SIKHISM AND FEMALE INFANTICIDE

In this paper an attempt has been made to understand the issue of the female
infanticide in the Sikhism. The rationale of this paper is to identify the extent of the
practice of the female infanticide among the Sikhs as it is generally assumed that the
Sikh girls were more vulnerable to female infanticide/foeticide as compared to other
religious groups. The objective of this paper is to identify the Sikhs position where
they stands in the killing of the girls as this is a practice which was strongly
condemn by the tenth Sikh Guru Gobind Singh. The paper is divided into two parts;
the first part covers the views of the Sikh Gurus on the issue. In the second part a
comparative analysis is made on the religious group’s sex ratio, where the Sikhs
always have lowest sex ratio but interestingly they are continuously showing
remarkable improvement in their sex ratio patterns as compared to Hindu and
Muslims since the first census of the Punjab in 1868.