It's a Girl!

Synopsis: 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 are missing in the world today because of this so-called "gendercide." Girls who survive infancy are often subject to neglect, and many grow up to face extreme violence and even death at the hands of their own husbands or other family members. The war against girls is rooted in centuries-old tradition and sustained by deeply ingrained cultural dynamics which, in combination with government policies, accelerate the elimination of girls. Shot on location in India and China, It's a Girl reveals 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.
Genre: Documentary
Director(s): Evan Grae Davis
Production: Opus Docs
 
IMDB:
7.6
NOT RATED
Year:
2012
64 min
Website
996 Views


This Indian woman has killed

eight of her baby girls.

I just strangled it soon

after it was born.

Why keep girls when raising

them would be difficult?

She would get pregnant in

the hopes of having a son.

But each time she'd deliver

a daughter instead

and each time she'd kill the baby

because she did not want a daughter.

She wanted a son.

I felt we could keep it

only if it was a male,

and kill it if it was a

female child.

I would kill it and bury it.

Women have the power to give life

and the power to take it away.

Sadly, this woman's

story is not unique.

In many nations,

particularly India and China,

the three most dangerous words

heard at the birth of a child are:

"It's a Girl. "

Around the world, the

average gender ratio

is 105 boys for every

100 girls born.

But in certain regions

in India and China,

that ratio is as high as 140

boys to every 100 girls.

And each year, that ratio skews

more and more toward boys

as fewer and fewer

girls are born.

What is causing this

tremendous shift

in the two most populated

nations on earth?

In India and China, most families

prefer sons to daughters.

Their cultures and traditions

have instilled in them a belief

that sons bring strength,

blessing and wealth to the family.

Daughters do not.

In fact, daughters in

these cultures

are typically considered drains

on families and their resources.

For instance, in India,

a daughter's family

is usually expected to pay

an expensive dowry

of property and money

to the husband's family.

Families with sons gain wealth

and daughters-in-law.

Families with daughters lose

both their wealth to dowry,

and their daughters.

This cultural preference for

sons has led many families

to rid themselves

of female children.

Baby girls are

frequently aborted,

killed immediately after birth,

or abandoned.

Those daughters that

do live, though,

often become victims

of neglect and abuse.

This mass extermination

of female children...

this gendercide...

is the direct result of cultures

which place a high value

on the lives of boys

and a low value on

the lives of girls.

In our homes and orphanages,

many children,

they are handed over

by their own parents.

Generally, poor parents,

they do not like to

have female children.

Glory Dass runs several

orphanages in Southern India.

Many of the girls in his homes

were abandoned by families

who did not want daughters.

The parents, even sometimes

they don't have feeling of sad

when they kill their babies,

because what they think,

within a minute

the child can die

instead of the child struggling

and dying day by day,

every day in the poverty.

What they think, they want to

in a minute to kill their baby.

It was due to meager income...

When there is no income,

nothing can be done.

No earnings of a male member.

Again, me alone struggling

with my own earnings,

it was not possible to

manage the family.

Mariamall, she said, she

don't feel anything bad,

that she killed her baby

many years back,

because now she is

struggling by poverty,

and lots of ups and

downs in her family.

So she feels if the

baby were still alive,

she would have suffered

very much.

It was because of dowry.

Our men can't make enough money

to meet high costs of living.

It is difficult to provide

jewelry for marriage

With income so low, it is even

difficult to manage for food.

What they generally do,

they just wet the cloth,

and they fold it like this,

and they put it on the face,

so the child can't breathe.

Immediately the child will die.

This is an entire system, a

social machinery, that says,

"We don't want females. "

The killing of females

is actually systemic.

That... it is not just

before birth,

but it's also after birth,

and different stages of birth.

There's a huge amount

of female infanticide.

Girls under the age of

five, five and under,

have a very high

mortality rate.

Either they don't get food,

or if they're sick, they don't

want to spend on medicine.

It is negligent homicide.

They are just allowed to die,

in a way that boys are

not allowed to die.

In India today, the devaluation

of women and girls is widespread.

Because of factors like female feticide,

female infanticide,

abuse and neglect,

one out of four girls does

not live past puberty.

The mortality rates for girls

between the ages of one and five

are 40% higher than

those of boys.

Why are some of the

Indian households

secretly and brutally

eliminating daughters

from their family system?

Are Indians hating women?

They like daughter in-laws,

but they don't like daughters.

A responsibility to take care of

the parents is on the male child.

It's also that the male child

is supposed to perform

the last rites.

This is also a system

of patriarchy,

and so the family property,

family tradition, family responsibilities

are to be shared by and

carried forward by the son;

whereas the daughter,

after getting married,

gets nearly disconnected

with her parental family

except in times of emergency.

So a grownup daughter

is literally no good,

so far as family's wealth

system is concerned,

family's requirements

are concerned,

family's challenges

are concerned.

And this makes Indian people

have son preference and

daughter avoidance.

According to one UN estimate,

there are up to 200

million missing women

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