It's a Girl by Evan Grae Davis
It's a Girl is a documentary film that focuses on female gendercide. It was filmed in India and China. Over 200 million girls go missing in the world due to gendercide and an estimated 100,000 women are murdered for failure to produce a son.
In India, women kill their daughter's some as soon as they are born by suffocating them. Mortality rate is higher for those under the age of 5 and 1 in 4 don't live past puberty. "A daughter is a burden on her father's head" is one of the quotes in the film. This was in part of the dowry the family had to pay to the man the daughter was to marry. Because they had very little to offer they would have to sell their belongings. If the husband was not paid a dowry, the women were subjected to violence which lead to death in some instances. Unfortunately, dowry deaths were ignored. In 1961 the Anti Dowry Act was enacted in India. Anyone who gave or received a dowry faced prison time no less than 5 years and a fine.
20 - 30% of pregnancies end in feticide. If an ultrasound showed the fetus to be a girl, they had an abortion. In 1994 the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Technique Act was introduced prohibiting doctors to perform ultrasounds to determine the sex of the baby. However, some doctors still performed them for the right price and the courts favor the doctors. Dr. Mitu Khurana, an Indian pediatrician woman, is the first woman to sue her husband and doctor for performing an ultrasound since the act was passed 16 years ago.
PCPNDT:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Conception_and_Pre-Natal_Diagnostic_Techniques_Act,_1994
Dr Khurana: http://www.itsagirlmovie.com/en/blog/mitu-khurana-a-mother-s-ongoing-battle-for-justice
China is another country that has a strong son preference. In 1979, China enforced the One Child Policy however in rural areas a second child was allowed if the first child was a daughter. A permit is required for pregnancy and birth. If a non documented pregnancy is discovered the parents are fined. The government has paid informants that report women who are illegally pregnant, they are arrested by the Family Planning Committee and forced to have abortions. Most parents having a child illegally usually go into hiding to avoid fines and punishment, leaving behind their children with family members. If a child is not officially documented they can't attend school. Most marriages become financially ruined or stuck in a sexless marriage in fear of becoming pregnant.
China has the highest women suicide rate with approximately 500 women killing themselves per day (2006). There are about 70,000 girls per year that are stolen and trafficked. Could the One Child Policy be blamed for these crimes against women?
One Child Policy: http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1912861,00.html
Suicide Rate: https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/chinese-women-are-killing-themselves-at-astronomical-rates-is-the-one-child
Sex Trafficking: http://thediplomat.com/2014/11/sex-trafficking-and-chinas-one-child-policy/
In 1995, Hilary Rodham Clinton made a famous speech in Beijing regarding the violation of human rights. "Let it be that human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are human rights, once and for all."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXM4E23Efvk
I like what your talking about here i find it interesting because in my Other class we discussed how during the womens suffrage even some of the radical women believed that women bearing children is a set back especially when it was women breeding more women
ReplyDeleteI've learned something new today. I didn't know any of this and the fact that some of those laws were just passed is crazy. I knew about China's one child rule because of their population but I didn't know their suicide rate was so high! I knew about India's prejudice against women but the abortions and the murders of their own daughters is disturbing.
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