KARACHI, Pakistan — Hundreds of newborn babies have been found dumped in the garbage across Pakistan, almost all of them girls, according to humanitarian workers in the country.
The Edhi Foundation, a nonprofit social welfare program with maternity and adoption services, told The News International that it found 355 dead infants in garbage dumps across the country in 2017; 99 percent of them were identified as girls. As many as 72 dead girls have been reported found by Edhi in 2018, according to The News, Pakistan’s largest English language newspaper.
Chhipa Welfare Foundation, another nongovernmental organization, came across 93 cases in Karachi where newborn girls were killed, 70 babies in 2017 and 23 this year.
Edhi’s efforts to install “Jhoolas,” or baby cradles, for people to leave unwanted children has received little success.
The foundation received only 14 unwanted children in 2017 who were alive, The News reported. Twelve of the 14 were girls and the two boys were “physically unfit.”
Infanticide is increasing in South Asia as parents prefer sons over daughters. The stigma of out-of-wedlock births also is considered a contributing factor.
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