what a sick country, INDIA 'owns' itself.
Ten million girls killed by parents, says Indian ministerPALASH KUMAR
IN NEW DELHI
TEN million girls have been killed by their parents in India in the past 20 years, either before they were born or immediately after, a government minister said yesterday, describing it as a "national crisis".
Girls are seen as liabilities by many Indians, especially because of the banned but rampant practice of dowry, where the bride's parents pay cash and goods to the groom's family.
Men are also seen as bread-winners while social prejudices deny women opportunities for education and jobs.
"It's a shocking figure and we are in a national crisis if you ask me," Renuka Chowdhury, the minister for women and child development, said.
"Today, we have the odd distinction of having lost 10 million girl children in the past 20 years," she told a seminar in Delhi University.
"Who has killed these girl children? Their own parents."
In some states, the minister said, newborn girls have been killed by pouring sand or tobacco juice into their nostrils. "The minute the child is born and she opens her mouth to cry, they put sand into her mouth and her nostrils so she chokes and dies," Ms Chowdhury said, referring to cases in the western desert state of Rajasthan.
"We have more passion for tigers of this country. We have people fighting for stray dogs on the road. But you have a whole society that ruthlessly hunts down girl children."
This article:
http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1860862006Last updated: 15-Dec-06 00:49
