A Report On The State Of India’s Girls
photo courtesy Plan Asia
Meet Nargis on your right here. She was the 7th billionth baby born on earth, and was born in India. What does it mean to be born a girl in India?
The 50 Million Missing Campaign brings you the following Report on The State of India’s Little Girls:
(click on the embedded links for more information).
- 50% of girls in India don’t want to be girls. They feel so unloved and unwanted as girls in this society that they wish they were born as boys (according to a government survey)!
- Census from 2011 shows that 18 million girls are exterminated from India before the age of 15 years
- Hundreds of girls born in India are given names like ‘Unwanted’ and ‘Undesired’ by their parents.
photo by Subir Basak
90% of abandoned children in India are girls who were discarded by their parents who did not want daughters. There are about 10 million abandoned girls in India.
- 25 million girls in India are married off before the age of 10, according to Unicef. India accounts for 1/3 of the worlds ‘child brides.’ Almost 50% of girls in India are married under the legal age, a rate higher than even other poorer countries in Asia or Africa. Because they are children, these girls are also most at risk for domestic and sexual violence.
- There are 300,000 married teenage mothers in India according to the government census who have already had 2 children by the age of 15. India has the highest maternal mortality rate in the world, and this is the age group that is most vulnerable, since their bodies are not able to cope with the rigors of reproduction.
- Literacy rates for girls is 54% while that for boys is 75%
- India is now the world’s ‘hub’ for child prostitution and child sex-trafficking. According to reports filed with the Supreme Court about 40 minor girls under the age of 15 are forced into prostitution every day!
- The group with the highest HIV infection rates in India are girls who are under 18 years.
- 53.22% of children in India have experienced some sexual abuse; 22% of them extreme forms of sexual violence.
- Up to 5 years of age, girls in India have a 75% higher mortality rate than boys the same age. Studies conclude that this is because girls are subjected to lethal domestic violence that boys are not. Also, the parents deliberately starve them or don’t give them medical care when they need it, because they don’t think a girl is worth it! Due to chronic malnutrition about 90% of girls in India are anemic.
- Almost 2 million girls between the ages of 1 day and 6 years were battered to death by their families, over a 20 year period, only they because they were girls. The research concluded that if they were “lucky” enough to be born as boys they would not be beaten or killed.
LISTED BELOW ARE SOME OF THE RELEVANT POSTS FROM OUR BLOG. CLICK ON THE LINKS.
Census Reveals 17 Million Girls Killed in India Between ages 1-15 years
What’s Killing India’s Little Girls?
When Cultures Give Parents The Right To Trash Their Daughters: Dimple’s Story
When Mothers Kill Their Daughters
Baby girl Dies After Father Bites Chunks off her Face
Her Grandmother Tried To Kill Her: Karishma’s Story
Documentary Film on Female Infanticide
Molested By Hundreds of Men: Sunita Murmu’s Story
The Girl Called ‘Blind Pigeon’: Anita’s Story
Teenagers Killed For ‘Honor’: Celebrating Diwali With Boys
Taking The Wheels: Sunita Chauhan’s Story
A Daughter Dreams: Tikuli Dogra’s Story
What Do Mothers Teach Their Daughters About Violence?
They Prostitute Their Daughters: The Bedia
Indian Girls ‘Missing’ Worldwide
The Place Where No Woman Walked
In My Skin: Moving Past Child Sexual Abuse
The Disturbing Reason For The Reluctance To Call India’s Female Genocide By Name
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ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER: Subir Basak is a member of The 50 Million Missing Campaign’s Photographers’ Group which is supported by more than 2400 photographers. To see more of his works click here .
Plan Asia, which has been working in Asia since 1948, has projects to help communities in 14 countries. Visit them on Facebook, and see photos of their work on flickr.
THE 50 MILLION MISSING CAMPAIGN BLOG ON INDIA'S FEMALE GENDERCIDE 
who do i contact to report a child molester who is hiding in India? this is serious he molested my daugther 20 years a go and when discovered fled to India don’t know hwere exactly
Try to contact the the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights. Details here (givve them all the details). Also see National Commission for women. Details here. A private ngo is Child Line — details here.
IDK… that’s so horrible! I will be praying for you, & her.
Contacting National Commission for Women would be futile. It is a useless organisation where female officers say a girl should not dress provocatively if they don’t want to be molested etc. on the day an 8 year old is raped. Private NGOs could help.
I do empathise completely but must ask-why did you wait 20 years?
he nar naaraayani naari maatra aapkaa vichaar hi is srishti kaa srijan,paalan,bharan-poshan evam sanhaar kaa dyotak hai aur is atulneeya,anmol prakriti ke var ko agar hum tiraskaar ki drishti se dekh rahein hain to nissandeh naron-purushon kaa astitva vinaash ke kagaar par hai
If you read this and do nothing then you don’t deserve a place on this planet!
You are quite right Adrian. I fully agree with you
so did YOU do anything?
Shocking to read all this.Govt should take responsibility for this & take preventive & corrective actions.
What on earth can we do to help??? I have booked a trip to India. Now I don’t even want to go. Only if I can do something??
If this was any other group, what would be the response of western governments? Why should women and girls not be treated as a human group and this as a human rights atrocity that will not be tolerated internationally?
That’s very sad to read and know…….hope education will help woman and daughters to know their rights….even if cultural consicence must change….I would pray for…..
33% women’s reservation bill in the parliament to be passed immediately. These women members are to be empowered to act on this issue with a time frame and a supreme court shall monitor the progress.
The problem is that even now most of these women are daughters and daughters-in-laws or wives of politicians. Criminal politicians in jail have their wives sit on their seat and carry on their criminal raj! So yes, we need more women, but how if the seats will be taken by these women?
We should not call ourselves civilized, anyway God is going to take care…