Adoption - Baby Girls Fill Pakistan's Public Cradles

Author

Baby Girls Fill Pakistan's Public Cradles

LilMtnCbn

2004-10-19, 7:10 pm

http://www.womensenews.com/article....context/archive

Baby Girls Fill Pakistan's Public Cradles
Run Date: 10/17/04
By Juliette Terzieff
WeNews correspondent
Baby girls are discarded in huge numbers in Pakistan and an outdoor "cradle
program" for drop-offs merely stem the loss. Social workers trace the problem
to parents--often middle class--who regard female offspring as financial
liabilities.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (WOMENSENEWS)--Police found the newborn girl, known only to
the world as Shazia, in a garbage pile outside the capital city. She had spent
at least 12 hours exposed to the elements.

She was rushed to the Edhi Foundation, a nationwide organization working with
Pakistan's poverty stricken populace, but quickly succumbed to pneumonia. Three
days later Shazia died.

That was in April. But according to Naem Tarer, administrator of the Edhi
Foundation in Islamabad, it could have been any day of any month.

"For every baby that survives, two more die . . . and those are the babies that
are found," she says.

There are no studies available on the number of children abandoned annually in
Pakistan but Edhi personnel are involved in the recovery of an average of 1,500
babies a year through the foundation's "jhoola baby" (cradle baby) program.
Thousands more, they fear, are simply never found.

Of the babies recovered, an overwhelming majority--80 percent--are female.

"People find babies everywhere--some partially buried, thrown in garbage pits,
or stuffed into oil cans--left to starve to death," Tarer says. "Others are
strangled or burned beyond recognition and tossed on the side of the road. It
continually saddens us all, but we are not surprised to find so many girls
among them."

First Program in 1970
In 1970, two decades after he began the Edhi Foundation--South Asia's largest
indigenous private social service network--Abdul Sattar Edhi installed the
first cradle outside one of his Karachi-based centers. These days there are 315
such cradles across Pakistan and the "cradle baby" program saves an average of
650 abandoned children a year.

The white metal cradle, lined with a thin mattress, stands outside Edhi center
entrances. A nearby sign urges desperate parents to deposit infants there
rather than do anything more harsh. An Edhi staff person checks it hourly
throughout the night.

There is also a bell nearby the entrances that people can ring--before they run
off--to alert Edhi staff that a baby has been deposited.

A vast majority of infants find their way to the cradles in the dead of night.
Often the parents leave a note containing the name and religion of the child,
along with a milk bottle, poetry or a toy.

"When people leave things with the babies, it's a signal of their pain and
sorrow," says Musarat Bibi, head caretaker at Edhi's Islamabad baby shelter.

It was Bibi, a quiet matronly woman who cared for tiny Shazia before she died.
"We are not here to judge but to care for those who, for whatever reason, have
no where else to go," she says stoically of her often heartbreaking work.

After the children receive a bill of clean health they are put up for adoption.
Since 1970, 15,000 cradle babies have been placed in adoptive homes. Those who
are not adopted--about 40 percent--remain under the foundation's protection,
with Edhi himself as their legal guardian until they reach 18.

Adoptions Concealed
If adopted, the child rarely learns of their early ordeal as parents fear the
overwhelmingly negative social stigma attached to adoption.

Social workers cite many reasons, such as rape and socially taboo pre-marital
relations and inability to provide basic necessities, for the abandoned babies.

"Most women remain ignorant of the proper use of contraceptives or have been
victims of rape, and so many babies are abandoned because they are the result
of pre-marital relations for which there is zero tolerance in our society,"
says Islamabad-based sociologist Farzana Bari, the mother of two school-aged
girls.

But what troubles them most is the overwhelming proportion of poor baby girls
who are abandoned by couples who show a traditional preference for male
children, who are assumed to have the earning potential to provide parents with
old-age security.

Females, by contrast, rarely work outside the home in the heavily
male-dominated societies of South Asia and leave their families after
marriage--usually accompanied by a heavy dowry few families can afford--to go
and live in her new husband's parent's house. "If a couple decides, for
example, that they will have only two children, many will prefer boys, and seek
to do away with female offspring," she adds.

The Edhi Foundation's experience also supports Bari's analysis.

