Into the two countries with the highest populations in the world, China and India, a thief has come. And that thief is a newborn baby girl.
The documentary, “It’s a Girl” highlights the plight of women, girls, and female babies in the son-preferring cultures of China and India. Produced in 2012, the film traces the so-called “war against girls,” documenting the heart-breaking statistics of what has essentially become gendercide in these two countries.
The Plight of Women and Girls in India
The documentary first focuses on the plight of women and girls in India. In India the culture perpetuates the idea that strength and blessing are given through the birth of sons. Sons earn and provide for families. But daughters? A birth of a baby girl represents at best a drain on family resources.
The Indian mothers interviewed in the documentary find female babies a curse rather than a blessing. In fact, a common Rajasthani saying in India is “A thief has come,” spoken when a daughter is born. The documentary shows mothers in India who poison, strangle, or suffocate their baby girls to, in their view, prevent them from living lives of poverty and pain. A mother wets a dishcloth and places it over the baby girl’s mouth and nose to suffocate the infant, going against every motherly protective instinct.
This view of baby girls in India can be traced primarily to the dowry system, long a cultural practice of the country and a tradition still carried on today. In order to pay dowries, families make great sacrifices, gathering as much money and property possible. With so many already living in poverty, this expense makes their situations even more desperate.
To make matters worse, even before the babies are born, many women have abortions once they find out the child will be female. In fact, a staggering 20-30% of girls in India are killed before birth.
The gender ratio worldwide averages 105 males born to every 100 females. This means that for every 105 males, 100 females are born. This is the natural gender ratio average. However, in countries like China and India, that average is skewed as high as 140 males born to every 100 females due to abortion, female infanticide, and female suicide. The documentary estimates that as of 2012, there were 37,000,000 more men than women living in China.
China’s One-Child Policy and Its Aftermath
The second half of the documentary focuses on the 1979 One-Child Policy in China and its aftermath. This policy, purportedly enacted to prevent overpopulation, had the effect of ridding its country of women. In China, cultural dynamics prescribe that the family’s sons take care of their elders, whereas females are married off to other families to help take care of the elders of the husbands. So when the Chinese government began enforcing pregnancy laws with their Family Planning police force, naturally, families hoped for male children. An echo of the Indian saying is also well-known in China: “A daughter is a thief.”
Families that broke the one-child policy in China were in danger of losing their jobs, being punished, or being forced to pay hefty fines. As a result, in 2012, when the documentary was produced, it was estimated that in China there were 13,000,000 abortions a year–and most of these procedures aborted female babies.
Hope through Local Efforts
The film also highlights the efforts of local women in India and China who fight for their daughters’ right to life. Dr. Mitu Khurana suffered abuse and violence at the hands of her husband and her husband’s family when they forced her to go through an ultrasound without her consent in order to determine the sex of her unborn baby. When they discovered it was a girl, they beat her in an effort to spontaneously abort the child. Dr. Khurana escaped with her life back to her parents, and since then has fought policies that enable families to perpetuate these practices. Dr. Khurana’s blog links to a petition for the Indian government to stop practices resulting in female genocide.
Update in 2019
In 2015, it was announced that China’s One-Child Policy would end by the end of 2016. Its consequences caused not only female gendercide, but also created a disproportionately older population with fewer young people available to take care of their elderly family members. It is estimated that in the last two years, the gender ratio has normalized somewhat, with 115 males to every 100 females born; however, the situation is still dire.
“It’s a Girl,” while now slightly dated (given China’s change in policy) is still well worth viewing. It’s a wonder not more is being done to assist these women around the globe working tirelessly to assert a girl’s fundamental human right–the right of existence. We must speak up to share their story and support their efforts.
It is available through Amazon Prime.