When Olivia and Todd Ericks had her first baby they couldn’t have been happier to bring a baby girl into this world.
“The day our daughter was born was just an amazing day,” Olivia Ericks said. “There really are no words for how we felt, it’s a feeling I never felt until that day.”
The new parents have high hopes for their newborn. “Maybe she’ll grow up to be a doctor or teacher.” Unfortunately, their optimistic attitude isn’t shared around the world.
In India new research shows baby girls are more likely to be abused and neglected compared to baby boys.
In a study done by the Harvard School of Public Health of over 158,000 births occurring between 1985 and 2005, husbands’ violence increased the risk of death among female children, but not male children, in both the first year and the first five years of life.
“Being born a girl into a family in India in which your mother is abused makes it significantly less likely that you will survive early childhood. Shockingly, this violence does not pose a threat to your life if you are lucky enough to be born a boy,” said lead author Jay Silverman, associate professor of society, human development, and health at Harvard School of Public Health.
The study shows 1.8 million female infants and children in India have died over the past 20 years because of domestic violence. In these situations the wife is often abused and so are infant girls.
“Family violence against women in India must be vigorously challenged, given that even a very small reduction in this abuse may lead to the saving of tens of thousands of lives of girl infants and children,” said Silverman.
Researchers are strongly urging programs that focus on violence against women to not only educate the society but to begin to curb the deaths caused by it.
