In India’s north, the worst place to be born a girl
November 30, 2007 1:23 pm Hinduism
Women stand in a doorway of a home in the village of Magrihawa in the Shravasti district of Uttar Pradesh. (Christie Johnston for the International Herald Tribune)
In India’s north, the worst place to be born a girl
By Amelia Gentleman
Published: November 30, 2007
MACHRIHWA, India: The birth of a boy in Machrihwa is celebrated with the purchase of sweetmeats, distributed with joy to fellow villagers.
The birth of a girl is, for the most part, not celebrated at all.
Women in this village are not eager to dwell on the subject, but many of those with daughters grudgingly admit that worse than the pain of childbirth was the misery of realizing that they had delivered a girl.
Juganti Prasad, 30, remembers the reproachful silence that settled over the room where she gave birth to her third daughter. Her mother-in-law handed her the child, and said curtly, “It’s a girl, again,” before leaving her.
“There was no one even to give me a glass of water,” Prasad said. “No one bothered to look after me or feed me because it was a girl.”