Female infanticide
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Female infanticide, the prevalent form of sex-selective infanticide is the systematic killing of girls at or soon after birth. It normally occurs when a society values male children to the point that producing a female is considered dishonorable or shameful. Female infanticide was most common in urban China during the Qing Dynasty, due to overpopulation, and the second half of the twentieth century, due to the One Child Policy that created stiff financial penalities for parents who had multiple children.
Female infanticide was also an accepted practice among the Arabs before Islam. Later in ayat 8,9 of Sura At-Takwir female infanticide was prohibited: "And when the female (infant) buried alive (as the pagan Arabs used to do) shall be questioned:(8) For what sin she was killed? (9)" However, sex selective abortion or abandonment were more common methods of disposing of unwanted girls.
Female infanticide is still a problem in developing countries, especially developing countries where males are valued over females. According to a recent report by UNICEF, over 50 million females are missing from the Indian population. Studies have shown that the reason why males are preferred over females is because males are believed to have more earning potential than females. Females are seen as a burden, especially in poor families. This has led to thousands of abortions and outright killings of babies due to the fact that they are female.
The counterpart with male infants is male infanticide.
Female infanticide in India
In early 2006, The Lancet, a British medical journal reported that there may have been close to 10 million female infants aborted in India over the past 20 years. This is extrapolated partly on the basis of reduction of female to male sex ratio from 945 per 1000 as reported in the 1991 census, to 927 per 1000 in 2001.However, the Lancet data has been challenged by the Indian Medical Association (IMA), which said that it was misleading and failed to take into account restrictions imposed by the courts in 2001. However, some say that the laws have not been effectively imposed. The most glaring "smoking gun" is the zero conviction rate under Indian laws of people who are involved in or support this practice.
The most widely accepted justification for female infanticide is the common belief that the male child is the eventual breadwinner and progenitor of the family name. Moreover, with the male descendant, family heirlooms and inherited wealth shall remain with the family. On the other hand, with the female child, dowry is a major source of concern for parents, who consider the expenses incurred in the education and upbringing of the girl child to be a liability on the family, since the benefits shall be reaped by the girl's husband's family, after she "is given away in marriage". The only state in India which has a higher female to male ratio is Kerala, where although dowry is still rampant, female infanticide is almost unheard of.