Female infanticide has been practiced throughout history on every continent by both tribal and civilized societies. While poverty and population control have contributed to the practice, a bias against females in patriarchal societies is a major underlying cause. Historically, female infanticide was common in Arabia, India, China, and some Western societies prior to legal bans. Today it remains a significant problem in parts of Asia, where sex-selective abortion and neglect have resulted in millions of missing women. Prohibitions against the practice in major religions like Islam, Judaism, and Christianity did not always prevent it from occurring socially.

2. introduction
Female infanticide is the deliberate killing of newborn female children or the termination of a
female fetus through selective abortion.[a] The practice has been the cause of death for
millions and is a major cause of concern in several nations such as China and India being cited
by genocide scholar Adam Jones as notable examples. Jones argues that the "low status" in
which women are viewed in patriarchal societies creates a bias against females.[2]
In 1978, anthropologist Laila Williamson in a summary of data she had collated on how
widespread infanticide was among both tribal and developed, or "civilized" nations found that
infanticide had occurred on every continent and was carried out by groups ranging from
hunter gatherers to highly developed societies and that rather than this practice being an
exception, it has been commonplace.[3] The practice has been well documented amongst
the indigenous peoples of Australia, Northern Alaska and South Asia, and Barbara Miller argues
the practice to be "almost universal". Miller contends that in regions where women are not
employed in agriculture and regions in which dowries are the norm then female infanticide is
commonplace,[4] and in 1871 in The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, Charles
Darwin wrote that the practice was commonplace among the aboriginal tribes of Australia.[5]

3. In 1990, Amartya Sen writing in the New York Review of Books estimated that there were 100 million
fewer women in Asia than would be expected, and that this amount of “missing” women “tell[s]
us, quietly, a terrible story of inequality and neglect leading to the excess mortality of women.”
Initially Sen’s suggestion of gender bias was contested and it was suggested that hepatitis B was
the cause of the alteration in the natural sex ratio. However it is now widely accepted that the
numerical worldwide deficit in women is due to gender specific abortions, infanticide and
neglect.[6]
In seventh-century Arabia before Islamic culture took root, female infanticide was widely
practiced. This is attributed by scholars to the fact that women were deemed "property" within
those societies. Others have speculated that to prevent their daughters from a life of misery the
mothers would kill the child. With the arrival of Islamic rule the practice was made illegal, however
Michelle Oberman believes "there is little reason to believe that call was heeded".[7]

4. Americas
Among the Inuit of Northern Alaska and Canada, the practice of female infanticide was a
common occurrence.[8] In researching smothering deaths by black slaves in the American
South, which occurred nine times more frequently than in white families, Michael P. Johnson
suggests that sudden infant death syndrome was in fact to blame (which, if it happened in
white families, would be heavily underreported because of the social stigma attached).

5. Europe
With the Roman Empire's conversion to Christianity in 318 AD Constantine declared that the custom
of patria potens was no longer law and infanticide was made illegal. However there are indications
that infanticide was still in wide usage within early Christian society. Records from churches dating
from the Middle Ages provide proof that gender specific infanticide was widespread. Further proof
on how widespread infanticide was is seen in handbooks of penance, where the crime is listed with
minor, or venial sins which describe overlying.[b] Between the ninth and fifteenth centuries the
usual penance given for this action was three years with one year served on bread and water. The
typical penance for the killing of an adult was just three years, with one of these on bread and
water. Scholars believe that the leniency given towards those who committed infanticide to be
indicative of how commonplace the practice was.[10]
In medieval Europe, the large discrepancies in the sex ratio have led to the suggestion of female
infanticide with one estimate being 143 boys to 100 girls.[11][12] In medieval England overlaying—
laying across a child and hence smothering it—was commonplace.[13]

