The Global Walk For Missing Girls
On March 5, over 70 people, many of them youths, gathered at Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Surrey campus to take part in the Global Walk for the Missing Girls and to bring awareness to the problem of female feticide and infanticide.
Prominent members of the South Asian community made passionate speeches about the problem and then led people in a walk around the campus.
The walk took place in five countries and 16 cities around the globe in conjunction with International Women’s Day.
In the last century, 50 million girls have been lost from India’s population and in the last two decades 10 million have been killed by their parents either before or after birth.
With the introduction of cheap and portable ultrasound equipment the problem has become much worse.
Dr. Pargat Singh Bhurji, a pediatrician in Surrey, said the main reason for feticide and infanticide is dowry, which is a gift of money or estate that the bride brings to her husband when they are married. Other societal issues, like rape, have also contributed to increases in abortions.
“Eventually you need a uterus to be born. You cannot be born in the ground like potatoes or up on the tree like apples,” said Bhurji. “We are destroying our own future in a sense.”
While there are laws in India prohibiting doctors from identifying the sex of a fetus, no one has ever been charged.
Most people think of selective feticide and infanticide as being a problem in other parts of the world, like India and China, however, it is a much broader issue
On March 5, over 70 people, many of them youths, gathered at Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Surrey campus to take part in the Global Walk for the Missing Girls and to bring awareness to the problem of female feticide and infanticide.
Prominent members of the South Asian community made passionate speeches about the problem and then led people in a walk around the campus.
The walk took place in five countries and 16 cities around the globe in conjunction with International Women’s Day.
In the last century, 50 million girls have been lost from India’s population and in the last two decades 10 million have been killed by their parents either before or after birth.
With the introduction of cheap and portable ultrasound equipment the problem has become much worse.
Dr. Pargat Singh Bhurji, a pediatrician in Surrey, said the main reason for feticide and infanticide is dowry, which is a gift of money or estate that the bride brings to her husband when they are married. Other societal issues, like rape, have also contributed to increases in abortions.
“Eventually you need a uterus to be born. You cannot be born in the ground like potatoes or up on the tree like apples,” said Bhurji. “We are destroying our own future in a sense.”
Dr. Pargat Singh Bhurji, a pediatrician in Surrey, talks to reporters after the Global Walk for the Missing Girls on March 5. The problem of female feticide is not just in India but happens in Canada as well. (Photo by Jeffrey Yip)
While there are laws in India prohibiting doctors from identifying the sex of a fetus, no one has ever been charged.
Most people think of selective feticide and infanticide as being a problem in other parts of the world, like India and China, however, it is a much broader issue
Clean Water Project Completed 2015