Shots of Madurai, including Menakshi temple

Music

01.00.00

Schwartz:  Madurai is said to have risen from the ashes of an ancient city - one destroyed by the wrath of a woman wronged.

00.23

The tale is hardly surprising. Madurai has always honoured matriarchs.

00.32

Every day thousands of people wend their way to the temple of Menakshi, the supreme deity who looks over the city - all-knowing, all-seeing, and all woman. Madurai is a city built upon the legends of powerful women.

00.40

Temple, street scenes

Today however, that power has been sucked dry. Poverty and patriarchy have combined to rob women of their perceived worth. So much so that here in Tamil Nadu, to be a born a girl is, in some cases, still a sin punishable by death.

00.58

Musicians.

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Schwartz:  It's a big day in Usilampatti district, an hour's drive from Madurai.

Women carrying food to ceremony

Music

Schwartz:  Vijaya Chellapandi has come of age, and her mother, Lakshmi, wants everyone to know.

01.51

Lakshmi preparing daughter's hair

Lakshmi:  This is a very important day.  Until now my daughter has been a young girl, but today she's a big girl. All the relatives must know that we have a grown up girl, ready for marriage. That's why we are having the ceremony.

01.58

Musicians / Ceremony

Music

Schwartz:  Raising a daughter is an expensive business.

02.23

This puberty ceremony is just one of many costly rituals punctuating a girl's path to marriage.

But the real killer - quite literally - is the dowry. Although illegal, it's still demanded. And for the bride's parents it often represents their entire life savings.

It's little wonder then that one daughter is considered a burden - and two, an economic impossibility.

Lakshmi:  When I had my second daughter I can't measure the sorrow that I felt.

Lakshmi

How was I going to bring them up? They neighbours were saying we should kill them off but my mother-in-law is very good - she said "Don't do such an evil thing, there'll be some way for them to grow up."

Lakshmi and daughter at ceremony

Schwartz:  Today, Vijaya has every reason to smile.

03.31

That she has survived 18 years is no small miracle. She is, after all, the second daughter. The one the locals call ‘the girl born for the burial pit.'

Parvathi rocking baby

Schwartz:  Parvathi has three children. But only two are living. Her husband killed their second daughter the day she was born.

03.56

Parvathi:  It is difficult to bring up a daughter. You need a lot of money...

04.06

Parvathi, baby and daughter

...to raise her properly for a married life. We couldn't have done that so we killed her.

Schwartz

Schwartz:  Had you decided before your second child was born, that if it was a girl, you would kill it?

04.20

Parvathi

Parvathi:  No. We never thought about it. My husband told me only after he killed her.  He said we would have problems and that we didn't have the assets or money to bring her up.

04.25

Kosambi

Super:

Dr. MEERA KOSAMBI

Director, Women's Research Centre

Kosambi:  Let me make it very clear, there is no justification for this phenomenon of killing infants. It is a gruesome and a brutal murder. The point is that such a thing is very unnatural and it would not happen unless there were severe compulsions and great desperation.

04.46

Schwartz:  Dr Meera Kosambi heads a leading women's research institute. She says female infanticide is just one manifestation, albeit shocking, of an all-pervasive discrimination against women.

05.11

Kosambi

Kosambi:  The society is predominated by men, and this male supremacy means that women are treated not just as inferior, but also subservient. Very often as the legal or economic property of men, and definitely sexual property of men.

Schwartz

Schwartz:  What do you believe is the long term solution?

05.44

Kosambi

Kosambi:  Well, the long term solution is both an attitudinal change, which is very, very difficult to achieve in any country, but also economic incentives which are far more practical.

Usilampatti countryside

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Schwartz:  At harvest time, the countryside around Usilampatti is a picture of fertility.

06.11

The reality, however, is that very little flourishes here.

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Schwartz:  Rain is scarce, and the soil gives forth at best only one crop a year.

Tamil Nadu is home to some of the poorest people in India - the ideal breeding ground for female infanticide.

06.33

Valli

Super:

VALLI ANNAMALAI

Indian Council for Child Welfare

Valli:  When we stepped into the area we thought it was just a social-cultural, you know, issue. And just with a little awareness and counselling we would be able to turn around the people. But once we came in we knew that that was not the only thing.

06.42

Young women using sewing machines

FX:  Sewing machine

Schwartz:  Valli Annamalai works for the Indian Council for Child Welfare. With Australian aid from PLAN International, the council is providing local women and girls with the education and skills needed to earn them not only an income, but independence and respect.

07.11

Young women undertaking training

Schwartz:  When the council began work here, nine years ago, at least 200 baby girls were being killed annually. Today, thanks in  part to a range of economic incentives, the known infanticide rate is down to about 30.

07.31

Music

Schwartz:  Training and education may stop infanticide in the long term. But in the short term, the council still has a crisis on its hands.

07.54

Nursery

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Schwartz:  Seven years ago it established this nursery. A safe house where unwanted babies could be left anonymously to be put up for adoption. So far it's saved the lives of 87 children. Yamuna is one of them.

08.07

She's the sweetest of children. Had she been born several years ago, she would almost certainly have been killed at birth - poisoned, suffocated, or fed rice husks to make her choke.

08.26

Maariammah

Maariammah:  If there were four girls being born in a village we could only save the first daughter in a family. Sometimes they killed the first daughter as well - it was that bad.

08.41

Schwartz:  Maariammah is the supervisor of the council's nursery.

