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Tamil Nadu-Chennai
By Feroze Ahmed
She had acted without realising the consequences, says a recent report by the Tamilnadu State Commission for Women, on a public hearing on female infanticide and foeticide held last July. But the mother was charged with murder under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced to life imprisonment, and her family incurred about Rs.1.2 lakhs on legal expenses. In its recommendations to the Government, the commission cites the instance to argue that though the mothers convicted for infanticide need not be totally exonerated, as demanded by several sections, they should not be charged with murder but be ``given milder punishments''. Participants at the hearing argued that the mother too was a victim - forced by social circumstances to kill her infant - and thus should not be punished. The commission refused to accept that line, pointing out that as the horrifying practice penetrate new grounds and social categories, the State could not afford to soften its stance. However, it suggests that Section 302 be amended to include a separate sub-section stating that for female infanticide the court may invoke the provision of Probation of Offenders Act against mothers. The commission adds that the plea for mercy restricted to the mother and not extended to other women implicated in the crime. ``The fight against patriarchy should not spare them,'' it says. The commission adds that if both the mother and father are imprisoned for infanticide, the Government must ensure educational, medical and nutritional provisions for their other children, who ultimately suffer the consequences of their parents' crime. The report points out that in many cases the children of convicted parents were left uncared for and that their education suffered. Some even dropped out of schools. It also shows that the convicted parents suffered psychological distress and developed suicidal tendencies, and such a stress also led to differences between spouses. Surprisingly, some of these families also faced criticism from their own communities, which, in a way, were responsible for the crimes against the girl child. In fact, the participants argued that communities, which encouraged female infanticide or foeticide should also be held responsible for the crime and penalised. Most of the families and women who deposed before the commission for the public hearing said they resorted to female infanticide or foeticide primarily due to hardships and expenses involved in raising a girl, prevalence of dowry, and the secondary status of girls in society. To combat these, the commission suggests that the Government adopt policies to curb lavish display of wealth at weddings as it set a compelling pattern for lower classes to follow. It also asks the State to extend equal inheritance rights to women to discourage dowry demands - ``identified as the single potent causal factor for infanticide and foeticide''. Among other things, the commission suggests large-scale community awareness programmes highlighting anti-women or women-oriented social practices, measures to prevent mothers from being accused for the child's gender, calls for wide publicity to the ``biological fact that it is the man's chromosomes, not the woman's, which determine the sex of the child''.
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