Study links female infanticide to domestic violence
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COMMENTS 
An international study estimates that the deaths of 1.8 million female infants and children in India over the past 20 years are related to domestic violence against their mothers
An international study published in the January issue of the journal, Archives of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, links female foeticide in India in the past two decades to domestic violence against their mothers.
The study examined 1.58 lakh births that took place between 1985 and 2005, and found that spousal violence against wives increased the risk of death among female children, but not male children, in both the first year and the first five years of life. The study estimates that the deaths of 1.8 million female infants and children in India over the past 20 years are related to domestic violence against their mothers.
“Being born a girl into a family in India in which your mother is abused makes it significantly less likely that you will survive early childhood. Shockingly, this violence does not pose a threat to your life if you are lucky enough to be born a boy,” says lead author of the study Jay Silverman, associate professor of society, human development and health, from the Harvard School of Public Health. The study was carried out by researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health, Indian Council of Medical Research, Boston University School of Public Health, and the National Institute for Research in Reproductive Health in Mumbai.
The disparity in treatment between children of different sexes means lower investment in girl-children in areas like nutrition, immunisation and care for major causes of infant and child death such as diarrhoea and respiratory infections. This neglect of girl-children is more pronounced in families where women’s status is low and where they are physically abused by their husbands, the study finds.
“Family violence against women in India must be vigorously challenged, given that even a very small reduction in this abuse may lead to the saving of tens of thousands of lives of girl infants and children,” says Silverman.
Violence against women persists on a large scale in India despite periodic government ‘campaigns’ and the efforts of NGOs. The most shocking finding of the latest National Family Health Survey-III, which interviewed 1.25 lakh women in 28 states during 2005-06, was that more than 40% of women reported being beaten by their husbands at some point of time. Over 51% of the 75,000 men interviewed didn’t find anything wrong with assaulting their wives.
So ingrained is wife-beating that women themselves accept it. Around 54% of the women surveyed in the NFH survey thought that such violence was justified on one ground or another.
India’s record in child welfare is poor too. Currently, 2.1 million children die each year and the country is not on track to meet the United Nations Millennium Development Goal of a two-thirds reduction in child mortality from 1990 levels, by 2015.
The national sex ratio is 933 females for every 1,000 males (Census 2001). In some states, the female sex ratio plummets further; in Haryana it is 808 and in Punjab, the sex ratio at birth (considered a more accurate indicator of female foeticide) was 776 in 2006 (NFS) as against 793 in 2001. In urban areas, it drops to 761:1,000.
Source: www.indianexpress.com, January 10, 2011
www.oneindia.org, January 7, 2011