Woman Tortured For Not Birthing Son Commits Suicide: Time To End Male Heir Obsession!

A 28-year-old woman in Gurgaon died by suicide after enduring continuous torture, physical abuse, and emotional abuse for giving birth to three girls and no sons in eight years of marriage. The police have charged the husband with abetment to suicide.

The deceased woman, who was identified as Krishna, got married to Baljeet in March 2015. The couple had three daughters, aged seven, three, and six months. Bheem Singh, Krishna’s brother, said that his sister was tortured and harassed continuously because she did not give birth to a boy.

On April 12, Baljeet called Krishna’s family and informed them that she had committed suicide. The police were informed and shifted Krishna’s body to the mortuary. Singh filed a complaint with Baljeet that his sister had killed herself because of the physical and mental torture by her husband. Based on his complaint, the police registered a case against Baljeet under Section 306 (abetment to suicide) of the Indian Penal Code.

Woman Tortured For Not Birthing Son

In patriarchal societies, if women give birth to a boy, then they’ve hit the jackpot! Everyone is pleased, and they are praised. If they give birth to a girl, they are expected to try again. Because who will take care of them in their old age? How will the family’s lineage be continued?

Both in urban and rural India, regardless of socio-economic status, the obsession to have a male heir is ingrained in most people. The pressure might be indirect and covert in posh households, while women belonging to the lower economic strata are extensively abused and tortured. Regardless of how much we’ve progressed as a society, the obsession over male heirs is present at large.

So, women are forced to keep trying until they have a male child. Many families fail to realise or disregard the fact that pregnancy can take a huge toll on a woman’s physical and mental health. Giving birth is not a joke; a woman is risking her life every time she brings another life into this world. But she is only recognised for it if it's a male child; otherwise, all she receives is resentment.

In patriarchal societies like ours, the gender of the child is seen as the pride of the family. Even if the family is progressive and treats both male and female children equally, society will always remind them of what they've missed out on. The lives of couples who don’t have a son are often seen as incomplete.

It is rather shocking that many people aren’t aware that it’s the sperm that determines the gender of the baby! And who produces the sperm? Men! But who gets rebuked for not having a male child? Women! This is the basic middle school syllabus, and I wonder if the "educated" men of today were sleeping during biology class!

Families that obsess over male heirs often engage in irrational and superstitious practises. Women are forced to have sexual intercourse on certain days of the month, eat certain kinds of food, fast on certain days, participate in various rituals, visit holy places, etc. so that they conceive a male child.

Logically speaking, if a family wants a male heir, shouldn't they be forcing the man to do all this? But no, when does society ever ask anything out of a man while women can always be taken advantage of? It’s distressing to see how women lose their agency over their lives and bodily autonomy after marriage. They are reduced to baby-making machines!

According to a study by King Absullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia, and Universite de Paris, France, it is estimated that 2 million missing female births will be registered between 2017 and 2030 in India due to sex-selective abortions. Shouldn’t families be grateful to have a healthy child? Instead, here we are looking at dreadful statistics! It’s high time that today’s women stand up for themselves and husbands are supportive towards their spouses. How will society have the power to control a couple’s life if the couple doesn’t give them the space or entitlement to do so?

Suggested Reading: In Pursuit Of Male Child, In-Laws Strip Woman Naked Before Making Her Eat Ash