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Girl Children Bear the Brunt of Parents’ Ire

Like many of its religious fundamentalist neighbours, India is not a good place for women these days. So it might seem from recent events. I mean a lot of progress has been made in various fields but still women, especially children, are abused by frustrated parents and men. The government has made education free for girls and there are a lot of facilities available for female children. However, the illtreatment of little girls persist. The reasons are many as I have written on my blog. In the Indian system, a women has to be paid a dowry while she gets married and goes to her husband’s house. Therefore she is considered a liability than an asset. Besides, a boy can earn a livelihood but employment opportunities for women are few. These may be some of the factors contributing to atrocities against women.

Recently, in my city of Bombay Dharmista, a housewife, battered her baby named Ahuti who died on admission to the hospital. It was said that Dharmista was frustrated that she couldn’t give birth to a son and her husband used to harass her because of this. Earlier on January 12 this year, another two-year-old girl was admitted to hospital with severe head injuries and died. Both her arms were broken and Falak was beaten for no fault of her’s.

In February a seven-year-old girl by name of Menaka Thakur was admitted to hospital with injuries and fractured limbs. This girl was beaten by her step mother Aarti Thakur. Then there is the case of Tanaz who also was beaten by her parents and died in hospital. Such examples abound in India, many go undocumented.

Why are these atrocities against girl children committed? What have they done? Do they deserve such cruel punishment from their own parents? Poor innocents have been sacrificed for their parents greed and insecurity. The situation can be remedied by joint action and a campaign to change mindsets of the people. However, this is a huge task ahead for Indian society in the days to come.

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