The habit of parents murdering their children is unusual and widely condemned.
These children are often illegitimate, and infanticide or
abandonment is a way to escape the societal consequences of what is considered
an unethical conduct.
In Hindu mythology, there are multiple instances of this
behavior, the most well-known of which is Kunti.
The sage Durvasas has given Kunti a mantra that grants her
the ability to conceive and carry offspring for the gods.
Kunti employs the mantra on the spur of the moment to
conjure the Sun, through whom she conceives and carries her son Karna.
She puts the kid in a box and abandons him in the Ganges in
her terror at becoming a mother unexpectedly—she was still unmarried and
reasonably worried about what others may think.
In some circumstances, newborns are murdered by their
parents as a result of the family's desperation.
Almost all of the children slain in these situations are
daughters.
The parents would face a murder charge if they were caught.
However, if a kid was not delivered in a hospital, where
births are properly documented, infanticide is generally difficult to
establish.
Daughters are generally considered as a huge financial
burden for impoverished families, since the cost of arranging their weddings is
often more than they can afford.
The traditional Indian marriage arrangement, in which a
family's sons bring their wives into the family home, perpetuate the joint
family, and care for their parents in their old age, reinforces this attitude
toward daughters.
Because daughters become members of their husband's family
after marriage, they are sometimes seen as "temporary" residents in
their parents' houses.
May You Be the Mother of a Hundred Sons, by Elizabeth Bumiller, was published in 1990.
You may also want to read more about Hinduism here.
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