indian council of medical research - Pondicherry University DSpace ...

"eglected the smaller of the twlns
She just abandoned the chlld and took her other
children and went away to another vlllage Neelavathy felt sorry for the neglected girl
ch~ld She brought the baby home, fed her and took care of her The baby repeatedly
fell s~ck Neelavattly took her to the local PHC and bought medlclnes to the best of her
capac~ty She sald. "What can we do ~f 11 IS a girl It IS not In our hands I just could not
bear to see my own grand chlld be~ng neglected I am do~ng my best for her" Afler 3
months the baby Improved and the baby s mother came and took back her ch~ld Thls
case study shows that a g~rl chlld can be neglected under pressure by the mother The
qrand mothers att~tudr rrflrrted that !tie q~rl chlld was st111 a ch~ld for the (am~ly In the
study area
7 4 2 Nutrition and the girl child
[a) Ethnographic methods
The villagers dlci not seem to glve any spec~al preference to thelr sons. In glvlng food
Structured obselvatlon focused on thls Issue dunng vls~ts to the vlllage In the study
penod also conf~rmed th~s The food that was prepared was d~stnbuted according to
each ones need among the fam~ly members About 53 0%, (851160) sa~d that whoever
was hunqry ate flrst In the house and 43 0% sa~d that the~r ch~ldren ate flrst
However.1 9% sa~d that they gave food flrst to the male ch~ldren A few women In the
group dlscuss~on felt that boys were fussy about food and were dlfflcult to please whlle
glrls were more accommodat~ve The adolescents who partlupated In the group
~ISCUSSIO~S were unanimous In saylng that there was no d~etaiy dlscnmlnat~on In the~r
houses Anandh~ once sa~d, " We are three daughters and one son. Whenever my
father br~ngs home anything to eat, he dlv~des Into four equal parts and glves us."