6. China
In China, the practice of female infanticide was not wholly condoned. Buddhism in particular was
quite forceful in its condemnation of it. Buddhists wrote that the killing of young girls would bring bad
karma; conversely, those who saved a young girl's life either through intervening or through presents
of money or food would earn good karma, leading to a prosperous life, a long life and success for
their sons. However the Buddhist belief in reincarnation meant that the death of an infant was not
final, as the child would be reborn; this belief eased the guilt felt over female infanticide.[14]
The Confucian attitude towards female infanticide was conflicted. By placing value on age over
youth, Confucian filial piety lessened the value of children. The Confucian emphasis on the family led
to increasing dowries which in turn led to a girl being far more expensive to raise than a boy, causing
families to feel they could not afford as many daughters. The Confucian custom of keeping the male
within the family meant that the money spent on a daughter's upbringing along with the dowry would
be lost when she married, and as such girls were called "money-losing merchandise". Conversely the
Confucian belief of Ren led Confucian intellectuals to support the idea that female infanticide was
wrong and that the practice would upset the balance between yin and yang.

7. India
In 1857, John Cave-Brown documented for the first time the practice of female infanticide among the Jats in the
Punjab region. Data from the census during the colonial period and from 2001 propose that the Jat have practiced
female infanticide for 150 years. In the Gujarat region, the first cited examples of discrepancies in the sex ratio among
Lewa Patidars and Kanbis dates from 1847.[25][26]In 1789 during British colonial rule in India the British discovered that
female infanticide in Uttar Pradesh was openly acknowledged. A letter from a magistrate who was stationed in the
North West of India during this period spoke of the fact that for several hundred years no daughter had ever been
raised in the strongholds of the Rajahs of Mynpoorie. In 1845 however the ruler at that time did keep a daughter alive
after a district collector named Unwin intervened.[27] A review of scholarship has shown that the majority of female
infanticides in India during the colonial period occurred for the most part in the North West, and that although not all
groups carried out this practice it was widespread. In 1870, after an investigation by the colonial authorities the
practice was made illegal.[28]In India, since 1974 amniocentesis has been used to determine the gender of a child
before birth, and should the child be female then an abortion can be carried out.[29] According to women's rights
activist Donna Fernandes, some practices are so deeply embedded within Indian culture it is "almost impossible to do
away with them", and she has said that India is undergoing a type of "female genocide".[30] The United Nations has
declared that India is the most deadly country for female children, and that in 2012 female children aged between 1
and 5 were 75 percent more likely to die as opposed to boys. The children's rights group CRY has estimated that of 12
million females born yearly in India 1 million will have died within their first year of life.[30] In the Indian state of Tamil
Nadu during British rule, the practice of female infanticide in Tamil Nadu among the Kallars and the Todas was
reported. More recently in June 1986 it was reported by India Today in a cover story Born to Die that female
infanticide was still in use in Usilampatti in southern Tamil Nadu. The practice was mostly prevalent among the
dominant caste of the region, Kallars.[

8. Pakistan
In 2011, CNN reported that a relief agency called female infanticide "Pakistan's worst
unfolding tragedy" and that of 10 newborns thrown into the dumps of Karachi, nine are
female. The NGO Edhi Foundation recorded 1,200 infants dumped in 2010, which was a rise of
200 over 2009.[

9. Reactions
The Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) wrote in their 2005
report, Women in an Insecure World, that at a time when the number of casualties in war had
fallen, a "secret genocide" was being carried out against women.[34] According to DCAF the
demographic shortfall of women who have died for gender related issues is in the same range
as the 191 million estimated dead from all conflicts in the twentieth century.[35] In 2012, the
documentary It’s a girl: The three deadliest words in the world was released, and in one
interview, an Indian women claimed she had killed eight of her daughters.[34]

