My name is Amarpreet Deol , or more commonly known as Amar and I am a 3rd year Social Sciences student at Glasgow Caledonian University. I have a placement with Union Solidarity International (USI) for my Community Links project with the University,and I have been assigned a topic of my own choice to observe, research and present.

The topic that I have decided to do is Gendercide and Female Infanticide. Gendercide/female infanticide is the process of killing new born girls, simply because they are not the desired sex for some cultures. It’s a disgusting justification for such cultures as they believe men are less likely to bring shame to the family and apparently more affordable to raise than their female counterparts.

It’s an emotive topic that has been an interest of mine ever since watching the documentary, “It’s A Girl”. The documentary focused on India and China and how their cultures value boys much more than girls to the extent of abandoning and even killing new born girls. The documentary was an eye opener for me and ever since, I have been passionate to go ahead to do my own research about the topic and to try and understand why these crimes occur and what can be done to prevent such atrocities from taking place.

In my opinion, Gendercide/Female Infanticide is an area that has not been a huge focus for people in my generation. My aim is to change this and create awareness and campaign for change for those young girls who can’t be heard, for those women who are too afraid to speak out and for those politicians that brush this act of violence under the carpet. It’s these three main categories I want to help, and assure that we are all watching and are fighting for justice.

During my time with USI, I will be working with Walton Pantland in Glasgow, who will assist me in developing an awareness raising project. My project will be in the form of a video which will be presented on the USI website. It will include the responses to a recent survey which I have conducted on Facebook and Twitter and interviews that took place in a Birmingham Sikh Temple (Gurdwara). The main aims of the surveys and interviews were to find out the general perception of women in our culture and how they are different from those in India. I also determined whether Female Infanticide is a topic that is well known in the Western world and what should be done to raise awareness.

I hope you’ll enjoy keeping posted with my findings and observations, and collectively we can all make change and end Gendercide for good!!!