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Female Infanticide and Child Neglect in Rural North India

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Part of the book series: Culture, Illness and Healing ((CIHE,volume 11))

Abstract

Sitting in the hospital canteen for lunch every day, I can see families bringing their children into the hospital. So far, after watching for five days, I have seen only boys being carried in for treatment, no girls (author’s field notes, Ludhiana Christian Medical College, November 1983).

Much of my recent research on this subject has been supported by grants from the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. I am grateful for the Foundation’s support which enabled me to visit two hospitals in India during November 1983 in order to learn about their community health programs: Ludhiana Christian Medical College in the Punjab and Vellore Christian Medical College in Tamil Nadu. While in India, I received help from many people, but I especially want to thank Dr. Betty Cowan, Principal of Ludhiana CMC, and Dr. P.S. Sundar Rao, Chief of the Biostatics Department at Vellore CMC. An earlier version of this chapter was presented at a seminar sponsored by the Department of Anthropology and the Asian Studies Program at the University of Pittsburgh in March 1985, and I am grateful for the comments I received from those who attended. Finally, I must thank The Metropolitan Studies Program, The Maxwell School, Syracuse University, for support of my work.

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© 1987 D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland

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Miller, B.D. (1987). Female Infanticide and Child Neglect in Rural North India. In: Scheper-Hughes, N. (eds) Child Survival. Culture, Illness and Healing, vol 11. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3393-4_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3393-4_5

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-55608-029-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-3393-4

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