10. Footnotes
a.Jump up ^ "As defined by UNICEF female infanticide is defined as the abortion of a fetus because it is female or
the killing of an infant by a relative because it is female. Infanticide has been practiced as a brutal method of
family planning in societies where boy children are still valued, economically and socially, above girls. Anecdotal
evidence suggests that outright infanticide, usually of newborn girls, takes place in some communities in Asia.
Medical testing for sex selection, though officially outlawed, has become a booming business in China, India and
the Republic of Korea."[1]
b.Jump up ^ "lying on top of the child and suffocating him or her"[10]
c.Jump up ^ "As soon as the little girls are born, they are plunged into the water in order to drown them or force is
applied to their bodies in order to suffocate them or they are strangled with human hands. And something even
more deplorable is that there are servants who place the girl in the chamber pot or in the basin used for the birth,
which is still filled with water and blood and, shut away there, they die miserably. And what is even more monstrous
is that if the mother is not cruel enough to take the life of her daughter, then her father-in-law, mother-in-law, or
husband agitates her by their words to kill the girl."[16]
d.Jump up ^ "Infanticide through drowning and abandoning female babies is an evil custom left over from feudal
times."[22]
e.Jump up ^ Although the Dowry Prohibition Act was passed in 1961 it had the consequence of young brides then
being killed.[

11. India loses 3 million girls in infanticide
In an alarming trend, girl child numbers in India have shown a sharper decline than the
male children in the decade beginning 2001, leading to a skewed child sex ratio.
On the eve of the International Day of the Girl Child, government on Tuesday said that while
the decade saw an overall drop in share of children to total population, nearly three million
girls, one million more than boys, are “missing” in 2011 compared to 2001 and there are now
48 fewer girls per 1,000 boys than there were in 1981.

12. “During 2001- 2011, the share of children to total population has declined and the decline was sharper for female
children than male children in the age group 0—6 years,” said the study “Children in India 2012- A Statistical
Appraisal” conducted by the Central Statistical Organisation.
“Though, the overall sex ratio of the country is showing a trend of improvement, the child sex ratio is showing a
declining trend, which is a matter of concern,” the study said
According to the report, female child population in the age group of 0-6 years was 78.83 million in 2001 which
declined to 75.84 million in 2011.
The population of girl child was 15.88 per cent of the total female population of 496.5 million in 2001, which
declined to 12.9 per cent of total number of 586.47 million women in 2011.
Similarly the male children population has also declined from 85.01 million in 2001 to 82.95 per cent in 2011. During
the period, 1991-2011, the child sex ratio declined from 945 to 914, whereas the overall sex ratio showed an
improvement from 927 to 940.

13. “Though the child sex ratio in rural India is 919 which is 17 points higher than that of urban
India, the decline in Child Sex Ratio (0—6 years) during 2001—2011 in rural areas is more than
three times as compared to the drop in urban India which is a matter of grave concern,” it
added.

14. A Brief History of Infanticide
In 1978, Laila Williamson, an anthropologist of the American Museum of Natural History, summarized the data she had
collected on the prevalence of infanticide among tribal and civilized societies from a variety of sources in the scientific
and historical literature. Her conclusion was startlingly blunt: Infanticide has been practiced on every continent and by
people on every level of cultural complexity, from hunters and gatherers to high civilization, including our own
ancestors. Rather than being an exception, then, it has been the rule. There is ample historical evidence to document
the incredible propensity of parents to murder their children under an assortment of stressful situations. In nineteenth
century England, for example, infanticide was so rampant throughout the country that a debate over how to correct
the problem was carried out in both the lay and medical press. An editorial in the respected medical journal Lancet
noted that "to the shame of civilization it must be avowed that not a State has yet advanced to the degree of progress
under which child-murder may be said to be a very uncommon crime. Infanticide has pervaded almost every society of
mankind from the Golden Age of Greece to the splendor of the Persian Empire. While there are many diverse reasons
for this wanton destruction, two of the most statistically important are poverty and population control. Since prehistoric
times, the supply of food has been a constant check on human population growth. One way to control the lethal
effects of starvation was to restrict the number of children allowed to survive to adulthood. Darwin believed that
infanticide, "especially of female infants," was the most important restraint on the proliferation of early man. While
female infanticide has at times been necessary for survival of the community-at-large, there have also been instances
where it has been related to the general societal prejudice against females which characterizes most male-dominated
cultures.

