How to Name It?
Posted by gargi on 17 Oct 2005 | Tagged as: India
When 6 million Jewish people perish in concentration camps, it is called a Holocaust.
When 20 million people died in Stalin’s Soviet Union it was called ruthless Communist murder.
When PolPot murdered 1.8 million in Cambodia he was a madman.
When a million plus died in the fatricidal civil war between the Hutu’s and Tutsi’s in Rwanda and Burundi - we were horrified.
When close to a million died in rioting during partition, it was a human tragedy.
when 60 million girls go missing what do you call it?
The
Discrimination against girls may begin in the womb. In some countries, a strong preference for sons has led to the elimination of millions of girls through prenatal sex selection. Baby girls also die through deliberate neglect and starvation. In Asia, at least 60 million girls are “missing”.
In Chapter 7 dealing with
Worldwide, an estimated one in five women will be a victim of rape or attempted rape in her lifetime.One in three will have been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused, usually by a family member or an acquaintance. More often than not, the perpetrators go unpunished. Each year, hundreds of thousands of women and children are trafficked and enslaved, millions more are subjected to harmful practices. Violence kills and disables as many women between the ages of 15 and 44 as cancer. And its toll on women’s health surpasses that of traffic accidents and malaria combined.
If 60 million Tamils, or Muslims, or Slavs or Jews or Yadavs or Todas or Bedu’s or Kurds disappeared it would be front page news. But, when 60 million girls disappear, it seems to be par for the course.
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17 Comments »
on 17 Oct 2005 at 5:45 pm 1.A Time To Reflect » Blog Archive » Sex ratio across rural and urban India said …
[...] Just read Harini’s post on the 60 million missing children - how to name it? Readying myself for the enlightening and amusing comments containing the “ist” words - activist and feminist - I urge you to head there right now and read it. (And no, don’t even bother mentioning Hepatitis to me). [...]
on 17 Oct 2005 at 8:38 pm 2.A Time To Reflect » Blog Archive » Sex ratio across rural and urban India said …
[...] Just read Harini’s post on the 60 million missing children - how to name it? Readying myself for the enlightening and amusing comments containing the “ist” words - activist and feminist - I urge you to head there right now and read it. (And no, don’t even bother mentioning Hepatitis to me). [...]
on 18 Oct 2005 at 3:12 am 3.Jag said …
This is to sad to even begin to contemplate. The truth is that it is too hard to accept that this might be the truth. Denial is the first feeling that comes to mind. Please tell me this cannot be true?
on 18 Oct 2005 at 7:47 am 4.gargi said …
unfortunately this is the truth.
read thisstrong>.
on 18 Oct 2005 at 9:15 am 5.Srini said …
WOW ! What a blogger you are, i love your approach towards life. It’s sad to know the truth.
on 18 Oct 2005 at 9:34 am 6.charu said …
come on, Harini, you know as well as all those sociologists and researchers that it was apendicitis or hepatitis or whatever that killed these girls and nothing more.
on 18 Oct 2005 at 8:12 pm 7.sunil said …
naw Charu…..it’s not apendicitis…..it’s just “bad fate”. Blame it all on vidhi.
on 18 Oct 2005 at 10:53 pm 8.harini calamur said …
Srini, tnx - u made my day.
Charu, it is not appendicitis or hepatitis but lobotomitis -the missing of large chunks of the brain of those who think that 60 million females spontaneously combusted themselves out of existance.
sunil - vini, vidhi, vici
on 19 Oct 2005 at 7:56 am 9.Charu said …
H, lobotomy always reminds me of Calvin - he is forever urging Susie to have one
and good one about the vini, vidhi 
on 22 Oct 2005 at 1:04 am 10.abhay said …
I for long have believed that there is a genocide being carried out against
women by patriarchial society
The dictatorship of proleterian women is the only solution to this problem
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on 10 Jan 2006 at 10:46 am 12.Blogger: Post a Comment said …
[...] Uma, since I first read the post yesterday, I have been waiting for someone to mention the h word - ‘hepatitis’. despite what Sen has said about hepatitis being the cause of many female children deaths (however cold that sounds), female infanticide in India has been very well researched and documented to be brushed aside as a “healthcare” issue… (was thinking of the 75% thingy myself:)I remember lots of bloggers had blogged about this at around the same time - check these out sometime - on my blog(esp some of the comments to this post - no, not sumanth of save indian family urging women to “marry down” - the other really disturbing ones)and harini’s how to name it [...]
on 10 Jan 2006 at 3:37 pm 13.indianwriting: Motherland said …
[...] Uma, since I first read the post yesterday, I have been waiting for someone to mention the h word - ‘hepatitis’. despite what Sen has said about hepatitis being the cause of many female children deaths (however cold that sounds), female infanticide in India has been very well researched and documented to be brushed aside as a “healthcare” issue… (was thinking of the 75% thingy myself:)I remember lots of bloggers had blogged about this at around the same time - check these out sometime - on my blog(esp some of the comments to this post - no, not sumanth of save indian family urging women to “marry down” - the other really disturbing ones)and harini’s how to name it [...]
on 13 Jan 2006 at 2:10 pm 14.Death Ends Fun: October 2005 said …
[...] Harini wonders what to call it. Charu has more. The numbers they quote first got some attention in late 2003, when the then Health and Family Welfare Minister, Sushma Swaraj, released a booklet called “Missing”, put together by the UN Population Fund and her Ministry.Last year, I wrote this article about the booklet and some of its implications. It brought me responses and retorts from various naysayers and doubters. Like Charu has got. But among them was this gem, which I thought I’d share verbatim:If you consider the onslaught of islamic and christian barbarians that invaded my beloved motherland, having a girl child became more of a liability for the parent, constanly in the fear of her abduction and rape and the social punishment that ensues.Hence they were not totally wrong in desiring for a male child.You’re following an agenda that is certainly detrimental to Indian interests. You’re that combination of a communist/socialist and christian bigot. 3:39 PM | permalink | 14 comments [...]
on 18 Jan 2006 at 4:57 am 15.My CAN-I Thought Process!: When 60 Million Girls Disappear - What do you call it? said …
[...] Read more @ How to Name It? [...]
on 06 Dec 2007 at 8:47 am 16.Prominent doctor trapped in sex determination sting by the BBC « A wide angle view of India said …
[...] blog, calling it very aptly “a perverse application of outsourcing to India.” Gargi on her blog wonders why so little fuss is made when 60 million girls go missing when other genocides of the world are [...]
on 20 Mar 2008 at 6:14 pm 17.Missing Indian girl-children… « La Vie Quotidienne said …
[...] sad, sad… even sadder is that the lady doctor caught in the BBC spycam operation is someone working with the Government to prevent foeticide. at the rate that they are going in states like Punjab and Haryana (sex ratio in Pujab is around 793 girls to every 1000 males) we will soon be an endangered minority. what do you call it when 60 million females go missing in Asia ? http://calamur.org/gargi/2005/10/17/how-to-name-it/ [...]