The Three Deadliest Words
The issue of sex-selective abortion is not new here in The Langar Hall. A number of our bloggers have commented on this complex issue in the past; and even early community initiatives have been supported as well.
Recently I saw the official trailer of a documentary – It’s A Girl – that promises to look at the issue in China and India.
In India, China and many other parts of the world today, girls are killed, aborted and abandoned simply because they are girls. The United Nations estimates as many as 200 million girls(1) are missing in the world today because of this so-called “gendercide”.
Shot on location in India and China, It’s a Girl! explores the issue. It asks why this is happening, and why so little is being done to save girls and women.
The film tells the stories of abandoned and trafficked girls, of women who suffer extreme dowry-related violence, of brave mothers fighting to save their daughters’ lives, and of other mothers who would kill for a son. Global experts and grassroots activists put the stories in context and advocate different paths towards change, while collectively lamenting the lack of any truly effective action against this injustice.
Currently in post-production, It’s a Girl! is scheduled for an early 2012 release.
I invite our readers to take a look at the trailer and share their comments, as will I.
10 Responses to “The Three Deadliest Words”
This is beyond horrible. The woman was just casually telling the man the number of girls she killed. I don't think they realize the extent of their actions, probably because of a lack of education. The Indian government has to take this issue seriously. As more girls are being killed, the number of boys is going to rapidly increase, and there won't be anyone for them to "be" with. I know this problem has existed in India for a long time, but it's definitely time to take action. Innocent lives are being taken because of financial reasons. If these people are not ready to have children and carry the financial burden, why would they impregnate themselves in the first place? If it was a boy who had birth defects, would they kill it as well? This is mind boggling.
It is unclear whether the film points to the larger structural issues surrounding killing baby girls, but this needs to also be our focus. Understanding the economic incentives that drive people to abort their children is so important.
Even in the US boys are preferred, one of the reasons sex selective abortion occurs much more in Asia might be that the stigma against abortion is much higher in the US. Trafficking of girls probably has to do also with extremes of poverty as well. Are we being told this is happening as an explicitly violent act because gender-cide as a phrase implies murder on the basis of gender. I do not think my culture is participating in mass murder and that is what the phrase implies, that abortion is murder and our Punjabi culture is engaged in a campaign of mass murder on the basis of gender
Female infanticide is different from foeticide/abortion. I do know some Punjabis in the past did engage in infanticide. There used to be widow killing as well and the ending of the practice was considered one of the justifications of the British project in India. To what extent misogyny in different cultures plays out is a useful thing to consider here. British observers noted what they did for their own reasons. Not disputing female infanticide did occur. If there really is mass murder of females occurring in Punjab we need to act.
If however what is occurring in the main is that Punjabis in part because they lack stigma against abortion are selectively choosing abortion instead of having a girl that is sad, horrible, and misguided but is not the same thing. Some of the people in my community I can really unfortunately see doing the first but I don’t think en masse at this point there is infanticide, which is a different act implying sustained devaluing of life, or perhaps a belief of some other distorted kind.
This practice was and is prevalent in punjab from times long ago.It has mainly to deal with the land owners not wanting to share their holdings with the female members of the family,then it morphed into the working/lower classes with dowry being touted as reason.If u go in any village/town in punjab that has a haveli/house which is about 100 or more yrs old,dig it;s foundation & guaranteed one will find a pitcher or two with bones of girlchild.Every sort of punjabi's whether hindu,sikh,muslim or any other creed used to practice this & r still doing it.Now there is new technology after getting a scan they abort the female foetus.It is kinda funny the sikhs whose 10th guru abmonished them if they become nadimar or kudimar,with bajar kurehat,are the most liberal practioners of this act.
If the entire movie is as powerful as the trailer, it will be well worth watching and promoting. Awareness, education, and consciousness-raising are needed.
The three deadliest words as you write about them with this new prospect that we are never know before the reading of that in this mean that they can also produce it. I real like this you’re these words buddy, thank.