Killing based on gender
India has witnessed a dynamic growth in every field of endeavors over the years. Its booming economy, innovative technologies and impressive infrastructure have become the nation's pride. But despite its achievements, the bias against a female child still prevails in the country.
In Jemuya village, 170 km from Kolkata in the Indian state of West Bengal, a man was said to have killed his pregnant wife and three daughters by poisoning for fear that their child in the womb of his wife might turn out to be another girl.
The incident happened barely two days after a three-month-old girl in Bangalore died from severe beatings by her father who wanted a male child.
Stories like this are often reported in media, sometimes as a case of feticide, parents abandoning their girl child or plain murder by a father who doesn't want to have a daughter.
Killing a girl based on her gender is an abominable crime and a slap on the f ace of the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights.
It is not lack of education that causes this kind of crime, but the mindset of Indian society that daughters are burdens to the family.
The central and state governments should take action to help erase this social mindset by launching public awareness programs that killing baby girls is a crime and that daughters are assets to the family. Media should help in this campaign.
As Swami Vivekananda has said, “The level of progress achieved by a country can be marked by the level of progress achieved by women in that country.”
We need a public discourse to elevate the status of women, who can be heroes, leaders and torchbearers in our national destiny. Let us help stop the unjust killing of girls because of their gender.
Mir Gazanfar Ali Zaki, Jeddah
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