April 2012 Action Item

Act!

In 1986, Nobel laureate Dr. Amartya Sen conducted research which concluded an estimated 37 million girls and women were “missing” from Indian society—the result of gender-based, selective abortion; infanticide by poisoning, drowning, starving, or strangling female infants; and the murder of wives whose families cannot pay ongoing dowry demands of a husband and his family. Orchestrated kitchen accidents involving kerosene, or faked suicides involving hanging or poison are the most common methods of ridding a family of a wife who is no longer desired or lucrative. In the 30 years since Dr. Sen brought to light this ongoing atrocity, these practices have continued unaddressed by the government and unabated, and the number murdered grows every day. CAN is joining the 50 Million Missing Campaign to call on the Indian government to take direct and definitive action to end this horrifying practice.


WRITE TO:

President Pratibha Patil
c/o The Presidential Secretariat
Rashtrapati Bhavan
New Dehli
INDIA 110 004

Salutation: Her Excellency President Patil

Points to include:

  • Express how upset, distressed, or horrified you were to learn of Dr. Amartya Sen's finding from 1986 that 37 million women and girls had been murdered at the hands of their families or communities for no other reason than they were unwanted because of their gender.
  • Indicate that it is your understanding that this practice has continued and those who perpetrate these crimes do so with impunity—because of this the number of women and girls murdered has grown significantly in the decades since Dr. Sen's research was first published.
  • Remind President Patil that it is the primary responsibility of any government to protect the rights and well-being of all its citizenry—regardless of status or gender. As a woman herself, and the first woman president of India, the plight of Indian women and the general elevation of them throughout Indian society must be of particular importance to her.
  • Strongly urge the Indian government to finally address this horrifying practice by: 1) thoroughly investigating all suspicious cases of suicide or accidents; 2) prosecute to the fullest extent of the law and duly punish those individuals responsible for the wrongful death of an infant girl or woman; and 3) rigorously pursue community education that improves the status and social value placed on females and aims to eradicate the violence and murder to which many are vulnerable.