046:1,000), Kupwara (1,021), Shopian (1,011) and Ganderbal (1,014). In the latest census, the number of girl children in these districts has slipped into the 800s. The reasons for aborting the girl child were pressure from the husband (in 30 percent of the cases), pressure from in-laws (40 percent), joint decision of the couple (20 percent) and the wife’s choice (10 percent).
Islam prohibits female infanticide. This is considered a serious crime of murder. Allah Says “When the female (infant), buried alive, is questioned, for what crime she was killed.” (81: 8-9) (17:31), (6:15)
In pre-Islamic Arabia killing of female infants was very common and very often the moment a female was born she was buried alive. Islam not only prohibits female infanticide, but it forbids all types of infanticide, irrespective of whether the infant is a male or female. It is mentioned in Surah Al-Anam chapter 6, Verse 151 (6:151). “Kill not your children on a plea of want. We provide sustenance for you and for them. Come not near shameful deeds, whether open or secret. Take not life which Allah has made sacred.”
A similar guidance is repeated in Surah Al-Isra Chapter 17, Verse 31 (17:31). “Kill not your children for fear of want: We shall provide sustenance for them as well as for you. Verily the killing of them is a great sin.”