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As
soon as the baby girl was born, my mother-in-law kicked
it with her toe and said, 'Who wants this?' She wrapped
it in a wet towel and left it on the floor. My husband's
sister, weak after the delivery, just wept. It died within
a few hours." ....
Palaniamma
from Nalampalli was describing the birth and death of her
sister-in-law's third daughter: the unnamed, unacknowledged
girl child who was killed by her own grandmother. An infant
whose death had been ordered by her own father because he
wanted a son.
A
collective shiver ran through us. One of the 3,000 female
infants who were killed in Dharmapuri district of Tamil
Nadu in the last three years.
Source:
The
Week
One
source states that worldwide fully 42% of all unborn girls
are aborted, compared to 25% of boys.
Source:
Hindu
Women
Children
have, of course, always been caught up in warfare and the
trauma of exposure to violence and brutal death has emotionally
affected generations of young people for the rest of their
lives. Recent developments in warfare however have significantly
heightened the dangers for children. During the last decade,(1990s)
it is estimated that child victims have included:
2
million killed
4-5 million disabled
12 million left homeless
more than 1 million orphaned or separated from their parents
some 10 million psychologically traumatised.
Source:
Children
and War
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Families:
activities
Female
infanticide
Activity:
What do you value?
The
obvious question is:
Why does female infanticide occur?
The
answer to this question is related to values and attitudes that individuals
and societies hold. These values and attitudes are related to customs,
traditions and state laws and policies.
A
simple exercise is "house on fire". The purpose of this exercise
is to determine your values and attitudes to your family and possessions.
You
are woken up in the middle of the night by the smell of fire. You find
your house is on fire. You have 5 minutes to save what you value. List
the seven most important things that you would save.
After
you have made your list, you find the fire has spread faster than you
had expected, and you have to leave one valuable behind. Drop it off
your list.
What
do you value? Is it family members or possessions?
Was it difficult to decide on the seven valuables and then six?
Re-read
the quotes above. What does the family which let the new born girl die,
value?
What is this family's attitude to girls?
Activity:
Locating, selecting and organising information.
The
following activity is broken into five steps. 1-4 may be completed in
any order; do 5 last.
To
find out the answer to the question "why does female infanticide
occur?" complete the following activities:
1.
Using a search engine, locate information on "female infanticide"
or "infanticide". Below is a list of suggested search engines,
you may choose any search engine you prefer. Remember different search
engines often give different result.
The
bighub
Dogpile
Google
Mamma
Ozsearch
Blackstump
Yahoo Australia
Anzwers
Once
you have located an Internet site with information on female infanticide
or infanticide:
- note
the URL, author,
date
of information, country,
summarise
the key points in the article about infanticide.
2.
Using a search engine find information on China's one-child policy.
Two suggested search strings are "one child + China" or "birth
control + china".
Once
you have located an Internet site with information on China's one child
policy:
- note
the URL, author,
date
of information, country,
summarise
the key points in the article about the one-child policy.
3.
Below is a list of search strings for you to locate and select information
about world poverty:
"world
+ poverty"
"world + statistic + poverty"
"poverty + levels"
"definition of poverty"
"income +
disparities"
"poverty reduction".
There
are many sites containing information on world poverty. Once you have
located sites:
- Do
not bookmark yet
- Copy
URL
- Note
the key points about world poverty and the impact on families.
Once
the class or group has collected URLs and noted the key points, decide
which articles are relevant to the family. After the Internet sites
are decided then bookmark the selected URLs.
4.
Using the Internet find answers to the following questions about the
dowry system:
What
is a dowry?
What are the consequences of the dowry system for women?
Are dowries traditional?
What countries still have the practice of dowries?
In the countries that still practice dowries, do laws exist banning
dowries?
5.
Impact of female infanticide as a family issue.
Using
the information you have gathered write a article for a magazine or
newspaper about female infanticide. Include in the article:
-
What
female infanticide is.
-
Relevant
statistics
-
The
countries in which it happens (use a world
map to plot)
-
The
reasons it happens
-
How
values and attitudes, government policies, poverty, traditions and
customs contribute to infanticide in general and specifically to
female infanticide
-
Examples
of how it happens
-
Long-term
consequences of the practice
-
Your
values and attitudes towards the practice
-
What
the practice reveals about the value of women and men in families.
-
Why
it is a family issue.
-
Suggestions
on how to stop the practice.
Children
in wars and armed conflicts
In
the 20th century every country, every generation and every family, has
been affected by war or armed conflict.
For
a child there are a number of easily identifiable issues related to
families caught up in wars:
- family
members as soldiers
- death
of family members
- physical
and mental traumas, including torture
- rape
of both boys and girls
- children
conceived by rape
- conscription
of child soldiers
- loss
of homes, cities and villages
- family
separations
- refugees
- health,
including access to nutritious food and medicine
- education
being interrupted or stopped
Mapping
the world:
Between
1945 and 2000 some 250 wars have occurred around the world. Using a
world map, plot some of the wars that have happened around the world
in this time. (A world map is provided for
printing out.) You may wish to do this exercise for the Internet as
part of your home page on the Convention.
Visit
the following Internet sites:
Children
in War, in the 1996 UNICEF State of the World's Children.
Peace Pledge
Union find Children and War
Save
the Children
BOES war
Human
Rights Watch - Chechnya
Care
International - Landmines
International Campaign to ban Landmines
Thousand
Paper Cranes (search results)
Case
study: Children as zones of peace, UNICEF at work in war zones
Select
material from the above Internet sites that will allow you to devise
a campaign to help families in times of war or after the war. Following
are suggested steps to devise your campaign:
Understanding
what you want
Assess your issue or problem accurately. War and families is a big
issue; do you wish to deal with this or some of the components as identified
above or in the Internet sites you have visited?
Establish your objectives. Have short-term and long-term objectives
e.g. establish a peace network at school is a short term objective.
Ensuring the peace network is still going in years to come is a long
term one.
Based on your objectives plan a strategy to help raise awareness of
the specific issue or problem you have identified.
Be
prepared to inform and educate
Establish a peace network. The purpose of the network is to inform and
educate. The network may be school or community-based. Remember education
is the most effective and powerful tool of change.
Be
focused and honest
If you want to meet your objectives then the people you wish to educate,
inform or influence must see you as focused and honest.
Be
brief
In dealing with people be brief. Whilst your message is important, you
need to be aware that time is important to many people and you lose
them if you are too long-winded. Always be courteous; your objectives
are too important to throw away with emotional responses.
Be
informed and educated
There are always obstacles and opportunities in your campaign. To overcome
the obstacles or make use of the opportunities, you need to have knowledge
directly or indirectly related to the issues.
Be
aware of how systems work
Be aware of how different systems work including, government (local,
sub-national and national) or schools or community organisations. Being
aware of how systems work allows you to effect change more effectively.
Further, the awareness allows you to extend your networks.
Be
aware of those opposing you
Not all people will support you. Do not imitate what your opponents
are doing. Be aware of their arguments and have arguments ready that
will neutralise theirs.
Be
patient
Long-term permanent change takes time. If you want inspiration visit
the Internet site: A
school for Iqbal.
Have
different strategies
Use a variety of strategies to achieve your objectives, including posters,
leaflets, speeches, letters to papers and magazines and an Internet
site.
Based on
the activities create a home page called WE
ARE FAMILY.
Completed
material should be posted on your school's web site.
Please
supply the project officer with:
- URL
- school
name
- country
- e-mail
address
- contact
person
- 1-2
sentences about the work.
If you
have any problems in doing this, please contact the project officer.
Project
officer E-mail:
One.World@det.nsw.edu.au
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