60-150, these dais kill the female babies the moment they are born. The methods adopted to kill newborns are many. In south Indian states like Tamil Nadu, children are either fed the milk of poisonous plants or covered with a wet towel so that they die later of complications from cold. In Bihar, holding the baby from the waist and shaking it back and forth snaps the spinal chord. Sometimes a child is stuffed in a clay pot.
Babies are also fed with salt to increase their blood pressure, death follows in a few minutes.
Grains of paddy husk are also fed to slit the tender gullet. Ten dais in the Sitamarhi districts claim to have killed 1-2 babies a month. In this state alone there are approximately five lakhs dais and the number of female babies killed can just be imagined. These dais are the only link between the family and the mother and a great amount of pressure is put on the dai to kill the baby if the baby is a female. Female infanticide is leading to a serious imbalance in the sex ration in the country.