Below, Kamaljeet Kaur, a community health volunteer in Shahjahanpur district of neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, explains why she has decided to defy society’s expectations. She condemned discrimination against women and girl infanticide as a “systemic problem.” These recent revelations about the abuse suffered by newborn girls shine a spotlight on the extreme cultural pressures it places on women who give birth to daughters. Abandoned infants have only exacerbated these cultural priorities. Even more than policy, deeply entrenched gender norms remain a heavy burden to bear.
Kaur personally illustrated the grim results for women who bear more than one daughter. As she said, for these women, life is impossible. Most endure extreme, often life-threatening, social pressures to bear male heirs, causing deep, permanent mental and physical trauma. “If a woman has to have daughters, particularly a second or a third, her life becomes miserable,” Kaur said. This sentiment is almost universal in the community, where the stigma of having girl children runs deep.
Dr. Rajesh Kumar, a pediatrician, noted that he has witnessed four or five cases of abandoned newborns in recent years. These instances reflect a growing concern among healthcare professionals regarding the safety and welfare of girl children in the region.
Rajesh Dwivedi, the Superintendent of Police in Shahjahanpur, admitted to a sharp decrease of sex determination tests after the 1994 law prohibiting them. He acknowledged that these tests still occur in the shadows. This all too common illegal practice continues to thwart efforts to eliminate discrimination and promote gender equality by protecting the rights of female infants.
Almost 30 years later, legislating against gender-based discrimination should not be a hurdle the government faces. The efficacy of these measures remains untested. Third, a 2021 parliamentary committee report revealed a growing trend. It revealed that nearly 79% of the money for the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao campaign — meant to save and educate the girl child — was used for media campaigning rather than tangible health and education services.
Gender ratios have improved marginally from 918 girls per 1,000 boys in 2014-15 to 934 in 2019-20. Yet longstanding prejudices continue to hurt families of all socio-economic groups. In brief, Kaur went on to highlight the pressure women around the world experience to bear a son as an urgent, everyday affront to human dignity.
These residents of Paina Bujurg village shed light on the dangers and apprehensions that haunt pregnant women. In her presentation, Sapna Singh noted that families often “intimidate and terrorize” women who become pregnant. In addition, this behavior strengthens the notion that only male children are worth anything. This is a toxic landscape where women are driven to take extreme action while pregnant.
Sunita Aralikar, an activist who was buried alive as a baby 70 years ago, has dedicated her life to fostering women’s empowerment. She’s fighting against a cultural bias that devalues girls. She criticized the prevailing notion associating success with boys and failure with girls: “This association of glory and success with a boy child, and failure and burden with a girl child is something that cuts across the country.”
Dowry as a tradition complicates these challenges and scars these women. According to Achal Kumar Gautam, a small vegetable vendor in the village, dowry emerged as the biggest obstacle. For this reason, families are reluctant to have daughters. This economic burden causes many families to see female children as a curse not a blessing.
Dr. Rajesh Kumar spoke on the care provided to abandoned infants in his hospital: “Our hospital staff is taking care of her like family. Our nurses, ward nannies, doctors are treating her as if she were our own child. This tender response honors the conviction with which our healthcare workers have been out there to guard and nurture these newborns most susceptible by our society’s challenges.
This stigma attached to disabilities contributes to infant abandonment in areas throughout India, as well. Dr. Kumar and other health professionals have seen a troubling trend. Conditions such as syndactyly may lead society to shun newborns with disabilities, effectively abandoning them in the face of discrimination and stigma.
Nurse Sarita Singh reiterated the pervasive negative attitudes towards girl children: “There is a deeply regressive thought about girl children that continues to this day.” However, she stressed that these slogans promoting the rights of girl children are rarely put into practice in reality. “Everyone talks about the slogan… but when it comes to actual implementation, no one is following it,” she said.
Community members such as Nanhe Singh expressed vividly the extreme societal pressure on women to have male children. She’s under an extreme amount of stress,” he said. Instead, this practice continues, they don’t want girls so the woman goes to temple and do rituals to have a boy. This cycle of expectation perpetuates damaging gender norms that underscore women’s agency even today.
Kaur’s observations indicate a broader problem rooted in patriarchal values: “Men are continuing to follow old traditions and customs. She has to endure sexual abuse and she hears ugly things about her IQ. Her value in the household is based only on if she bears a son or daughter.