Maariammah:  But nowadays we are counselling people to change their minds. We counsel often - it's the only way to save the children.

08.56

Uncle Raman walking along road

Schwartz:  Baby Yumuna was saved thanks to her Uncle Raman. Despite ridicule and derision from some of his neighbours, he brought Yumuna into the centre when no one at home could look after her.

09.04

Uncle Raman

Uncle:  If this centre didn't exist, it would be hard for the children to grow up - there would be no other option.

Translator:  Especially for female children?

Uncle:  With all the children if we can't afford to bring them up, we have to kill them. Some people, if they can bring them up they will - but some kill them. Why should they suffer what we suffered?

09.17

Woman feeding Yumana

Schwartz:  Adoption sounds like an easy answer to infanticide. But giving away a child can carry more of a stigma than killing one.

09.50

And while practising infanticide is accepted, talking about it often is not.

Outside Madurai court

Schwartz:  Female infanticide is still a highly sensitive topic. Even more so following a landmark judgement handed down here at the Madurai Courthouse a few months ago. For what is believed to be the first time in Indian legal history, a mother has been tried and found guilty of murdering her newly born daughter. Her sentence, of life imprisonment, has sent shock waves throughout the community, sparking a furious debate as to whether this is a victory, or rather a defeat in the fight for women's emancipation.

10.18

Kathirvel Sundravel walking along street

Schwartz:  When defence lawyer Kathirvel Sundravel walked into court for the judgment in January, he was a confident man. His client had steadfastly maintained her daughter died a natural death and he proffered medical evidence to back her up.

10.55

The guilty verdict, then, came as a rude shock.

Sundravel interview

Sundravel:  Yes, we were surprised. Because there was ample hope for the defence. I expected an acquittal. Since it was a conviction I surprised.

11.15

Schwartz:  Female infanticide is an emotional issue. Do you think that had some bearing on the case?

Sundravel:  Certainly. People who read this conviction or who hear about this conviction will have a fear in their mind.  The area in which this female infanticide is being committed, will have an impact with this judgment.  In one angle they will have a fear of it, in another angle they will not do such crimes.

11.34

Schwartz:  Do you think the judge was mindful of that when he made his decision?

Sundravel:  Certainly. He would have analysed everything. The social problem would have an impact on his mind.

PLAN jeep driving along road

FX:  Jeep

Schwartz:  Were it not for the Child Welfare Council, this infanticide case would never have come to police attention.

12.27

These field workers had been in regular contact with the expectant mother. As she already had two daughters, they thought there was a high risk a third girl would be killed.

When the baby went missing, shortly after leaving the hospital, they raised the alarm.

Maariammah

Super:  MAARIAMMAH

Nursery Supervisor

Maariammah:  The neighbours wanted to kill her even though she [the mother] wanted to keep her. They were saying "What can you do with three daughters?" Four people came to the hospital. They were all crying, saying "It's another girl." And without being discharged they took the mother and child away. So they pressured her to do it.

12.51

Valli

Super:  VALLI ANNAMALAI

Indian Council for Child Welfare

Valli:  We did want some sort of a punishment inflicted, so that it would be an added support to us to eradicate this infanticide problem. But quite frankly it hit me hard, when the judgment came it was a life sentence for the lady. But you know, a murder is a murder. All right, there are no two things about it.

13.17

Kosambi

Dr. MEERA KOSAMBI

Director, Women's Research Centre

Kosambi:  Well, that, I think is like victimising the victim. When you penalise the woman, because she is not voluntarily engaging in murder, or perpetrating murder. So penalising the mother is not the way of catching the real culprit.

13.49

Maariammah

Maariammah:  I feel sad. At first I was satisfied that she was to be punished - but the other two daughters have been left with no mother, so if the father remarries what will be the future of these two children? I'm worried.

14.01

Usilampatti

Schwartz:  In the dilapidated halls of Usilampatti, mothers are chanting their new mantra.

14.23

Women at meeting

Lakshmi:  Let's take the oath. The oath is... As a member of the Women's Club...in my house in my village in my society the killing of female children directly...or indirectly - will not be allowed to happen.

14.29

Group of young women under coconut trees

Schwartz:  While out in the coconut groves, the Council for Child Welfare is stealing their daughters for the challenge ahead.

14.59

Woman:  Okay, the first thing we're going to do is to find out whether we have enough confidence in ourselves.  You all know there are things you can and can't change in this world - some things you can change, some things you can't.

Schwartz:  The future of the next generation of girls rests largely with these teenagers - the mothers of tomorrow.

15.23

Girl:  I don't have enough patience, but from now on I'll try to have more.

Girl 2:  I'm very short-tempered. I'll try to reduce my anger.

Woman:  Now, all of us join together -  "I have the strength to change myself." Say it again. Say it together. "I have the strength to change myself."

15.31

Valli

Valli:  Unless we are able to create a sea change in their attitudes with these adolescent girls , who are the mothers of  tomorrow, I don't think anything that we do will be sustainable.

16.04

Yamuna

Music

Schwartz:  The changes that have already taken place in India, mean Yamuna now has a future.

16.30

But there's no guarantee that as an adult she will escape the pressure to kill her own daughter.

Women at meeting

Girls chanting

Schwartz:  Economic prosperity may remove the catalyst for female infanticide, and tough laws may prove a deterrent, but unless the patriarchal structures of Indian society are chipped away, there will be no lasting improvement in the lot of women.

16.48

ENDS

17.14