Indian father accused of killing baby 'for being a girl'

[woodyear99]

There has always been a preference for boys in India, hopefully things will change in the future....

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/06/14/world/asia/india-female-infanticide/index.html

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

-Indian man is accused of killing 3-month-old baby girl because he wanted a son
-The United Nations says India is the most dangerous place to be a girl
-It's common to abort female babies because boys are seen as 'better investments'
-For every 1,000 boys 6 years and under, there are 914 girls -- the lowest ratio since 1947


Bangalore, India (CNN) -- Nineteen-year-old Reshma Banu sits on the stairs outside her parents' home, staring at the tiny screen on her cell phone.
The video on the screen has her mesmerized: a very short home video of her baby girl, Afreen.
The moments captured are precious because they show Banu's only child alive and well.
Afreen died in the hospital. She was three months old.

Authorities say the baby was admitted to the hospital with bite marks, cigarette burns and a dislocated neck. Police say she was killed by her father.
"After my delivery my husband had come to see me and the baby. He said, 'It is a girl, why did you give birth to a girl?'"
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He wanted a boy, an heir. Girls were too expensive, he said. A couple of days after giving birth, Banu says her husband gave an ultimatum.
"For her wedding we will require a hundred thousand rupees (about US$1,800 dollars) for all the expense. If you can get that amount from your mother, then keep her, but if you can't, then kill her," Banu recalled her husband as saying.

She didn't believe he meant it and was sure he would change his mind once he held his soft, bright-eyed baby girl.
Three months later, her baby is dead, and her husband is under arrest, accused of beating the baby to death. Police say he confessed to the killing.
This is by no means the first case of its kind in India. Attitudes, traditions, and economics have come together to make being a girl a dangerous prospect in the country, doctors say. Most of the time girls are disposed of long before they are born.

How? Sex-selective abortions.

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/06/14/world/asia/india-female-infanticide/index.html

[W1nTry]

This is also a problem in china as I recall... the unfortunate thing is, this is not a simple case of bias, there are political, religious, monetary reasons for this ghastly mindset and it's VERY shortsighted as when the population gets older and the ratio of females to males becomes tighter and tighter, they will have many deficiencies in the birth rate either leading to more attrocities against women and/or a declining country.

[woodyear99]

Yes it is a serious problem in China as well........

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/02/chinas-great-gender-crisis

China's great gender crisis

Chinese families have long favoured sons over daughters, meaning the country now has a huge surplus of men. Is it also leading to a profound shift in attitudes to women?

In the early 1980s there were 108 male births to every 100 female, only slightly above the natural rate; by 2000 that had soared to 120 males, and in some provinces, such as Anhui, Jiangxi and Shaanxi, to more than 130. The result is that more than 35 million women are "missing". Though China is not the only country affected – India's situation is similar – it has by far the widest gap; its one-child policy has exacerbated the problem.

The effects of the discrepancy are only now emerging in full. The country has tens of millions of men who are destined to die single. Some fear that the excess will lead to increased sexual violence, general crime and social instability. Yet campaigners see the first signs of hope, as more parents come round to Chen's way of thinking. Official statistics released this summer suggest the sex ratio at birth (SRB) has fallen slightly for two years running, to just over 118 males in 2010.

[~*Ashiee*~]

This is sad
and imagine there are some many people who can't have children and would give anything to adopt. Maybe a system should be put in place so that people can adopt unwanted babies from these countries.