The Hindu : SHG launches aggressive campaign against infanticide

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Dec 07, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu

SHG launches aggressive campaign against infanticide

By Ramya Kannan

Members of a self-help group at Pudupatti in Rasipuram block, Namakkal district, which is campaigning against female infanticide. — Photo: P. Goutham

SALEM DEC. 6. In some of the remote villages of Tamil Nadu, notorious for female infanticide, some girls have survived the prejudice. Some day they may narrate how they survived infancy and that story will be a tribute to the courage of their mothers.

It has been documented that women are often forced to kill their girls by their in-laws and husbands, who believe that a family is too small to accommodate more than one girl and incomplete without a male heir. ``My mother-in-law forced me to kill my second girl child. She stood over me and ensured that I fed the baby with poison. She would have thrown me out of home otherwise,'' says Rajam (name changed) of Panappatti, Omalur in Salem district.

But today, Rajam is the loudest campaigner of girl child rights and leader of a self-help group, Kurinji Magalir Iyakkam, in the village. She, along with the SHG members, keeps a watch on every pregnant woman in the area, monitors her health and nutrition status and accompanies her to hospital. But the main job is to speak to the families on the rights of girl children. When coercion does not work, the SHG members will threaten them with police action.

That is how Maria came to save her second girl child, Diana. ``My in-laws and parents wanted me to kill her, but I refused, thanks to the SHG support'', she says, cuddling her healthy three-year-old. She has great dreams for both her girls — education, job and a bright future. She extends her dreams to the unborn girl children of the rest of the community.

Pragmatic goal

These women are also pragmatic. ``Our goal is to save the children. If a family is adamant about not having girls, we will persuade them to give them in adoption,'' says Rajam. Two years ago, she saved the fourth girl child of a woman and handed it over to the Cradle Baby scheme in Salem.

At Pudupatti in Namakkal district, the SHG women have arranged for adoption of `unwanted girl babies'. Says Palaniamma: ``A mother already had seven girls and was determined to kill her eighth child. Nothing we said could convince her to keep the baby.'' So they gave the baby in adoption and made the mother undergo a family planning operation.

At Kadayampatti, Gomathi (name changed) killed her girl child. But that was long ago. Though she reluctantly admits her guilt, Gomathi now asserts, ``I love girl children.'' She has been carrying on a near-militant campaign to ensure that girls in the area are saved, including by filing police complaints. However, she thinks that the situation will not improve until people start ``loving girls.''

Govt. must step in

V.Ranganathan , Village Reconstruction Development Project Director, says, ``The movement is on the right track. But it is insufficient to restore the balance in sex ratio. The Government must step in and utilise the power of this group to achieve the long-term goal of natural sex ratio and make a difference.''

Meanwhile, the women's initiative has indeed made a difference — at least to the girls who escaped death by a whisker.

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