From: krishna@iss.nus.sg (...Krishnamoorthy.)
Subject: ARTICLE: Female infanticide rampant in Tamil Nadu
Originator: krishna@suliman
Organization: National University of Singapore
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 1992 03:14:09 GMT


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                     Female infanticide rampant in Tamil Nadu
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                               By Pushpa Iyengar


     (This article excerpted from Times of India, Bombay, 23 August 1992)

The Times of India News Service:
Salem, Aug.22:

"For  the sake of my family, I will continue to kill all female babies that I
   deliver till I  get  a  boy,"  declared  Shakuntala,  30,  the  wife of an 
   agricultural worker in  Ezhandakottai in Tiruchengode  taluka,  before the
   entire village.

Shakuntala had her second  baby,  her  second female child, killed four years 
   ago. When the baby was three days old, her mother-in-law had fed the child
   ERUKKAMPAL, the sticky milk of the  common  ERUKKAMPAL  shrub. "I felt bad, 
   but I had to think of her future which  would  have  been  bleak  since we 
   could not afford another dowry," she said. Not one of the 50-odd villagers
   who had been following me around  the  village - old men, women, youth and
   children - so much as winced at Shakuntala's confession.

When Shakuntala heard  that  a lady from Madras was there to do some research 
   on  the  statys of  women,  she came up to me and said: "What's wrong with 
   speaking the truth? After all it (female infanticide) happens here all the
   time." She added that  her  husband would be angry if his name appeared in 
   the newspaper,  but  since she was confiding in a research student, it was 
   all right.

It  is  believed  that the Gounder community kill their second and later girl 
   children.  After having trudged 200 km through the countryside around this 
   town, and only  hearing  vague  statements,  like  "We  don't know whether 
   female infanticide is  practised  here",  my  local  guides,  Jayamani and 
   Parameshwari, advised the research student approach.

Though  government  officials bleated that only creating awareness will solve
   this  problem  of  femal infanticide,  TOINS encountered an entire village 
   that treated the killing of unwanted female  babies  as  the  only logical 
   solution to the dowry menace.  Karupayi,  one of  Shakuntala's  neighbours, 
   explained: "Even if Shakuntala had decided to let her second daughter live
   with the idea of  giving  equal  portions of what seh could afford to both 
   daughters, it would not have worked", she said. Boys are rarely offered to
   families  where  there  is more than one girl because their share of dowry 
   goes down. The fact that  they could get progressively weak through child-
   bearing in an endeavour to  have  that  prized  son,  does not deter these 
   women. They see it as their obligation to their families. 

None of these families even consider giving up their unwanted girl babies for
   adoption.  Dr N.S.Chitra,  a  prominent  Salem  based  gynaecologist,  has 
   advised adoption to her patients, but with no success. 

She says: "These women tell me that as long as they know  their  girls  alive
   they will continue to worry. They fear that the  girls  might be exploited 
   as servants, or worse, forced into  prostitution. They prefer to live with 
   the sorrow of their daughter's deaths. But, they don't feel any guilt".

Never  guilt,  emphasises  Dr  R.N.V. Manonmani, who runs her own hospital in 
   Rasipuram,  about  35  km  from  here.  "I  support  the  policy of female 
   infanticide and refuse to admit that it is a sin",  she  says  forcefully.
   The only advice she  offers  women  giving  birth  to  a  secon or another 
   female child.  "If  you are going to kill it, don't do it in my hospital".
   Doctors frequently  come  across  girl babies who have mysteriously died a 
   day after being born perfectly healthy.

Dr Chitra recounts the case of a woman  who  gave  birth  to her third female 
   child after a caesarian operation. The woman had gone through agony during
   the birth. On the eighth day, her mother-in-law took away the baby, saying
   that the horoscope said that the mother and child should be  seperated for
   their well being. When the woman came back to Dr Chitra for  a  check-up a
   few weeks later, she told the doctor that her baby had died.

According to the doctor, parents often see their daughters  being tortured by
   mother-in-law and husbands. "Instead  of  seeing  them  being killed after
   nurturing them, we may kill  them as babies", is her logic. She has little 
   time for people who lecture  from pulpits about social ills against woman.
   "Has anything  been  done to  better  the lot of woman? can the government 
   guarantee that our daughters will not be  tortured by their in-laws?", she
   asks.

