Mother was urged to kill me: Indian minister![](http://i.dawn.com/primary/2014/06/53ae7901b52a7.jpg?r=523812123)
NEW DELHI: India’s education minister revealed on Friday that her mother was urged to kill her at birth, highlighting the deadly preference for boys that has left the country with a population crisis.
Like many other Indian girls, Smriti Irani said she was seen as a burden when she was born.
“I am sharing it for the first time that when I was born, someone hinted to my mother that ‘beti to bojh hoti hai’ (a daughter is a burden),” she said in comments reported by the Press Trust of India (PTI). “And therefore, she should kill me. ”
Sex-selective abortion, infanticide and the death of girls through neglect have left India with a huge and alarming gender imbalance.
Census data indicates that in 2011 there were just 914 girls aged under six for every 1,000 boys — far behind the global benchmark of 952.Smriti Irani told students in Bhopal that she was only alive because her mother had not listened to the advice.
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My mother was brave and she did not do that, because of which today I am standing in front of you,” she told them. She added that she was highlighting her own story as India’s new government plans renewed efforts to tackle the issue
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That is Published in Dawn... well Madam.. now you are a minsiter do something ..