15. Evidence in Arabia
Sexism was particularly prominent in Arabia before the time of Mohammed (570?-632 AD). The
Persian world was a very paternalistic society, and females were generally seen as an undesirable
burden to a family struggling to survive. A common proverb held that it was "a generous deed to
bury a female child." Nevertheless, the Koran, which collected the writings of Mohammed,
introduced reforms that included the prohibition of female infanticide. Mohammed outlined the
wrongfulness of infanticide in various sections of his holy scripture.
He asked, with censure ' for example, how would a father account for his actions, "When the female
child that had been buried alive shall be asked for what crime she was put to death?"

16. Evidence in Judaism and Christianity
While we also find discrimination in the treatment of women within the Western religions of Judaism
and Christianity, there were safeguards in both practices to prevent social acceptance of infanticide
by its adherents. The Jews were clearly against the taking of human life, and generally forbade the
killing of any newborn infant. Maimonides (1135 - 1204 AD), the renowned Jewish philosopher and
physician, pointed out that a single man was first created in Genesis, "to teach us that if any man
destroys a single life in the world, scriptures imputes it to him as though he has destroyed the whole
world." Each life, each spark of being, was a gift of God and only the Holy Father could extinguish its
flame. Infanticide was therefore rare and never socially accepted by the Jews.
That some early Christian parents did indeed expose unwanted female infants to the elements was
evident in the writings of the Church Fathers who were concerned over future acts of incest. Saint
Justin Martyr (114-166 AD) cautioned that it was wicked to expose children for, "almost all those who
are exposed are raised to prostitution." He then added a warning against consorting with prostitutes
because it was thereby possible that one would be guilty of having intercourse with his own child.
Clement of Alexandria (150-211 AD) similarly advised of this danger. For the most part, however, as
with the Jews, this criminal act was not accepted by Christian Society, and infanticide remained a
clearly impious and illegal act.

17. Evidence in India and China
Despite the clear theistic prohibitions against child-murder by the three major Western religions, female
infanticide has been for centuries a prominent and socially acceptable event in two related areas of the
world: India and China. Even today, the extent of the problem is measured in frightening proportions: "at least
60 million females in Asia are missing and feared dead, victims of nothing more than their sex. Worldwide,
research suggests, the number of missing females may top 100 million. "
The data is truly astounding, Estimates indicate that 30.5 million females are "missing" from China, 22.8 million in
India, 3.1 million in Pakistan, 1.6 million in Bangladesh, 1.7 million in West Asia, 600,000 in Egypt, and 200,000 in
Nepal.
It is clear that the onerous costs involved with the raising of a girl, end eventually providing her an appropriate
marriage dowry, was the single most important factor in allowing social acceptance of the murder at birth in
India. In China, economics also played a significant role since it is a poor country with one of the lowest rates
of agricultural output per acre of arable land in the world. With an extremely high infant and child mortality
rate, because of sparse food supply and medical care, a married couple needed to raise three sons in order
to ensure the survival of one into adulthood. Females were only consumers and a serious financial burden to a
poor family. They were therefore often killed at birth

18. Infanticide in Modem Times
Colonial America
The colonists brought infanticide to America from England while at the same time finding that the
Indians practiced it as well. As was the case in Germany extreme discipline characterized family life
in puritanical colonial America and parents were given extensive liberty to punish their children,
even to the point of death. In 1646 the General Court of Massachusetts Bay had enacted a law
where "a stubborn or rebellious son, of sufficient years and understanding, " would be brought before
the Magistrates in court and "such a son shall be put to death." "Stubborn child laws" were also
enacted in Connecticut in 1650, Rhode Island in 1668, and New Hampshire in 1679.
How ingrained was the attitude of rigid parental control over the discipline of children can be
evidenced by a comparison to concern over animal welfare. Henry Bergh founded the Society for
the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) in 1866.4 After first completing his campaign to improve
the plight of cats and dogs, Burgh brought by special warrant to the Supreme Court of New York,
the case of Mary Ellen who claimed that the child's custodians had beaten her cruelly and that she
should be brought under the protection of the court.

