Hundreds of dead newborn
girls have been discovered dumped in garbage piles in Pakistan in
the last one year amid a cultural preference for boys, it has emerged.
A total of 345 babies
have been found dead in refuse heaps in Karachi, Pakistan's most populous city,
since the beginning of 2017 with 99 per cent of them found to be girls,
according to local reports.
In one horrifying case,
a four-day-old was found dead with her throat slit. Another newborn was left on
the steps of a mosque only to be stoned to death when a cleric assumed it
was an 'illegitimate baby', a charity reported.
According to The News International, activists from the Chhipa Welfare
Foundation said it had come across 93 such cases in Karachi with 70 in 2017 and
23 this year.
Child infanticide is a
criminal offence in Pakistan and police say poverty and illiteracy are root
causes, the report says.
However, Anwar Kazmi, from Karachi's Edhi Center charity, said the majority of cases of infanticide were the result of births out of wedlock.
He said girls born in
this situation were being killed because of social stigma with boys more often
protected by families.
He said: 'We have been
dealing with such cases for years and there are a few such incidents which
shook our souls as much. It left us wondering whether our society is heading
back to primitive age.'
The News also points to an Oxford Institute of Population Ageing study that highlighted 'son preference' in Pakistan and said the country needed to address 'inequitable gender norms that uphold the perception that sons are more valuable than daughters'.
A police official is
quoted as saying that they can only properly investigate the causes of such
deaths once a complaint has been registered.
Last year, the official
said, only one case of infanticide was reported to Karachi Police.
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