The Midwife’s Confession: Eye Investigates

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 10 September 2024

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For the last thirty years Indian journalist Amitabh Parashar has been investigating why a group of midwives in his home state of Bihar were routinely forced to kill baby girls. In a series of shocking interviews, the midwives explain what happened and how a remarkable social worker brought change. Together they began to save baby girls destined to be killed. Decades later BBC Eye finds a woman, who was possibly one of the girls. What will happen when she returns to meet the only surviving midwife?

A warning, this program includes upsetting content.

The Midwife’s Confession was produced by Anubha Bhonsle, Purnima Mehta, Debangshu Roy, Neha Tara Mehta, Annabel Deas, Rob Wilson and Ahmen Khawaja. The editors were Daniel Adamson and Rebecca Henschke. It was mixed by Neva Missirian. Image credit: BBC Eye

Transcript

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0:00.0	For decades, baby girls have been disappearing across India.
0:09.0	If people asked what had happened, the family might say the girl had died in childbirth or become ill and
0:17.8	passed away. But mostly people knew not to ask questions.
0:25.0	When a girl was born, the family would lock the room and stand behind us with sticks.
0:31.0	They'd say, we'll give you 50 rupees. We already have 4-5
0:34.7	daughters. This will wipe out our wealth. Once we give dowry for all our girls,
0:39.3	we'll starve to death. We already have many daughters. Now another girl has been born.
0:44.6	Kill her. baby girls being killed in India about 30 years ago. I was a young reporter back then,
0:57.0	hungry for stories. I had heard about a case in Katihar close to my hometown so I returned there to learn more.
1:09.1	What I found out was deeply disturbing. I killed at least 15 to 20, not many.
1:20.0	I used to hold their neck like this and killed them.
1:25.0	I fed them salt and that killed them.
1:30.0	Then I would take them to the forest and bury them in the dark.
1:51.0	In the dark.
2:04.0	I am Amita Parashar and this is the midwives confession for the documentary on the BBC World Service. When I began this investigation nearly 30 years ago,
2:12.0	I was not prepared for what I would find out.
2:15.0	At the time, almost all babies in rural Bihar were born at home,
2:20.0	delivered by Bidwives, their lives in their hands.
2:24.0	Since dowry became common practice,
2:28.0	I have killed 12-13 babies.
2:31.0	I met the midwives one by one. They each told me the same thing.
2:37.0	I killed one and buried it in a pot. The second one I killed by giving it fertilizer. The third one I
	...

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