TY - BOOK AU - Venkatachalam,R. AU - Srinivasan,Viji ED - India. TI - Female infanticide SN - 8124100594 : AV - HV6541.I52 S258 1993 PY - 1993/// CY - New Delhi PB - Har-Anand Publications KW - Infanticide KW - India KW - Salem (District) N1 - The issues of female infanticide and female foeticide have acquired considerable public prominence, in the context of the discussions on adverse sex-ratio in India. In the literature on adverse sex-ratio, using anthropological and demographic perspectives, there are several attempts to understand these practices, whose impact might lead to gender imbalances. Yet, this paper contests that such explanations remain comparatively inadequate in explaining the phenomenon of female infanticide and female feticide. It is intriguing to note that female infanticide which was claimed to be effectively controlled in pre-independent India has resurfaced in post-independent India not just among the communities which were historically alleged to have been associated with practices of female infanticide and female feticide, but even among communities and regions where it was previously unknown. Added to the practice of female infanticide, is female foeticide, thanks to the arrival of medical technologies. It is argued and even proved empirically in the context of north India that development in communication, transport and health sectors has resulted in comparative decline of female infanticide and feticide. However in this paper, on the basis of empirical studies, I argue that in South India there are increasing signs of female infanticide and feticide in some regions and some groups amidst development and relative prosperity. I attempt to explain this through kinship and marriage rules changing forms of economic relationship, health infrastructure, education, son preference/daughter neglect, overall prosperity and patriarchy N2 - Study with special reference to Salem District, Tamil Nadu, India ER -