ON Sunday, this newspaper reported a harrowing case of murder in Muzaffargarh. According to the story, a young woman and her child were set on fire by the woman’s husband on April 2. Their crime? The woman was punished for giving birth to a girl, and the infant for being one. Sadly, the mother died this weekend although her eight-month-old daughter has miraculously survived.

When the dangerously obsessive preference for having boys supports the patriarchal notion that the latter can provide economic stability — unlike girls who are considered bad fortune — many mothers find themselves contemplating sex-selective abortions or abandoning their newly born daughter. The Edhi Foundation’s ambulances pick up dead babies from streets and garbage dumps in many parts of the country. Some of the infants have been strangled to death, others burnt, starved and even stoned — most with their umbilical cord still intact. It is commendable that the foundation has urged people to deposit unwanted infants in cradles placed outside its offices with no questions asked.

However, its efforts also underscore the state’s negligence — the state has turned away from protecting the lives of vulnerable infants. For their part, police rarely investigate cases of female infanticide.

With infanticide more common in societies where there is poverty and poor development — such as India and some African countries — combating this scourge requires public-awareness campaigns and education. Addressing the social stigma faced by women when they have girls is critical to dispelling the notion that boys are more valuable than girls. This is especially significant where misogyny is rampant from the get-go.

The authorities must make it clear that killing female infants is tantamount to murder and that the perpetrators will be punished. Above all, the state should know that one way to stop anti-women and anti-girl practices is to support universal girls’ education, because educating a girl means educating an entire community, thereby changing cultural attitudes.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2017