Opinion - Letters to the Editor   

Tackling the evil

Sir, — Female infanticide and foeticide are a scourge in Tamil Nadu though they exist only in certain communities and in a few pockets. In the patriarchal society, menfolk have the say in family matters and women carry out the orders. The decision to kill infants is usually that of the head of the family though women are not excluded.

Should the woman have freedom in financial matters, she would not consent to kill her baby girl. In rural areas, apart from living in abject poverty, women have to fend for themselves. As their social customs permit the unpleasant practice of female infanticide and foeticide, women have become party to it willingly or unwillingly. It is a case of punishing the arrow instead of the archer. The menfolk in the family must be brought to book as perpetrators of the heinous crime.

Women activists were right in their assertion that punishment for the mothers, who are also victims, should be mild. As suggested by you, the State Government should initiate moves to amend the IPC suitably to eradicate such social evils.

V.S. Sankaran,

Madurai, T.N.

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