Death, sex, and fertility: female infanticide in rural Spain, 1750–1950

Relying on longitudinal micro data from rural Spain between 1750 and 1950, this article evidences that families mortally neglected a significant fraction of their female babies. Firstly, baptism records exhibited exceptionally high sex ratios at birth until the late nineteenth century. Secondly, having no previous male siblings increased the probability of male baptisms. Likewise, this same feature, together with the number of siblings alive, also increased female mortality during the first day of life. These findings are concentrated at higher parities and among landless and semi-landless families. Lastly, under-registration cannot explain these patterns affecting female mortality shortly after birth.

Bride Trafficking in India: Aspects, Causes and Potential Solutions

Bride Trafficking is a long-standing evil in society that can be classified as a crime against humanity because it violates the rights, dignity and the liberty of the victims involved. Bride Trafficking is so deep rooted in society that providing accurate figures is extremely difficult since it is often impossible to track down and trace individual incidents of Bride Trafficking. According to the author, who has conducted a case study with fifty women from the State of Haryana, inter-country trafficking for the purpose of marriage is widespread in India. Trafficked women are subjected to a slew of atrocities, including being raped in transit and then raped by their husbands and other male family members. Apart from that, they face domestic violence, are treated worse than slaves and are frequently trafficked multiple times. Poverty, female foeticide, female infanticide, illiteracy, dowry and other factors can all contribute to trafficking. In this paper, the author will discuss Bride Trafficking in general, the reasons for it, the human rights violations that these trafficked brides face and the potential solutions to this illicit trade.

From right to sin

This chapter investigates changes in infanticide legislation as indicators of the attitude of states towards the neonate. In antique East Asian societies in which the bride’s family had to pay an excessive dowry, selective female infanticide was the rule, despite formal interdiction by the law. In Greece and Rome, children’s lives had little value, and the father’s rights included killing his own children. The proportion of men greatly exceeding women found in many cultures and epochs, suggests that girls suffered infanticide more often than boys. A kind of social birth, the ritual right to survive, rested on the procedure of name giving in Roman culture and on the start of oral feeding in Germanic tradition. Legislative efforts to protect the newborn began with Trajan’s ‘alimentaria’ laws in 103 c.e. and Constantine’s laws following his conversion to Christianity in 313 c.e. Malformed newborns were not regarded as human infants and usually were killed immediately after birth. Infanticide was formally outlawed in 374 c.e. by Emperor Valentinian.

The honor and respect of Women: A comparative study based on Quran o Sunnah and current practices in Pakistan

Islam honors both men and women and assigns several rights and duties on both of them. These rights and duties are based on their physique and nature for a proper family setup and peaceful society. In fact, it is the great initiative of Islam that it has banned female infanticide. Similarly, it is not important that Islam allows them to get education but it is their duty to get education. In addition, proper nourishment, health and security are among basic rights of women. Above all, she is the very first school to train and educate future’s leaders. However, as the current practices of some Muslims are different from the glorious principles of Quran o Sunnah that’s why there is doubt in some minds regarding the honor and respect of women in Islam. To clarify this doubt, there are several verses in Holy Quran which show their honor and dignity. Similarly, the sayings and practices of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) are enough to respectfully deal with women either they are mothers, sisters, daughters or wives. The only issue is, to implement these injunctions and to practice them in the society.

Financial Incentives to Reduce Female Infanticide, Child Marriage and Promote Girl’s Education: Institutional and Monitoring Mechanisms

The focus of this paper is on the complementary mechanisms and interventions likely to increase the effectiveness and impact of conditional cash transfer (CCT) schemes in South Asia that aim to reduce female infanticide and child marriage and promote girls’ education. The literature on the institutional aspects of these particular schemes is limited, but from this and from the wider literature on CCT programmes in similar contexts, the following institutional mechanisms are likely to enhance success: a strong information and communication strategy that enhances programme reach and coverage and ensures stakeholder awareness; advance agreements with financial institutions; a simple and flexible registration process; appropriate use of technology to strengthen access, disbursement, and oversight; adequate implementation capacity to support processes of outreach, enrolment, and monitoring; monitoring and accountability mechanisms embedded in programme design; coordination mechanisms across government across social protection schemes; an effective management information system; and the provision of quality services in the sectors for which conditions are required. There is a very limited body of evidence that explores these institutional issues as they apply to the specific CCT programmes that are the focus of this report, however, there is more available evidence of the potential impact of ‘cash-plus’ programmes, which complement the transfers with other interventions designed to enhance their results or address the structural barriers to well-being

Financial Incentives to Reduce Female Infanticide, Child Marriage and Promote Girl’s Education: Impact

This review examines evidence on the key design features and impact of programmes that use Conditional Cash Transfers (CCTs) or baby bonds to reduce female infanticide, child marriage and promote girl’s education. Conditional cash transfer (CCT) schemes have been adopted to promote the survival and well-being of girls. They provide parents with financial incentives to raise daughters; to delay marrying them until age 18, and to reduce the gender imbalance in school. Given that many CCT programmes aimed at addressing girl children are relatively new, it has in many cases been too early to evaluate their effectiveness. There is thus limited evidence of the impact of their implementation and outcomes. This helpdesk report focuses on recent studies, published in the past five years, on select programmes implemented in South Asia, particularly in India, for which there is the most available information. Evidence suggests that CCT programmes aimed at supporting the girl child have succeeded in promoting school enrolment and delaying marriage in South Asia. It is less clear, however, the extent to which these transfers have affected gender-biased sex selection.