A two day old baby girl was buried alive last week in a village in Mahbubnagar district of Andhra Pradesh because she was seen as an additional burden on a poverty-stricken household, which already had seven females in it. This speaks not only of the tragic status of many girl children and women in our society, it shows up in stark contrast the primitive times in which a section of our society lives in, notwithstanding the giant strides taken by several women in other sections of society. The manner in which the baby was sought to be disposed off by her grandfather and other relatives with the apparent consent of her mother was gruesome to say the least. This cruelty to the girl child, comes from the traditional gender bias with the girl child being seen as a burden rather than an asset by illiterate and ignorant families. Many women in our country are regarded as second class citizens, living within a social system that is patriacharchal. Most women are unaware of their rights and even allow perpetration of abuse, as the mother apparently did to her baby, because of a sense of helplessness. Some media reports had it that the baby was illegitimate, which must have added a sense of shame to the mother’s already pathetic situation.   
As long as foeticide and infanticide are practiced by the ignorant people in our country, it can only be said that the system has failed to ensure that the girl child is treated on equal terms with her male sibling. Women’s liberation has had a long journey in the country, with activists succeeding in initiating several laws against oppression of women and the girl child. But obviously laws alone are not enough, as the baby who nearly died had the right to life granted by the Constitution, but it was lack of awareness about her rights that allowed her relatives to try to kill her. 
That she was rescued within minutes of being buried alive by a farmer, who was male, shows he was obviously not ruled by any bias against the girl child, but blessed by humaneness. That there has been an outpouring of sympathy and enquires by couples wanting to give the “miracle baby” a home, also proves that not all is lost. There is hope and as long as we keep faith in our sense of justice there is light at the end of the tunnel for our girls.