"Well-off families have better abilities to provide for their children, yet we
find the majority of babies dropped in middle class neighborhoods," said Tarer.
"The truth is on the sub-continent girls are still viewed as a burden. When a
baby boy is born the family celebrate with gunfire and by distributing sweets,
whereas the birth of a girl is often a source of depression."

In neighboring India, authorities are battling similar problems as they
encourage a "two child norm" to help control a fast-growing population.

Social workers there estimate that, in addition to the thousands of infant
girls who are murdered or left to die, between 4 million and 5 million
sex-preference abortions are performed every year. As a result, the ratio of
girls to boys in the 0-6 years old age group is dropping all across India. In
the states of Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Hariyana, and Rajistan the ratio is now
under 800 for every 1,000.

"These are the terrifying pathologies of the middle class, of educated people,"
says Mira Shiva, head of the Voluntary Health Association of India and
long-time women's rights activist. "It is definitely not poverty driven . . .
If you are having only two children, society and economics tell you, you want
to have boys, and so you just keep killing the girls."

In the southeastern state of Tamil Nadu officials grappling with the problem
have followed Edhi's lead and are installing cradles at hospitals and
nongovernmental organizations. In the last decade, 600 babies--over 70 percent
female--have been recovered.

Changing Social Views
In both countries, ongoing efforts to modernize are bringing about changes in
societal views on women working and contributing on equal footing with their
male counterparts.

In Pakistan, for example, President Pervez Musharraf has instituted quotas in
national and provincial legislatures--33 percent and 17 percent
respectively--to ensure that women get representation. Social workers such as
Bari hope these changes will eventually end the need for cradle baby programs.

"There is a thin layer of liberal and/or well educated people South Asian
societies who see past the traditional divisions between men and women," she
says. "This layer is expanding but it is still very small, and that means we
have a long, long way to go."

-------------------------
A good friend will come and bail you out of jail . . . but, a true friend will
be sitting next to you saying, "Damn . . . that was fun!"
-----Unknown

Rupa Bose

2004-10-20, 11:07 am

Thanks for posting this...

This is similar to the situation in India as I recall it.

Probably made worse by the fact that Islam doesn't allow for adoption.

