Indian parents are adopting a new social trend which is very much disgusting. Believe it or not, they do not want to be called the parents of girls .They only want to be called the proud parents of boys. What a disturbing phenomenon it is!
Recent developments in the country, especially in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, stand as a testimony for this trend. Parents have been taking to the extreme step of killing their new born girl babies expressing their inability to bring them up in the dowry dominated society. Dowry system is a social evil in India which is legally banned but very much still in practice throughout the country. Under the dowry system, parents of the girl have to give huge amount of cash or property to the boy marrying the girl.
Parents who fear that they can not afford to pay huge amounts of dowry to marry off their girls when they grow up have been resorting to killing of their new born girl babies knowing very well that it is a punishable crime under the law of the land.
Tow days ago, a two-day- old girl baby was buried alive by her mother and grand parents fearing their inability to bring up the child and perform the marriage. The incident took place in a village of Mahaboobnagar district of Andhra Pradesh. Fortunately, immediately after burying the child, passersby saw a dog digging out the pit and found out the baby alive. Due to timely hospitalization, the baby survived the ordeal and is now recuperating in a Hyderabad hospital. It is a different matter that the culprits were arrested and sent to jail.
It is not a lone or rare incident in which the new born girl was killed. Yesterday, a woman who gave birth to a girl baby in a hospital in the Nellore town of Andhra Pradesh state killed the baby immediately after the birth.
These two incidents in a gap of just three days highlight the menace and the Government is taking no action to eliminate this unwanted social practice. NGOs make a hue and cry whenever such incidents are highlighted in the media but become silent spectators to this ongoing menace. It is no secret that the parents in illiterate tribal hamlets of Andhra Pradesh state have been for a long time resorting to this extreme step of killing the girl babies.
Day by day, this unwanted social trend seems to be gaining ground yet we hear nothing from the state Government to stop this. Already it is a fact that girls are less in number to boys and if this continues, the country will have to outsource for girls very soon.