Girl child for sale

In a bizarre development, girl children are unwelcome in tribal hamlets on the periphery of the State capital

Ibrahimpatnam (RR district): Even as the Central and State governments are making tall claims on measures being taken to save girl children, a small hamlet within the earshot of Hyderabad is putting up its girl children ‘for sale’. In a bizarre development, residents of Ambothu Thanda in Ibrahimpatnam, which is close to the State capital, welcome only male children. They seem to have no qualms in selling newborn girls for a penny or two.

Ironically, the hamlet knows no ‘family planning’ and the women continue to give births to children until they get male ones.
Female infanticide is quite common here. It is the mother who has to bear the entire trauma silently. As the people in this thanda live in abject poverty, they cannot feed all children.

As a result, most of the baby girls in the thanda face either elimination or adoption which, in other words, means selling the girl child. There is absoluvtely little scope for the poor girls to live with their parents. Take the case of Anitha. She gave birth to four children, all girls. Her husband Ravi is an auto driver. His meager earnings are not enough to run the family. Unable to nourish the baby girl, Anitha put the newborn for sale within one week after giving birth to her.

On getting information, the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) officials rescued the girl and sent her to a child care centre. Admitting her guilt, Anitha said, “We are left with no option. We cannot feed the girls as we lack assured family income. We did not get any financial assistance from the government under the Bangaru Thalli scheme,’’ she lamented.

Sandhya, who belongs to the same thanda has a similar story to tell. Her husband is a daily wager. She delivered a male child after giving birth to four girls. Unable to raise the girls, she sold the last female child. Majority of women in the Thanda are ignorant of the welfare schemes meant for girl children. They do not even know the procedure to apply for the benefits. An instance of selling a baby girl occurs in the thanda for every two or three months.

Ambothu Thanda is not the only one where discrimination against the girl child exists. There are many other thandas like PC Thanda where such practices are common. In PC Thanda, three families sold their baby girls two months ago. But no member of the Thanda has come forward to reveal it. There is every need to promote socio-economic awareness among people of the thandas to bring about a change to end the social evil.

Even the village sarpanch expressed his helplessness to put an end to the situation. Admitting the widespread prevalence of discrimination against female children in thandas, the sarpanch said, “We are striving to create awareness among members of the thanda to end the social evil. There are instances when we brought back the sold baby girls. Poverty is the root cause of this evil. Without assured family income, the poor families cannot raise their children. Most of the residents do not have livelihood.”

Speaking on the social evil, MPP Srinivas said, “The welfare schemes and development programmes being implemented by the government are not reaching the tribal people. There is little improvement in their living standards even nearly seven decades after Independence. Dowry system is also prevalent in the thandas. Emphasis should be laid on effective implementation of the welfare schemes to alleviate poverty in thandas which helps bring about a positive change in the primitive mindset of people.”