Infanticide of girls in Tamil Nadu? Special team formed to investigate alleged incidents across the state

The Tamil Nadu police have announced the formation of a special team to investigate cases of infanticide and foeticide across the country. This decision comes after a couple from Yellur village in Vellore district, Jeeva (28) and his wife Dayana (20), were arrested on Friday for allegedly poisoning and killing their little daughter.

The arrest came following a complaint by Dayana's father Saravanan, who had told the Veppensulam Station House Officer (SHO) his suspicions about his granddaughter's sudden death. Saravanan said his daughter initially told him that the baby died after she slipped away. Unconvinced by this explanation, he filed a police complaint.

During questioning, Jeeva and Dayana confessed to killing their daughter because they expected their next child to be a boy. In response to this tragic incident, the Tamil Nadu Police has decided to set up a special team headed by a Deputy Inspector General (DIG) level officer to ascertain whether there are any other such cases in the state.

Crackdown by special police team

The special police team will collect data on infant deaths of the past year from all police headquarters of the district. Vellore district police will work with the district child welfare department and the child protection committee to ascertain the number of infant deaths across the state.

Vellore has a disturbing history of girl child and fetal killing. Several such cases have been reported in the last few years. Deaths due to milk aspiration in female babies are reported almost every month. In response, the Vellore district administration had earlier issued directions to district medical officers to classify second-born babies as high-risk babies and to conduct weekly follow-up visits for at least a month. Taluk hospitals have also been directed to monitor the health and growth of female babies and village nurses and technicians have been assigned to track their development.

The state health department has stepped up enforcement of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act, 1994 to combat female foeticide. In recent years, the Tamil Nadu police have been cracking down on illegal scanning centres that carry out sex determination. For example, 22 illegal scanning centres were closed down in Tiruvannamalai district a few years ago.