Female infanticide a growing threat in Karachi

In February this year, an anonymous caller rang Edhi Centre in Karachi. He shared information on a dead body dumped in a pile of garbage. As the staffers reached the venue, they were left aghast at the barbarity.

They found a dead body of a newborn baby. It was a four-day-old baby girl whose throat was slit with a sharp knife. This nameless girl is not the only victim of such savagery. 

From January 2017 to April 2018, Edhi foundation and Chhipa Welfare organisation have found hundreds of newborn babies dumped in the garbage in Karachi, of which 99 percent were girls. 

"We have been dealing with such cases for years, and there are a few such incidents which shook our souls as much. It left us wondering whether our society is heading back to primitive age,” said Anwar Kazmi, a senior manager at Edhi Foundation Karachi.

Edhi Foundation found 355 dead infants from the garbage dumps across the country in 2017. And Karachi topped the notorious ranking with 180 cases in 2017. 

So far, Edhi Foundation has buried as many as 72 infants in first four months of this year. The given data is just tip of the iceberg as Edhi foundation only maintains the data of those cities where it provides services.

Chhipa Welfare Foundation shared that it came across 93 cases in Karachi where newborn girls were brutally killed. Seventy cases were reported in 2017, while 23 this year. 

“Eventhough people abandon these innocent souls but as a welfare organisation we cannot. We give them a proper burial and perform other rituals for these babies. After completing the hospital and police formalities, we bury them in our own graveyard,"  shared Shahid Mehmood spokesperson of Chhipa Welfare Organization.

He remarked that the burial process costs them around Rs2,000 per child. "I wonder how poor can a person be that he/she cannot afford Rs 2000 to give a proper burial to their child,” Mehmood added. 

Causes of infanticide 

According to an official at Additional Inspector General (AIG) Karachi office, incidents of infanticide occur in those areas where people have no access to even basic necessities.

While police term poverty and illiteracy as the root causes of infanticide, however, the Edhi Foundation's office-bearer have different views about it. 

According to Kazmi, the infanticide was a cause of child being born out of wedlock. Normally, people kill girls if they are born out of wedlock as this is considered a stigma. However, if the baby is a boy the family tries to protect him. 

“We have seen so many horrible incidents. One such incident which still I remember despite the passage of more than a decade is the stoning of a newborn baby who was found outside mosque”, Kazmi said.

“A few people found a baby at the doorstep of a mosque in Karachi and they handed the baby over to the prayer leader. The cleric decried that this is an 'illegitimate baby' and he should be stoned. Resultantly, the baby was stoned to death. I tried to register a case against the cleric but nothing happened”, narrated Kazmi.

Weighing in on the issue, Imkaan Welfare Organisation Director Tahera Hasan reasoned that poverty cannot be the only reason for infanticide or child abandonment. 

"If a person has eight children then another one won’t be a burden on him. We need to look into other aspects as well. Illegitimacy can be another major cause of child abandonment but unfortunately, very little work has been done on this”, she said. 

Preferring sons over daughters

South Asia is well known for preferring sons over daughters. According to a study carried out by Oxford Institute of Population Ageing, over the past two decades, son preference has become more strongly associated with the practice of continuing to bear children until couples have achieved their desired number of sons and daughters in Pakistan.

The study suggests that many families in Pakistan are increasingly making reproductive decisions based on the number of sons they have.

“This reproductive trend affects Pakistan’s ability to make its desired transition to lower birth rates and meet other developmental targets. Pakistan progress toward these goals by improving access to reproductive health care services and addressing the root causes of son preference, including the inequitable gender norms that uphold the perception that sons are more valuable than daughters”, suggests the study.

Lack of reporting 

A police official highlighted the fact that such cases are not reported frequently. 

“Normally, nobody reports such cases in the police station. During the last year, the Karachi Police registered only one case of infanticide," said the official. 

The police can properly investigate the causes of such cases whether they are illegitimate children or there are any other reasons only if the people register complaints, the official remarked, adding that it will allow police to unearth the reasons behind such offenses. 

Tahera also stressed the need to investigate the cause of death of abandoned children. The medical reports of these infants can show whether they have been strangled to death or died due to other reasons. 

"I am sure the police or the welfare organization must have a record of each abandoned child and if the cause of death is unnatural then it is very alarming," she said. 

Criminal offence

Child abandonment and infanticide both are criminal offenses and punishable crimes in Pakistan.

According to Pakistan Penal Code Section 328: “Whoever being the father or mother of a child under the age of twelve years, or having the care of such child, shall expose or leave such child in any place with the intention of wholly abandoning such child, shall be punished with imprisonment' of either description for- a term which may extend to seven years, or with fine, or with both”.

Similarly, Section 329 of PPC reads, “Whoever, by secretly burying or otherwise disposing of the dead body of a child whether such child dies before or after or during its birth, intentionally conceals or endeavours to conceal the birth shall be punishable with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both”.

Originally published in The News