Transcript The Missing Women

The Missing Women
(Women who are literally not alive due to family
neglect and discrimination)
Oh, God, I beg of you,
I touch your feet time and again,
Next birth don't give me a daughter,
Give me Hell instead...
-Folk Song from Uttar Pradesh, India
A person has to have sinned in his past
life to be born a woman.
–Ancient Indian Proverb
Source: http://www.thp.org/sac/unit4/unwanted.htm
The Issue
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60 to 100 million missing women in the world
Recent estimates: 50 million in India alone
Not a new issue
Geographically widespread; not restricted to
developing world
• Girls in parts of the world have a lower
chance of survival
Female to Male Ratios
• This is independent of the 1000s of women
who have “disappeared” as adults, mainly
through the sex trade.
• Biologically, girl babies are stronger. The world
average for women to men is roughly 990
women for every 1,000 men. In some regions,
such as Western Europe, there are as many as
1,063 women to every 1000 men.
• In South Asia, however, the numbers go against
the biological norm. In Bangladesh, for every 1000
men, there are only 945 women. In India, there are
only 927 women. The upcoming 2001 census in
India is expected to show a figure of only 900
women to every 1,000 men. In some regions of
India, the sex ratio is even more greatly distorted. In
part of the states of Bihar and Rajasthan, the
female-male ratio is 600 to1,000.
Why does this happen?
• Patriarchal society - males are dominant.
• Females not valued - don’t work; dowry issue.
• Women leave the family - don’t support parents.
• As an Asian proverb says, "bringing up girls is like
watering the neighbor’s garden." The money spent
to raise and care for a daughter is often considered
"wasted.“
• China’s 1 child/family policy discriminates against
women.
What is a dowry?
• A Dowry is the money, land or other possessions that
a woman must bring to her husband when she is
married.
• A Dowry is a cultural practice, without foundation in
any major religion. Its roots can be traced back to the
beginning of South Asian society. Experts say its
practice "has reached shocking proportions" in the last
fifty years in South Asia.
• Although giving a dowry is formally illegal in both
India and Bangladesh, it persists at all levels of
society.
What is a dowry?
• In addition to a dowry at the time of marriage, there
are other ceremonies after marriage - including
pregnancy and childbirth - when the daughter's family
is expected to provide other monetary gifts.
• Payment of a dowry is financially debilitating for
many families. Dowry can be as much as five times a
family's annual income. Many rural families are forced
to sell land and go into debt to accommodate the
dowry demands.
How?
• Abortion. Ultra sound. Of 8000 abortions at a
Bombay hospital, only one was male.
• Female infanticide: poison, suffocation, beaten.
• Abandonment.
• Neglect. Main one. Poor food, lack of health care.
Especially true for 2nd girl.
Other Forms of Abuse
• Bride burning. Very rare, in India.
• FGM – Female Genital Mutilation – procedures
involving partial or total removal of the external female
genitalia for cultural or religious reasons.
•Found in Africa (28 countries), Asia and the Middle East.
• How many? - 100 to 140 million. 2 million each year.
• Physical/mental abuse: 20 to 50% of women worldwide
experience some degree of domestic violence during marriage.
Solutions
• Education. Parents, especially females, to
improve the status of women.
• Mass media.
• Ban dowry system.
• Provide safe places to leave unwanted
female babies (for adoption).
• Making infanticide a crime rarely works. It’s more of a
social/cultural problem than a law-and-order issue.
• Made worse by poverty and illiteracy. Birth rates
decline with improved standard of living.
• Some success by development agencies which offer
incentives to keep girl children alive.
• In the West we covet business with China and are
reluctant to speak against their government, or
condition in the conditions in the country.
• In China, girls are badly mistreated in orphanages.
Social norms, values, supported by government.
• One key solution is to improve the status of
women - through education – and thereby improve
their sense of self-worth.
• Women are consumed by self-loathing which turns
into hatred of daughters.
• For those of us not living in the conditions of hunger
and severe gender discrimination, the murder of girl
children can be extremely hard to understand.
• We can only begin to imagine the experience of a
new mother in South Asia.
• She has been taught her whole life that she is
inferior because she is a woman; that she is cursed
for being female.
• She is mistreated verbally and physically by her
family - and taunted by the members of her
community - for giving birth to a girl child.
• She is frightened by the economic threat of a dowry
which could leave her family deeply in debt.
• She is unwilling to let another generation of
daughters suffer her own fate.
• Under conditions more challenging than any of us
will face in our lives, she ends the life of her girl child.
• Without interventions in the way women are seen by
society, and are taught to see themselves, the
severe mistreatment of women will persist.
O father, you
brought up my
brother to be
happy.
You brought me up
to shed tears.
O father, you have
brought up your
son to give him
your house,
And you have left
a cage for me.
-South Asian song
http://www.thp.org/sac/unit4/image5.htm
The End