By Our Special Correspondent
Shillong: The National Human Rights Commission headed by Justice (rtd) KG Balakrishna is visiting Meghalaya on May 30 next to take stock of cases of child labour. But what has surprised many is the Commission’s claim to look into cases of ‘male infanticide.’
The Commission is responding to a news item that appeared in a regional newspaper in January this year, captioned ‘Rising cases of male infanticide worries Meghalaya.’
Infanticide is the act of intentional killing of an infant. It could mean either murdering the child after birth, or murdering the child while inside the womb. The basis of this story is the Meghalaya Police website www.megpolice.nic.in. The crime report website says on March 22, 2011 the body of a newborn male baby is recovered from the riverbank of Kynshi at Krohbah in West Khasi Hills.
On April 27, 2011 Sipelin Lyngkhoi, 21, abandoned her newborn baby boy near Wahumkhrah stream, at Lawmali, Shillong. The baby is later shifted to Ganesh Das Hospital. Then on April 30 a newborn male baby is found abandoned behind the compound of Nongmynsong Presbyterian School.
In December last year, Aidalin Nongphud, 17, a Class XI student of Patharkhnang village in West Khasi Hills, is arrested for burying her newborn boy alive in her garden.
Commissioner & Secretary Health Government of Meghalaya dismissed the claims of male infanticide in Meghalaya as exaggerated. He said there should be enough research before such atrocious conclusions are made.
A leading gynaecologist who did not wish to be named said, “Abortion and abandonment of new born babies by teenage mothers or by those who have borne a child our of wedlock is common. They do it out of fear of being reprimanded by parents and elders or of being excommunicated by the church. The child could be male or female. But to term these three incidents as male infanticide is to blow it out of proportion. It is coincidental that the abandoned child is male,” said the doctor.
The report in the regional daily is a sort of inverse rationale that if patriarchal societies in the rest of India practice female feticide or female infanticide then the pattern in matrilineal Meghalaya would be a reversal of that, said a college lecturer.
Interestingly the report claims that police officials also corroborate the claims of ‘male infanticide’.
When this scribe questioned some police officers they rubbished the claims as sensational and uncalled for since three or four cases of abandoned male babies is not enough to extrapolate and build a case of male infanticide.
Archbishop Dominic Jala was quoted in the earlier report as saying that creating awareness among youth on responsible parentage is the mandate of the church. When asked if he agreed that there is male infanticide in Meghalaya Archbishop Jala said it would be wrong to term the abandonment of babies by irresponsible parents who wish to cover up their deviant act either because they are in school, or teenagers, as male infanticide.
“The sex of the child is immaterial in our matrilineal culture. It could be a male or female child. The objective of the traumatic mother is to hide her predicament from the world for fear of social ostracism,”‘ Archbishop Jala said, adding that the church needs to create awareness on the ill effects of mothers abandoning babies.
President, Lympung Ki Seng Kynthei, Theilin Phanbuh disagreed with the claim of male infanticide in Meghalaya. She said such conclusions without proper research and investigation and based on two or three cases of males babies being abandoned or buried alive does not authenticate the claim of male infanticide.
Meanwhile, Chairperson Meghalaya State Commission for Women, Roshan Warjri said that while abandonment of new born babies is a cause of concern and young women need to be sensitised on this issue, it would be wrong to term a few isolated cases of male babies being abandoned or killed, as male infanticide.