‘Moms beaten at home led to death of 1.8m girl children’

New Delhi: Jan 07, 2011

The deaths of 1.8 million girl children in India over the past two decades have for the first time being linked to domestic violence against their mothers. After examining over 158,000 births between 1985 and 2005, an international team of researchers found that spousal violence against wives increased the risk of death among girlchildren, but not male kids, in both t h e f i r s t year and the first 5 years of life. According to lead author Jay Silverman, associate professor at Harvard School of Public Health, “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. This violence does not pose a threat to your life if you are lucky enough to be born a boy”.

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