REALITY TV
TV
MOVIES
MUSIC
CELEBRITY
About Us Contact Us Privacy Policy Terms of Use Accuracy & Fairness Corrections & Clarifications Ethics Code Your Ad Choices
© MEAWW All rights reserved
MEAWW.COM / NEWS / CRIME & JUSTICE

Man desperate for son slices pregnant wife's stomach open to check baby's gender after having five daughters

The 35-year-old woman was six or seven months pregnant when the incident occurred
PUBLISHED SEP 22, 2020
(Getty Images)
(Getty Images)

An Indian father who has five daughters was allegedly so desperate for a son that he ripped open his pregnant wife's womb with a sickle to find out the unborn child's gender. The Times of India reported how the 35-year-old woman was six or seven months pregnant when the incident occurred. Authorities revealed that the unborn child miraculously survived the attack.

The victim reportedly underwent emergency surgery Sunday at Delhi’s Safdarjung hospital. According to a report by NDTV, the horror dad — identified only as Pannalal — slit open his wife Anita Devi’s stomach on Saturday, September 19 night at their residence in Budaun, Uttar Pradesh. A local priest reportedly convinced Pannalal that his wife would have another girl child. However, Anita Devi refused to get an abortion.

“My brother-in-law often used to beat my sister for giving birth to five daughters. Our parents had intervened on several occasions. But no one imagined that he would take such a cruel step,” Devi’s brother Ravi Kumar Singh told the newspaper. “When I reached there, I saw blood everywhere. Anita’s stomach was slit, and she told me that her husband did this. I took her to the hospital with the support of the police,” he added.

Devi was first rushed to a medical center in Bareilly but had to be moved to a private hospital when her condition worsened. There, hospital officials reportedly refused to take her in unless the family gave a sizeable deposit. She was subsequently rushed to a hospital in Delhi. Police superintendent Praveen Singh Chauhan said Pannalal has been charged with attempted murder. “Pannalal has been arrested. He has been booked under section 307 (attempt to murder)," he noted. Meanwhile, SHO of Civil Lines police station Sudhakar Pandey told TOI: “The woman’s family has alleged that Pannalal took this step to know the gender of the fetus. We are still investigating the reason. Pannalal has been sent to jail.”

Delhi-based Asian Centre for Human Rights conducted a study on female infanticide and found that India had one of the highest female feticide rates in the world. Newsweek reported how sex-selective abortions were commonplace in the country due to families preferring sons over daughters. According to a 2007 report by the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), the preference for sons in the country is motivated by socio-economic norms and emotional desires that favor males — as found in many societies across the globe.

"Parents expect sons — but not daughters — to provide financial and emotional care, especially in their old age; sons add to family wealth and property while daughters 'drain it through dowries'; sons continue the family lineage while daughters are married away to another household; sons perform important religious roles; and sons defend or exercise the family's power while daughters have to be defended and protected, creating a perceived burden on the household," the report states, in part.

The report further concluded that Indian parents usually discriminate against a daughter depending on the sex of her older siblings, in that a daughter is more likely to get the attention she needs if the family already has son(s).

POPULAR ON MEAWW
MORE ON MEAWW