Rupa

lilmtncbn@aol.com (LilMtnCbn) wrote in message news:<20041017105944.21100.00002175@mb-m07.aol.com>...
> http://www.womensenews.com/article....context/archive
>
> Baby Girls Fill Pakistan's Public Cradles
> Run Date: 10/17/04
> By Juliette Terzieff
> WeNews correspondent
> Baby girls are discarded in huge numbers in Pakistan and an outdoor "cradle
> program" for drop-offs merely stem the loss. Social workers trace the problem
> to parents--often middle class--who regard female offspring as financial
> liabilities.
>
>
> ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (WOMENSENEWS)--Police found the newborn girl, known only to
> the world as Shazia, in a garbage pile outside the capital city. She had spent
> at least 12 hours exposed to the elements.
>
> She was rushed to the Edhi Foundation, a nationwide organization working with
> Pakistan's poverty stricken populace, but quickly succumbed to pneumonia. Three
> days later Shazia died.
>
>
> That was in April. But according to Naem Tarer, administrator of the Edhi
> Foundation in Islamabad, it could have been any day of any month.
>
> "For every baby that survives, two more die . . . and those are the babies that
> are found," she says.
>
> There are no studies available on the number of children abandoned annually in
> Pakistan but Edhi personnel are involved in the recovery of an average of 1,500
> babies a year through the foundation's "jhoola baby" (cradle baby) program.
> Thousands more, they fear, are simply never found.
>
> Of the babies recovered, an overwhelming majority--80 percent--are female.
>
> "People find babies everywhere--some partially buried, thrown in garbage pits,
> or stuffed into oil cans--left to starve to death," Tarer says. "Others are
> strangled or burned beyond recognition and tossed on the side of the road. It
> continually saddens us all, but we are not surprised to find so many girls
> among them."
>
> First Program in 1970
> In 1970, two decades after he began the Edhi Foundation--South Asia's largest
> indigenous private social service network--Abdul Sattar Edhi installed the
> first cradle outside one of his Karachi-based centers. These days there are 315
> such cradles across Pakistan and the "cradle baby" program saves an average of
> 650 abandoned children a year.
>
> The white metal cradle, lined with a thin mattress, stands outside Edhi center
> entrances. A nearby sign urges desperate parents to deposit infants there
> rather than do anything more harsh. An Edhi staff person checks it hourly
> throughout the night.
>
> There is also a bell nearby the entrances that people can ring--before they run
> off--to alert Edhi staff that a baby has been deposited.
>
> A vast majority of infants find their way to the cradles in the dead of night.
> Often the parents leave a note containing the name and religion of the child,
> along with a milk bottle, poetry or a toy.
>
> "When people leave things with the babies, it's a signal of their pain and
> sorrow," says Musarat Bibi, head caretaker at Edhi's Islamabad baby shelter.
>
> It was Bibi, a quiet matronly woman who cared for tiny Shazia before she died.
> "We are not here to judge but to care for those who, for whatever reason, have
> no where else to go," she says stoically of her often heartbreaking work.
>
> After the children receive a bill of clean health they are put up for adoption.
> Since 1970, 15,000 cradle babies have been placed in adoptive homes. Those who
> are not adopted--about 40 percent--remain under the foundation's protection,
> with Edhi himself as their legal guardian until they reach 18.
>
> Adoptions Concealed
> If adopted, the child rarely learns of their early ordeal as parents fear the
> overwhelmingly negative social stigma attached to adoption.
>
> Social workers cite many reasons, such as rape and socially taboo pre-marital
> relations and inability to provide basic necessities, for the abandoned babies.
>
> "Most women remain ignorant of the proper use of contraceptives or have been
> victims of rape, and so many babies are abandoned because they are the result
> of pre-marital relations for which there is zero tolerance in our society,"
> says Islamabad-based sociologist Farzana Bari, the mother of two school-aged
> girls.
>
> But what troubles them most is the overwhelming proportion of poor baby girls
> who are abandoned by couples who show a traditional preference for male
> children, who are assumed to have the earning potential to provide parents with
> old-age security.
>
>
> Females, by contrast, rarely work outside the home in the heavily
> male-dominated societies of South Asia and leave their families after
> marriage--usually accompanied by a heavy dowry few families can afford--to go
> and live in her new husband's parent's house. "If a couple decides, for
> example, that they will have only two children, many will prefer boys, and seek
> to do away with female offspring," she adds.
>
> The Edhi Foundation's experience also supports Bari's analysis.
>
> "Well-off families have better abilities to provide for their children, yet we
> find the majority of babies dropped in middle class neighborhoods," said Tarer.
> "The truth is on the sub-continent girls are still viewed as a burden. When a
> baby boy is born the family celebrate with gunfire and by distributing sweets,
> whereas the birth of a girl is often a source of depression."
>
> In neighboring India, authorities are battling similar problems as they
> encourage a "two child norm" to help control a fast-growing population.
>
> Social workers there estimate that, in addition to the thousands of infant
> girls who are murdered or left to die, between 4 million and 5 million
> sex-preference abortions are performed every year. As a result, the ratio of
> girls to boys in the 0-6 years old age group is dropping all across India. In
> the states of Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Hariyana, and Rajistan the ratio is now
> under 800 for every 1,000.
>
> "These are the terrifying pathologies of the middle class, of educated people,"
> says Mira Shiva, head of the Voluntary Health Association of India and
> long-time women's rights activist. "It is definitely not poverty driven . . .
> If you are having only two children, society and economics tell you, you want
> to have boys, and so you just keep killing the girls."
>
> In the southeastern state of Tamil Nadu officials grappling with the problem
> have followed Edhi's lead and are installing cradles at hospitals and
> nongovernmental organizations. In the last decade, 600 babies--over 70 percent
> female--have been recovered.
>
> Changing Social Views
> In both countries, ongoing efforts to modernize are bringing about changes in
> societal views on women working and contributing on equal footing with their
> male counterparts.
>
> In Pakistan, for example, President Pervez Musharraf has instituted quotas in
> national and provincial legislatures--33 percent and 17 percent
> respectively--to ensure that women get representation. Social workers such as
> Bari hope these changes will eventually end the need for cradle baby programs.
>
> "There is a thin layer of liberal and/or well educated people South Asian
> societies who see past the traditional divisions between men and women," she
> says. "This layer is expanding but it is still very small, and that means we
> have a long, long way to go."
>
>
>
>
> -------------------------
> A good friend will come and bail you out of jail . . . but, a true friend will
> be sitting next to you saying, "Damn . . . that was fun!"
> -----Unknown