'He committed the crime as he was not happy with a female child'
Another girl child has been killed in India, this time a three-month-old. Police today, in the state of West Bengal, arrested the father, Raju for allegedly killing the infant in an inebriated condition.
The man allegedly slammed his daughter on to the ground leading to her death, in Kolkata, on Thursday morning.
According to a report on the Indian news magazine, India Today’s website, the police said that Raju had come home drunk around 10.30am (Indian Standard Time) on Thursday, “and was caught in a heated argument with his wife Afsari”.
A Bengali news daily reported that during the argument between the couple, Raju’s attention suddenly shifted to Sultana who was playing on the bed and he approached her.
“Before his wife could understand, Raju started to twist the arms and legs of the infant. Soon after that, he slammed his own daughter on to the ground, killing her,” the daily reported.
The mother and the infant’s relatives rushed her to a hospital, but to no avail. Sultana was declared brought dead by hospital authorities.
Police said that during interrogation Raju said that he committed the crime as he was not happy with a female child.
Shocking? That’s not all.
Second case in a week
On Tuesday, a one-month-old baby girl in Karnataka’s Chikmagalur was strangled by her father who was unhappy on fathering a girl child. He was apparently advised by an astrologer to kill the child to have better fortune.
According to a report on the Indian media website The News Minute, the baby was named Niharika. And, the accused named Manjunath had frequent arguments with his wife over the newborn. He was arrested after his wife lodged a complaint with the police.
Girls: An ‘economic burden’ for many
In September last year, a global study on female infanticide by Asian Centre for Human Rights, a Delhi-based NGO (non-governmental organisation) dedicated to the protection of human rights, revealed that preference of a son over a daughter is a major reason for female infanticide in many countries around the world. Dowry system in South Asia, which makes daughters “an unaffordable economic burden”, also contributes to female infanticide.
The research titled Female Infanticide Worldwide: The case for action by the United Nations Human Rights Council makes a continent-wise analysis of infanticide patterns.
Missing female children
According to a 2019 report by the The Observer: “A 2011 study conducted by India’s Central Statistics Office under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme said that nearly three million girls went missing due to female infanticide. It’s estimated that 10 million female births (500,000 every year) have been aborted in India in the last 20 years.”
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