Shanthi had to kill her daughter  because  she had the additional handicap of 
   being born  without  a  leg.  The  mother wept for two whole days, "Do you 
   think  these  mothers  are  cruel?  They  have  to kill because society is 
   against women. These mothers have suffered so much  that  they  don't want 
   the pattern repeating in their daughters' lives. They are  not  committing
   murder",  Dr  Manonmani  says.   She  herself  underwent  a  sterilisation 
   operation  after  she  had a son. "I could not risk having a girl and then 
   see her suffer", she says.

Mr Punnuswamy  is  a compounder at Dr Manonmani's hospital. After seven years 
   of marriage, he had  two  daughters  and  a  son.  His oldest daughter was 
   married to a relative, who turned out to be an alcoholic and a wife-beater.
   His daughter is now back with him. "After seeing my daughter's life ruined 
   in this fashion, I definitely advocate female infanticide",  he  says. The
   fact that his second daughter is happily married in no way compensates for
   his first-born's misfortune. 

Dowry is only one reason why female infanticide is practised in many district
   of this state, including Madurai  ( Usilampatti  area,  where  the  Kallar 
   community practices  it),  Salem  (Where a study by the community services 
   guild  of  Madras  found that 51 per cent of the families belonging to the
   Gounder, Vanniar, Naicker, Nadar, Thevar communities killed the second and
   later female  children  within the first week of birth), Coimbatore, South 
   and North Arcot.

The wealthy among these communities  resort  to  this  gruesome  practice for 
   another reason. Mr P.Dhamalingam,  district  secretary  of  the  Communist 
   Party of India, says  that  wealthy  Gounders prefer one or only two girls 
   because they want thier property fragmented.  Most  of  these  communities 
   usually give their daughters in marriage to relatives and  thereby  ensure
   that property stays within the family. But having  more than two daughters 
   would mean having to  find  a  groom  from  outside the family circle, and
   giving away a part of the property as dowry to an outsider. 

It  came  across  quite  clearly  during talks with people in tiny hamlets in 
   Elachipalayam and Thiruchengode talukas that most families had at the most 
   two children. Few of these families had undergone sterilisation operations.
   Most villagers baulk at getting sterilised because they feel that it would
   weaken them. No other methods of contraception are used. Abortions are not
   always possible because of the expense.

Although  villagers  of  Ezhandakottai  were  the only ones who admitted that 
   female infanticide was practised, the size  of  families  and  the lack of 
   contraception or sterilisation told another story. But the practice, which 
   villagers acknowledged has been going on for hundreds  of  years  has  not 
   abated.  According  to  Mr  M.G.Rajagopal,  the  CPM  taluka  secretary at 
   Rasipuram , the practice is being emulated by other communities, including 
   Harijans. Dr CHitra says that she has noticed that people from states like
   Bihar and Orissa, now settled in Salem, also resort to the practice. 

Scan facilities now  available in major towns. If the foetus is female, woman
   go to quacks who  induce  labour  by  applying  a paste and kill the child, 
   notwithstanding the high risk to the mother.  But  for  these  who  cannot 
   afford it,  there  are  several  ways  of  killing  a  child  after  birth. 
   ERUKKAMPAL, feeding the newborn baby paddy grains in hot milk, turning the
   new born over  after  covering its face with a wet towel, drowning it in a 
   bucket of water, smothering the infant with pillows, feeding it pesticide,
   overdosing it with sleeping pills are among the methods used.

According to Dr Chitra, the  new generation dreads the practice but is forced 
   into it by the older generation.  Most  women delivering child are advised 
   by well meaning  older  women  to  get  rid  of  it.  Her  observation  is
   corroborated  by  some of  the villages. SHankar, a college student, said: 
   "I want a nalla ponnu (good girl). I will convince my mother not to accept
   a dowry".

Dr Chitra  looks  forward to the day when she does not have to hear her staff
   saying  commiseratingly  with  a  new  born  girl,    "AYOH   PONNA.   NEE 
   SAGARTHIRKEDHAN PORUNDIREKERE". (Alas, a girl.  You have been born only to
   die). 
 
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