Check out 16 Return-To-Work Programs In India For Ambitious Women Like You!
Ranchi man killed his infant daughter because he didn't want a daughter. How is this still happening in 2020?
Ranchi man killed his infant daughter because he didn’t want a daughter. How is this still happening in 2020?
As a nation, we like to deify our daughters and publicise schemes that are supposed to benefit them. However, the reality is far from the rosy picture the government tries to paint. Our girls are killed as foetuses and as infants, as a family in Ranchi recently saw.
On 27th December, according to a report in the Indian Express, Gautam Prasad Mahato strangulated his eighteen-month-old daughter for crying. According to the report, the mother tried to save her daughter but was unable to fight off Mahato who eventually killed their daughter. Mahato also has a history of alcoholism, violence and domestic abuse.
In her police complaint, the mother, Babita Devi, mentioned that the sole reason for the act of violence was that Mahato did not want a girl child. She further said he had been misbehaving towards both the mother and the daughter since the infant’s birth.
This violent act is just one more addition to the long history of violence and discrimination against the girl child.
According to the United Nations Population Fund State of The World Report 2020, 4.6 lakh girl children have been killed in India in the last 50 years. This figure includes both pre-and post-natal gender-biased sex-selective practices.
From Jharkhand to Telangana to Andhra Pradesh, this year saw a number of such violent death of daughters. And as always, only a minuscule percentage of the incidents make it to the news. The statistics are just the tip of the ice-berg.
According to the 2011 census, the child sex ratio is alarmingly dismal. We only have 919 female children per 1000 male children. The ratio had decreased from the 2001 count, which found 927 girls per 1000 boys. This paints a terrifying picture.
Despite the concentrated efforts of women’s rights groups, NGOs and even several government schemes, the reality of the girl child still hasn’t improved.
Ironically, this incident happens in the same week that India saw its youngest ever female Mayor of a City Corporation. With more young women in positions of power, there is hope for a better future someday.
However, even with female and feminist representatives in the electoral political arena and an intersectional feminist discourse, concentrated efforts still need to be put in. The class and caste divide, the oppression of gender and sexual minorities and regional differences have all got to be looked into vigorously.
‘As Maya Angelou said, “The truth is, none of us can be free until everybody is free.”
Picture credits: Pexels
A postgraduate student of Political Science at Presidency University, Kolkata. Describes herself as an intersectional feminist and an avid reader when she's not busy telling people about her cats. Adores walking around and exploring read more...
Women's Web is an open platform that publishes a diversity of views, individual posts do not necessarily represent the platform's views and opinions at all times.
Stay updated with our Weekly Newsletter or Daily Summary - or both!
UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
Please enter your email address