Langt de fleste ombragte nyfødte er piger i et land, hvor døtre ofte betragtes som en yderligere byrde af forældre i dyb armod
LAHORE, 3 January 2012 (IRIN): – The murder of infants (spædbørn), particularly girls, by poverty-stricken parents in Pakistan appears to be on the rise.
Late at night two months ago in a village in Pakistan’s Punjab Province, the parents of a two-day-old infant girl smothered (kvalte) the child, and then buried her tiny body in a distant field, carefully patting down the soil to hide any signs of digging.
The mother cries often and says she still has nightmares about the event.
– I cried myself; I had delivered the baby and she was perfectly healthy. But her parents had two daughters already, and felt they could not afford another. The father, a labourer, earned only 4.000 rupees (46,50 US dollar) a month, and I know those people ate just once a day, Suriya Bibi, a `dai’ or traditional midwife (jordemor) from the village, told IRIN.
According to Anwar Kazmi, a spokesperson for the charitable Edhi Foundation, more and more bodies of infants are being collected from the streets.
– I would say there has been a 100 percent increase over the past decade in the number of bodies of infants we find. Nine out of 10 are girls, he told IRIN.
Girls are traditionally considered a `burden’ on families, with large sums frequently spent on their marriages.
– People feel girls make no economic contribution to families, Gulnar Tabassum, a women’s rights activist, told IRIN.
Kazmi said 1.210 bodies of dead infants were found last year – compared to 999 in 2009.
– The reasons are linked to mindset (tankegang) and to poverty, he said. While the Edhi Foundation places cradles (vugger) outside the orphanages (børnehjem) it runs, and urges people to leave babies in them rather than kill them, only a few choose to do so.
According to the Foundation, about 200 babies are left each year in the 400 cradles it puts out nationwide with signs urging parents to use them.
Since children born out of wedlock (ægteskab) in this conservative society are at greater risk of being killed, the Foundation encourages the placing of such children with responsible surrogate parents.
– These children are innocent, said Kazmi.
No accurate statistics
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