Female Children are a Blessing

Selective infanticide where parents kill female children was and is not a part of the teachings of Sanatana Dharma. Every parent who is a true follower wishes to be blessed with a female child. There are even proverbs which states that only sinners are not blessed with female children. The people of the Vedic Age knew about genetics. They knew that 50% of a baby’s genes comes from it’s mother & the other 50 from the father. Hence, they knew that their family line & name could be carried by their daughters as well. To give an example, my great great grandparents went on many pilgrimages and specifically prayed for a girl child and were blessed with my great grandma. My grandma was the favourite child of my great grandparents. They doted on her. My grandma when she was pregnant with my mother arranged for someone to come home and  chant “Lalita Sahasranamam”on goddess Durga. My mom is considered to be a blessing of the Goddess. Similarly when my mom was pregnant with me, my grandma had a dream in which goddess Durga turned in to a girl and went home with my grandma. As a result of this dream everyone in my family considers me to be the blessing of the goddess as well.  Almost everyone in my family has prayed specifically to get a female child.

 Parents under stressful conditions often murder their children. Infanticide was very high in 19^th century England. In 1966 there were 10,920 children who were murdered and one out of every 22 of those children were murdered by their parents. The major risk factors for committing infanticide especially of female children include young maternal age, poverty lack of education, low level of employment, and signs of psychopathology, such as alcoholism, drug abuse or other criminal behaviour. Female infanticide in India is carried out in regions where the population suffers from alcoholism, poverty and high level of illiteracy. People from these communities consider children to be an economic commodity; they could send their male children to work as a hard labourer but the female children would not be able to earn sufficient wages. The people from these regions are not only illiterate; they are not educated in theology either. They cannot grasp any religious concepts and dwell in other tribal superstitions. Statistics from these tribal regions cannot be used to represent the outlook of Indians in general and especially not Hindus. It is often forgotten that India has a large Multi-Cultural society with people following numerous cultures and religions. Not all Indians are Hindus who are true followers of Sanatana Dharma; it is erroneous to blame female infanticide on Sanatana Dharma. Majority of the present day population is not religious as well; they suffer from materialistic attitudes and surviving poverty on a daily basis is their major goal. Having said this, infanticide is not present just in India. It is a major problem in almost every country in the world. Even today, the United States ranks high on the list of countries where children are murdered. The following are the infanticide statistics for the U.S.A, ranks 1^st for ages 1 through 4, Ranks fourth for ages 5 through 14. Most children under the age of 5 were killed by their parent. Some more statistics for the U.S.A are given below. Of the children murdered between 1976 & 2005, 31% were killed by their fathers and 29% by their mothers. (Ref: http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/homicide/tables/kidsreltab.cfm )

Given the above statistics, why is it that negative media attention is only given to India? It is not fair to blame infanticides on Hinduism; the murder of any living thing is prohibited by Sanatana Dharma; many Hindus are vegetarians because they believe in the equality of all living creatures. No religion for the matter would promote infanticides; If infanticide in India is blamed on Hinduism since it is the major religion in India wouldn’t it be logical to blame infanticides in U.S.A on Christianity?

If a female child visits someone on a Tue or a Fri, the host considers her visit to be a blessing and offers flowers & sometimes dress material or bangles as gift.