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India: Girls Dying for Being Girls

A woman holds a candle and placard seeking an end to sexual violence against women, which has been on the rise in the country, during a protest in Bangalore, India. Indian police on Saturday, May 5, arrested 14 people suspected of kidnapping, raping and burning to death a teenage girl, the latest in rising crimes against women in India despite toughening of laws. Responding to widespread outrage over the recent rape and killings of young girls and other attacks on children, India's government last month approved the death penalty for people convicted of raping children under age 12. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi, File)

The Lancet magazine has published results of a research study showing that reduced health care kills almost one quarter million girls under five years old annually within India, as compared against same-age boys.

 

The study results were released Tuesday, May 15th, and was conducted by the International Inst. for Applied Systems Analysis, who estimate that an average of 239,000 girls per year die as a direct result of gender-based bias: girls dying simply because they’re girls.

Female child violence ending in death reaches 90% in some India districts.

BEYOND ABORTION
This is over and above girls aborted simply for being girls. “Gender-based discrimination towards girls doesn’t simply prevent them from being born,it may also precipitate the death of those who are born,” said study co-author Christophe Guilmoto of the Paris Descartes University, France.

“Discrimination isn’t only about the right to political representation, work or the right to education but also about the right to health care, vaccinations & proper nutrition for girls, and ultimately the right to survive.’ –

GENDER BIAS
“Gender-based discrimination towards girls doesn’t simply prevent them from being born, it also precipitates the deaths of those already born,” said Guilmoto.

Guilmoto and a research team used population data collected from 46 countries in hopes to calculate how many girls potentially would’ve died without gender discrimination vs how many girl children died in actuality.

2.4 MILLION DEATHS
The difference; about 19 deaths out of every 1,000 girls born between 2000 and 2005,was ascribed to the effects of gender-biased discrimination. This amounts to about 239,000 deaths per year (2.4 million over the past ten years).

“About 22% of the overall mortality cause of females under five (in India) is due to gender bias.” quotes the Australian-based research institute.

The researchers analyzed data from 46 counties, trying to determine the ratio of India’s female child deaths resulting directly from gender-biased discrimination.

The study concluded that within India, of girls under 5 years old that died; about 19 of 1,000 deaths (239,000 annually) were directly attributed to discrimination.

POVERTY & DESPAIR
The report highlights that India’s female children face heath care neglect most often within rural farming regions suffering from poverty, low education levels, high birth rates and high population densities.

The mindset of allowing girls to die is much more pronounced in the north.

India has lately suffered a series of brutal massacres and sexual assaults upon minor children that have attracted international attention and spurred women’s rights debates within the country.

Recently, India has enacted stricter criminal sanctions against child sexual abuse, including the death penalty for those convicted of raping girls age 12 years or younger.

 

© NTB scanpix / #Norway Today

1 Comment on "India: Girls Dying for Being Girls"

  1. Anshuman Mukherjee | 17. May 2018 at 07:31 |

    Girls in India are dying of gender biasness, poverty, mal-nutrition, child abuse, rape, human trafficking, etc. Being an Indian I am not only ashamed, I can’t take it anymore. Because, all the criminals here are backed by political parties. So you can’t do anything.

    Sex, violence, poverty, crime, adulteration, corruption, – everything bad has reached a dangerous level in India, and nobody is here to take care of it. People are supplying rotten meat, fish, milk, and all other foods to everywhere, without thinking of our own society. These foods are even getting exported. People are doing business using meat from dead and rotten bodies of all kind of animals from waste-land. Can you imagine??!! If you open your mouth against, next day your meat will be supplied too.

    Politically backed ruffians and hooligans actually running our societies. And this is the actual India. We try to keep it hidden from outside. Nobody is safe here. Nobody suppose to open his mouth against any crime. Otherwise he will be dead, sometime with his whole family. But the whole thing will be represented in a different way by administrators, as if the said guy actually was criminal.

    Not only rotten meat, we are supplied vegetables and fruits with banned pesticides and chemicals either sprayed all over them or injected.

    Education, Health system, all these are just business points – we all know that, but we have no option. Hospitals and Nursing homes may keep a dead body in ventilation and claim for money saying that treatment is being done.

    Good and hones people have no place in India now, this is a country of hooligans and thieves. Yes this is the true picture of India.

    I feel terrible and ashamed to say that I am an Indian.

    And I just want to get out of this nasty country. Is there anybody who can help me?

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