Image Credits: @timmossholder on Unsplash (Unsplash License)

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Introduction

Pink; it’s a girl. Blue; it’s a boy. A gender reveal is a normal practice in the United States. The doctor puts the sex of the baby in an envelope and the expecting parents give that envelope to one of their trusted relatives, who then creates an amusing way to tell the parents whether the baby is a boy or a girl. Whether that be through a cake or balloons, when expecting parents see blue or pink, most of them scream in happiness and are thankful that their baby is healthy. However, this is not the case in many Asian countries, specifically India and China. The reality of these countries is far removed from gender reveal parties with cakes or balloons. Rather, there is a stigma that surrounds the topic of the sex of a baby.

Infanticide is a word created to describe the act of deliberately causing the death of a child under 1 year old. This issue itself is heartbreaking and vast within the world, but in Asian countries like India and China female infanticide, the act of killing baby girls for the sole reason that they are females, has been a crisis for decades now. People would abort, starve, trash, or find other ways to kill their daughters, regretting that they had a daughter instead of a son. 

The Ancient Aspiration for a Son

To truly understand the horrors of female infanticide, one must examine the cultural markers that primarily construct this pressing matter. The patriarchal structure of both Indian and Chinese society lay the foundation for female infanticide to take place in these locations. Many times, individuals in these countries use their culture or customs to justify the ideology behind female infanticide.

India

“Body of newborn girl found dumped in garbage”; this is a real news headline from an article written in 2014 in India. This incident occurred in Delhi, India, but it very well could have been from any part of India as female infanticide is a sick plague that diseases the minds of those who commit this heinous crime. Seeing heartbreaking news articles like this, one wonders why one might do something like this. 

Many studies have shown the immense preference Indians have towards sons over daughters. 80% of Indians want at least one son to have a “complete family” by their definition. This aversion to daughters or intense preference towards having a son is deeply rooted in the belief that a son will support the parents through their old age, whereas the daughter will cost the parents money when getting married (dowry) and eventually leave their matrimonial homes, thus not being beneficial to the parents. A dowry is the practice of giving “a payment of money or property from the family of the bride to the family of the groom at the time of marriage,”  so many people within India equate a daughter with the payment of a dowry, which is where the aversion of having a daughter is born. The principle of dowry acts as one of the largest contributors to female infanticides in India, as people do not want to carry the burden of expense when marrying their daughters off. To solve the problems associated with dowries, the Indian government outlawed it several years ago, but where there is a will, there is a way. People have found loopholes, specifically by removing the term dowry, replacing it with the term gift, and carrying on committing its outdated practice. 

Dowry is just one of many examples of how the corrupted patriarchal system of India is feeding into the female infanticide rate. Another one is the idea of carrying out the family name. In India, keeping the family name alive is very ingrained in tradition and customs, but according to tradition, it can only be done by sons. A daughter belongs to her family up until her marriage. When she gets married off into another family, she is automatically a part of that family and will carry her husband’s family name, whereas a son will keep his family name his whole life. This flawed and ancient tradition stands in the way of India’s progression of leaving the patriarchy behind and advancing to a more equitable society. Using culture and tradition as a mask, many people resort to female infanticide when they find out their child is a girl. The issue has become uncontrollable to the extent that it is skewing the sex ratio in India. In 2020, the sex ratio of the total population in India was 108.18 males per 100 females. Even though this is largely imbalanced, this ratio is a large improvement from what India’s sex ratio was in past years as government officials are trying to aid this crisis. 

China

Accompanying India with a high female infanticide rate is China. Likewise to India, China also has many stressors that cause it to occur so high on the list. Carrying the family name and the cost difference in raising a daughter compared to a son are both large stressors, but studies found that the most significant stressor in China was the birth control policy passed by the government. First implemented in 1980, the one child policy was one of the most controversial pieces of legislation passed by the Chinese government. In efforts to contain rapid population growth, this law limited the amount of children a couple could have to one child. With a historically patriarchal society already, Chinese families’ desire for a son only was exacerbated, for they only had one chance to make this child “count,” which meant having a son. Many of them saw a son as a knight in shining armor that would help them during their old age and provide for them. Given the strict one-child policy, many individuals would rather give away, abandon, or even murder their baby girl and try for a boy. This shared ideology between India and China is a prime example of how a patriarchal societal structure could prove to be detrimental to women living in these countries.

XX or XY: A Motherly Burden

An aspect of this issue that should be highlighted is the blame and burden placed on the mother of the child in a female infanticide case. In these male-dominated societies, often times when a woman cannot bear a son for the family, they are put to shame and blamed for the daughter they have produced. They are labeled as useless and unworthy of motherhood just because the child turned out to be a daughter rather than a son. As punishment, they could be beaten, shunned, or even divorced by their families and ostracized from society as they did not support the patriarchy. Additionally, if the woman was not beaten, shunned, or divorced, she could then be forced to consecutively bear children until she birthed an able-bodied son that would carry on the family name. This often causes various mental health issues for the woman, such as depression and anxiety, and physical issues that evidently come with being pregnant over and over again. 

Many women in these countries are not treated or valued as human beings but rather as machines that create life for another’s benefit. Hence, if that person does not like the creation of the woman, they pick and choose which ones get to live and which ones don’t, all based on the child’s sex. This is not to mention the other mental stresses that come with being a woman and seeing a little girl being killed just because she is a girl. As a woman, the mental capacity it must take to overcome such a travesty is unbecoming and unimaginable. 

Not Enough is Being Done

The female infanticide calamity has not gone unrecognized by the Indian and Chinese governments. Each has passed laws to help relieve the crisis and save lives. To start, both India and China have criminalized the act of infanticide itself, making it a punishable offense. Likewise, in 1994, the Indian government passed the “Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act” which prohibits prenatal diagnostic techniques for the determination of the sex of a fetus. This means that expecting parents are not allowed to know the sex of their fetus until it is born. However, corruption runs wild in India, so the practice of bribing doctors to find out the sex of a child has become normalized. In 2016, China got rid of its controversial one-child policy because of the gender discrimination and gender imbalance created by the female infanticide problem. 

Though these governments have made some efforts to help aid this crisis, it has not been enough to combat the high rates of child murder happening. Female infanticide is still running rampant throughout both India and China and the issue is no longer being covered by the media and press because of how normalized it has become. As a society, normalizing this problem would mean accepting defeat to the patriarchal system in these countries. It would mean accepting that death is destined for the daughters of these nations. More focus and aid must be brought to this apparent issue to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment throughout not only India and China, but also the world.