New Hope For India's Unwanted Girls

Nani121

Banned
Joined
Jan 30, 2006
Messages
4,177
Reaction score
49
Location
Wouldn't you like to know?
Shocking statistics reveal that as many as 10 million girls in India have been killed by their parents either before or immediately after birth, over the past 20 years.

Many parents crave a boy to become an heir in the family. Others want to avoid the prospect of hefty dowries.

In an attempt to wipe out the practice of female foeticide and female infanticide, Renuka Chowdhury, the Minister for Women and Child Development, has introduced a 'Cradles Plan' for unwanted girls.

"We will have cradles strategically placed all over the place so that people who don't want their babies can leave them there. They will be collected and put into homes. There are plenty of existing homes and we will be adding some more also."

Many of these homes come under the auspice of Mother Teresa of Calcutta and her Missionaries of Charity and in the southernmost state of Kerala.

Quietly situated on a suburban side street of the capital of Trivandrum is Nirmala Shisu Bhavan Orphanage.

It is home to 60 children who are diligently cared for by eight devoted sisters and 15 dedicated helpers. In a large airy room with rows of cots, perhaps 30 in all, that are occupied by cradle babies that lie static as dolls.

Most are girls and are characterised by shocks of jet black hair that quite belie their newness to this world.

There is an uncanny air of silence to a room within which one would expect to hear a baby's cry.

Through another door, the silence is of a more disconcerting nature, as it is one that is determined not by slumber but by suffering.

For here in larger cots, lie the distorted bodies of older children, abandoned as a result of their profound mental and physical disabilities.

There are boys as well as girls at the Sri Chitra Home for Destitutes and Infirm, founded in 1934 by the Maharaja of Travancore.

There were then just nine residents, the numbers having increased at one time to 500, although at present there are just 300 orphans, 231 of which are girls.

It is lunch time, and the meal is to be a treat of fish curry which has been provided by a local wealthy businessman.

I am captivated by a young girl in a yellow dress, likely the youngest there. She is called Sreekutty and she bears the most striking of smiles.

I learn that she is one of the lucky ones, for she still has her mother, with whom she maintains contact, albeit that she can no longer look after her.

She is five years of age and was taken to the orphanage six months ago after her mother had twice failed suicide, as a result of Sreekutty's father having left her with three young children, of which Sreekutty is the eldest. She may one day return home.

For those that will neither be adopted nor have the chance to return home, there is still the opportunity for rehabilitation in the form of marriage.

To date, 70 marriages have taken place at the home, with suitable partners having been found by the authorities. Failing either education or marriage as being the bearers of a better life, there are some who are sadly destined to be in care forever.

At a stone convent a short distance away there is a home of 70 abandoned women. I am led in from the twilight of day to the dusk of a dormitory that is cast with shadows of movement, as those women who are able, shuffle slowly to collect their meal.

Others simply sit and stare, the traumas they have suffered, having severed their speech. Most have been abandoned by their families and picked up from the streets.

The suicide rate among women in Kerala is reported to be twice the national average. Mariamma, I am told, first came to the convent 30 years ago.

Then a young girl from a very poor farming family, she came to help in the kitchen and has remained here ever since. It is chilling yet warming to watch her as she tenderly feeds with her fingers, grains of sustenance to the motionless mouth of a woman who is dying.

Next to her lies a leper, being warmly cared for by another devoted helper who will tend her to her death and allow her in the words of Mother Teresa "a beautiful death" which "is for people who lived like animals to die like angels - loved and wanted".

For me there is release from this darkness within which I have ended my day, whilst for those I leave behind, there is little chance of liberation other than in the form of reincarnation, and with that, the hope of a more just and merciful life.



Source: Sky News

Links: http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1315766,00.html
 
"We will have cradles strategically placed all over the place so that people who don't want their babies can leave them there. They will be collected and put into homes. There are plenty of existing homes and we will be adding some more also."

WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

stop shagging then FFS

ive heard some stupid fookin backwards things, but fook me, this is just plain stupid

educate the people about contraception, not allow them to murder or abandon babies just because theyre 'the wrong sex'

what backward communities
 
educate the people about contraception

well education dosent always work somtimes the desire of "sexual intercourse" is too much just look at the kids getting pregnent here in the uk and there has been loads and loads of campaigns about safe sex etc going on for years but still the rate of young kids under 16 hasent slowed down at all

n about the murder well im not saying its right because killing any baby is wrong but u have to look at it from there point of view not yours as no matter where there from india, china, brazil etc they are most likely struggling to make a living, probs earning less then £1 a day barely having enough to eat them selfs but having another child to feed aswell- there income is mosy likly to be labour work -- working in a sweat shop / factory, farming etc and boys are more suited to this kind of work so what will be the likely outcome is if its a boy he will be going to work early in his life and work all the way up untill he is unable to & when he gets married his parents will not have to pay a dowrey (its there tradition not for us to change) and if it was a girl well she would strugle doing hard back breaking work for hours if she can find it and would have to quit working if she got married( dowrey would need to paid to husbands fam) and had kids

And the homes, well at least there trying to help the babies - im guessing the cradels are needed as most people will be 2 ashamed to hand over there kid to an orphanage - main thig tho is the babies will be given a chance to live

im sure no matter where u live its always hard having to kill your flesh & blood, your new born baby but its a sacrafice some people have to make in hars conditions - its kinda easy for us to judge sitting here typing on our expensive computers, sittings in our nice leather chairs, sipping on a cold beer after a short journey to collect our job seekers allowance - dont get me wrong life here isnt the easiest but compaired to other places this is like paradise
 
Last edited:
well education dosent always work somtimes the desire of "sexual intercourse" is too much just look at the kids getting pregnent here in the uk and there has been loads and loads of campaigns about safe sex etc going on for years but still the rate of young kids under 16 hasent slowed down at all

yeh but are their kids murdered or abandoned in roadside 'kiosks' ?
 
well let me put you in the direction of a news storyBodies of two babies found in box

here it seems if u have a kid you get pushed up the list of the council housing list and you also start recieving child support benifets plus loads of other benifets such as Statutory Maternity Pay, Maternity Allowance, Child Tax Credit the list goes on.... im not an expert on this subject nor have i had a kid so i wouldnt be the best person to ask but 1 thing im sure about having a child in this enviroment and having 1 in say india would be alot different
 
Last edited by a moderator:
WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

stop shagging then FFS

ive heard some stupid fookin backwards things, but fook me, this is just plain stupid

educate the people about contraception, not allow them to murder or abandon babies just because theyre 'the wrong sex'

what backward communities

Thats a tad harsh mate. Remember that India has 200M people living on under $1/day. The amount of poverty in India in simply mind boggling.

Some parents kill their children and themselves as they cannot afford to feed themselves. Other children are given to gangs in return for very small amounts of money. These children are then crippled on purpose so that they will make for better beggers. Some mothers kill their daughters as they know that prostitution is the only way they they will be able to make any money once they are teenagers or even younger.

This may seem backwards to you but this is the reality of life for those at the very bottom of the food chain. There is no room for luxuries, just life or death.
 
Thats a tad harsh mate. Remember that India has 200M people living on under $1/day. The amount of poverty in India in simply mind boggling.

Some parents kill their children and themselves as they cannot afford to feed themselves. Other children are given to gangs in return for very small amounts of money. These children are then crippled on purpose so that they will make for better beggers. Some mothers kill their daughters as they know that prostitution is the only way they they will be able to make any money once they are teenagers or even younger.

This may seem backwards to you but this is the reality of life for those at the very bottom of the food chain. There is no room for luxuries, just life or death.

well said m8! Those who have seen it only really know the truth, not those who hear from others!
 
Thats a tad harsh mate. Remember that India has 200M people living on under $1/day. The amount of poverty in India in simply mind boggling.

Some parents kill their children and themselves as they cannot afford to feed themselves. Other children are given to gangs in return for very small amounts of money. These children are then crippled on purpose so that they will make for better beggers. Some mothers kill their daughters as they know that prostitution is the only way they they will be able to make any money once they are teenagers or even younger.

This may seem backwards to you but this is the reality of life for those at the very bottom of the food chain. There is no room for luxuries, just life or death.

india is coming on the up rapidly, loads of jobs going there, just the poverty there dont enable the people less off to study or get jobs.

some part of it is killing babies that are girls just cause of that reason which is completely wrong. killing any new born baby for any reason i feel is morally wrong.
 
one thing i don't understand is why do they have babies if they know there is a 50 percent chance it maybe a girl and something 'they don't want' it is wrong regardless of their situation it surely isn't right morally to take an innocent persons life it just saddens me deeply.

There are people in this world who can't conceive i feel for them in such situations!

It is a shame such things happen and its probably not only in India such things happen.

I know that in Pakistan babies or young boys are kidnapped then have a limb cut and then are forced to beg by their captors! It really is disgusting it is shocking but true unfortunately!
 
Back
Top