Examples Of Female Foeticide In The Forbidden Daughter

In this short video and article on the topic of gendercide, reporter Elizabeth Vargas travels to India to found out from the people of India personally why there is such a shortage of females. She discovered that although aborting a fetus of a female child is illegal because of the shortage of females, families still continue to abort them because they don't want the burden that the baby girls brings. Vargas also discovered that illegal sex determination clinics can be found just about on every street. Men and their families also the wives to have sex determination tests and abort the baby if it’s female.

In certain communities in South Asia, the low status of girls has to be compensated for by the payment of a dowry by the parents of the girl to the husband at the time of marriage. This has resulted in a number of dowry crimes, including mental and physical torture, starvation, rape, and even the burning alive of women by their husbands and/or in-laws in cases where dowry payments are not met.

Mahasweta Devi’s short story, “Giribala,” is about the life of Giribala, a girl of Talsana village located in India. Born into a caste in a time when it was still customary to pay a bride-price, Giri is sold to Aulchand by her father. From this point on, we see a series of unfortunate, tragic events that take place in Giri’s life as a result of the circumstances surrounding Giri’s life. There are many issues in Giri’s life in India that Devi highlights to readers. First, the economic instability of the village leads to an extremely poor quality of life for the lower, working classes. Next, the cruel role of women determined by men in society is to either satisfy the sexual desires of men or to reproduce offspring who can work or be sold off to marriages. There are also other social norms and beliefs which discriminate against women that will be discussed.

Indian men celebrated women’s roles in food providing and child bearing in religious ceremonies (64). Indian women unlike the English women of the seventeenth century had a voice. She was treated more as an equal. Even though there was still gender separation between Indian men and Indian women, in the responsibilities they share, the women were more respected. Indian women still didn’t have easy lives.

This particular article addresses the issue of female feticide and sex-selection abortions in Canada. Mrozek tends to focus on the Indian culture as it is a rather common practice in Indian custom. Indo-Canadians sometimes choose to abort their babies if they find out they are having a girl. Other times they can be coerced into it by elder relatives

This brings about many ethical questions and moral concerns. The practice that likely incites the most controversy in selective abortion is sex selective reduction. As technology has advanced, the availability of ultrasound technology has provided practitioners with the ability to identify many fetal characteristics, one of which is gender (Higgins, 2016). Sex-selective reduction mirrors the practice of so called “gendercide” that occurs in countries such as China and India. In these countries sex selective abortion is used to create a population that is predominantly male. To American’s these methods may seem inhumane, and there are many organizations in the US and around the world attempting to stop gender specific abortion. What many Americans probably do not realize is these practices occur in the United States as well, and they have for a long time. While these methods are considered legal in the United States, the ethical implications of aborting fetuses based on sex creates an entirely new concern. The practice of selective abortion in general has created a number of ethical questions for society, and those practicing in the medical

As a result of these reviews, the ongoing reconstruction of the social status and roles of Hindu women has brought about many new changes in Hinduism. Some of these changes include changes in education, health measures, problems of early marriages, the positions of widows, and the representation of women in governing bodies (Desai, et al., 1995). For example, within Hinduism now,

Violence and cruelty directed at women starts from a very young age and it happens because certain cultures and governments allow it to exist and thrive within their population. Within the text, Steinem reveals that, “...child marriage contributes to the fact that the biggest cause of death among teenage girls worldwide is pregnancy and childbirth” (Steinem). Child marriage is still remarkably prominent in many cultures still to this day. These young adolescent bodies are being forced to carry a child the second they get their period and so many of these young girls die from this cultural normalcy. This illustrates why radical feminism is still essential to completely eradicate this kind of subtle brutality against developing girls. Often the cruelty can start even earlier than that with the second thier parents find out they are having a baby girl. Thanks to the ever growing baby boy preference, female fetuses are getting aborted more and more often. If the baby girl is already born they are often neglected, left to

A huge, seemingly unresolvable taboo in Indian culture, child marriage is a major hinderance for the main character. Navigating

In the book, Arranged Marriage, by Chitra Divakaruni there are multiple stories that demonstrate arranged marriages from within the Indian culture. In some cases, arranged marriages work out better than others. However, in the short stories in her book, most don’t work out positively. In the short stories, “The Bats” and “The Disappearance”, the arranged marriages don’t work out. Chitra Divakaruni’s viewpoint on arranged marriages is clearly negative, due to violence, and the effect on children.

This joint family, like any social organization, must face problems such as acceptable division of work, relationships and specific family roles. These familial relationships are managed on the basis of a secular hierarchical principle. In fact, all Indians owe respect and obedience to the head of the family, who usually is the father or the oldest man of the family community. In The Gift of a Bride: A Tale of Anthropology, Matrimony and Murder by Nanda and Gregg, it is explained that, “females [are] placed under the perpetual guardianship of first their fathers and elder brothers, then their husbands.” (Nanda & Gregg 22) Thus, all the spending decisions, studies and profession, or marriage, are exclusively the responsibility of the father after the possible discussions with the other men of the family. Age and sex are the basic principles of this hierarchical system. The eldest sons enjoy greater unchallenged authority than their cadets. Of course men have more authority than women, but older married women have an important role within the family. In fact, the authority of a woman depends on the rank of her husband inside the group. Traditionally, the wife of the patriarch rules over domestic affairs and has considerable power over the other women in the community, especially her daughters- in-law.

Female infanticide has been accepted for centuries in many countries, and is more prominent in India and China than in any other countries around the world. It is illegal in India, however it is reported by Unicef that up to 50 million girls and women are “missing” in India as a result of systemic sex discrimination.

India has a difficult social issue to have an abortion if it is the female fetus of a family who wants boys. The market leader in India is under the spotlight because campaigners against the practice are going to spread ultrasounds machines. This major problem faces legal hurdles, government scrutiny and thorny business problems which is one of the world’s fastest growing economies. 927 girls for every 1,000 boys compared with 945 in 1991. GE agrees that bringing or expanding more ultrasounds machines will increase the number of female fetuses, while in U.S. the purpose of ultrasound during pregnancies is to produce images of fetuses or internal organs for a range of diagnostic purpose. Which means that a number of males and females born

It is regrettable that female infanticide and foeticide are rapidly decreasing the female population throughout India. The main factors that is responsible for the increase in the incidence of female infanticide and foeticide is the low status of women, son preference, and the practice of dowry across all casts groups.

All around the world, an abortion is a very controversial topic and is talked about immensely. In America, when you hear people talk about an abortion, you hear them make a big deal about it. On the other hand, within the Hindu religion in India, that is a different story. The first problem that arises with regard to an abortion in India is how differently Hindu women are treated in comparison to Hindu men. As a whole, the government of India is trying to control the people and the population of the country by controlling the “female to male sex ratios.” As stated in the article Sexuality, caste, governmentality: contests over 'gender' in India by Nivedita Menon, the government is trying to cut down the population for the “development” of the country. As they are trying to do this, they are diminishing women and the rights that they have. The concern that the government should have should not mainly be what the women and their bodies and the lives that they live, “but woman as key to the stability and reproduction of society and the patriarchal family.” As stated in the article, the population rise might not be a problem caused by women. It might not be a female problem because the sex ratio was at an all time low for women as the ratio was 933 females per 1000 men in the 2001 census. One of the main reasons that the sex ratio for women has gone down is because of the widely practiced selective abortion of female foetuses.