19. Modern America
"In 1966, the United States had 10,920 murders, and one out of every twenty-two was a child killed by a
parent."Despite our predilection for considering modern civilization "advanced," the crime of infanticide has
continued to pervade most contemporary cultures. The major difference between the nature of infanticide in the
twentieth century, when compared to the rest of recorded history, however, is due to the impact of one modern
medical advancement: the widespread availability of safe, and legal, means of abortion. The ability to easily
terminate a pregnancy, and thereby eliminate an unwanted child before it is born, has had a profound effect on
the prevalence of infanticide. The human species has killed almost 10% - 15% of all children born. The majority of
these murders have been associated with reasons of necessity at least in the minds of the infanticide parent - or with
untoward reactions against an unwanted birth. With little ability to abort an unwanted pregnancy safely, troubled
parents have had little choice but to wait until full-term delivery before disposing of the conception.Of
approximately 6.4 million pregnancies in the United States in 1988, 3.6 million were unintended and therefore subject
to dangerous consequences. 1.6 million of those unwanted pregnancies resulted in abortion. In Britain, more than
160,000 legal abortions, or terminations of pregnancy, were carried out each year during this same period of time.
The Family Planning Association in Russia says that there are more than 3 million abortions performed each year,
more than double the number of births. In France, there are almost one million abortions each year, equal to the
number of births. This means that over five million pregnancies were aborted in the Western world alone each year,
and if the births of those children would not have been prevented, it is very likely that many of those infants would
have been victims of infanticidal rage.Morally right or wrong - a case of murder or manifestation of a woman's right
to choose - the fact remains that the frequent use of abortion has eased the necessity for killing an infant after its
birth.

20. Statistical Analysis - United States
Statistically, the United States ranks high on the list of countries whose inhabitants kill their children.
For infants under the age of one year, the American homicide rate is 11th in the world, while for
ages one through four it is 1st and for ages five through fourteen it is fourth. From 1968 to 1975,
infanticide of all ages accounted for almost 3.2% of all reported homicides in the United States.
The 1980's followed similar trends. Whereby overall homicide rates were decreasing in the United
States, the rate at which parents were killing their children was increasing, In 1983, over six hundred
children were reported killed by their parents, and from 1982-1987, approximately 1.1% of all
homicides were children under the age of one year of age. When the homicide of a child was
committed by a parent, it was the younger age child who was in the greater danger of being killed,
while if the killer was a non-parent, then the victim was generally older.
The characterization of the type of parent that is likely to kill their child has changed little over the
years. As far back as the middle ages, the children of the poor "Were by far the most common
victims of the parental negligence and despair." Today, infanticide is still most commonly seen in
areas of severe poverty.

21. And just as infanticide was described as a crime that was committed by the mother in
medieval times, such a likelihood remains true today. Although men are more likely to murder
in general, statistical review of prosecutions show that infanticide is usually committed by the
mother. When mothers killed their children, however, the victim was usually a newborn baby
or younger infant. Some research shows that for murders of children over the age of one year
in the United States, white fathers were the perpetrators 10% more often than white mothers,
and black fathers 50% more than black mothers.
Other risk factors can include young maternal age, low level of education and employment,
and signs of psychopathology, such as alcoholism, drug abuse or other criminal behavior. The
most common method of killing children over the ages has been head trauma, strangulation
and drowning. Most of the murders today are committed with the use of the mother's hands,
either by strangulation or physical punishment.

22. By: the student of THE DOON
GLOBAL SCHOOL
ADITI SHARMA
GRADE:8 “A”