In Cutch in 1840, at the request of the Rao, the chiefs bound themselves to measures of repression. In 1840 there were 4912 males and 335 females, but in 1873 the Jahreja males were 8371 to 4272 females, and the Rao expressed his determination to repress this crime. In Palanpur and Mahi kanta, and among the Kunbi of Gujerat, the success was great. In 1840 there were only three girls alive amongst 35 clans residing in 95 villages in the southern portion of the Allahabad district. In 1843 it was found that not a single daughter existed amongst the great dominant clan of Chau han Rajputs at Mainpuri. In the latter case, shortly after the determined efforts of a collector to put down the vice at any cost, there was a wonderful change effected; and it was found that in the year 1864 there were 1284 Chauhan girls living.
In March 1870 an Act was passed for the repres sion of infanticide. The rules sanctioned by this Act are very simple and precise. Certain districts or clans are proclaimed. A careful census is taken, and a nominal register is prepared, showing the names of all the members of a family. In this register, each birth, marriage, and death is re corded, the midwife, head of the family, and village night-watchman being responsible for the accuracy of such a record, and for duly reporting any event to the police. A tribe or district is to be held guilty if the female children do not aver age 40 per cent.-10 per cent. being allowed for certainty's sake, although of course a higher ratio would be more strictly in accordance with the natural proportion. Further, the report tells us, the minimum number to which the ratio might safely be applied, was fixed at 25 ; and where out of that number of children only 40 per cent. are females,—i.e. where there are 10 girls to 15 boys, —the ratio may be accepted as a prima facie indication sufficient to warrant the surveillance contemplated by the rules.' But as it was found in some districts that the average of the female population of girls was only 25 per cent., stronger rules were to be at once enforced, every pregnancy was to be reported by the village midwife and night-watchman, and the police were ordered to be on the alert to detect even the attempt to commit crime. Even the heads of families could be obliged to report preg nancies to the Local Government, were such a step necessary to uproot the evil.
In the N.11! Provinces, in 1874-75, girls were only per cent, of the total infants.
In Oudh, from a census of 649 villages in 1875- I 76, infanticide seems to have been discontinued amongst Rajput children ; but in the N.W. Pro vinces there were 3113 villages, with a population of 393,529 souls, and there were birth reports of 4.08 per cent. more boys, showing a supposed
concealment of girls born.
In Kattyawar, in the year 1875-76, taking all the Rajput tribes, there were 9010 females to 100 males. The Jahreja tribe in 1872 had 90.93 females, and in 1875-76, The death-rate among male infants in 1875-76 was per cent. on the total number of male births, and among females, 1519 per cent. The number of un married Rajput girls in 1874-75 was and in 1875-76 it was In Cutch, however, in 1875-76, the percentage of infant deaths to births among males was 18.30, and among females, 3113, against and 30.05 in 1874-75.
In Palanpur the percentages were 10'52 and 12.90 respectively, against and in 1874 75 ; and in Mahikanta, 16.32 and 36'66, against and 27.45.
In the first half of 1872-73, 150 persons were punished in India under the Infanticide Act. In 1875, 27 districts in the N.W. were under the infanticide rules. On the 1st of April 1875, there were found in the proclaimed villages 80,235 boys to 32,759 girls, in the proportion of 711 to The returns on 1st September 1874 showed 82,400 boys to 35,137 girls (not including arrivals and removals), in the ratio of 701 to The minor population has risen from 12,994 to 117,537, the boys having increased by 2.7, and the girls by per cent., in the ratio of 28 to 72 per 100.
Female infanticide, by violent measures, has greatly decreased among the Jat tribes, but many children are allowed to die by neglect. With them the great cause of the crime was the excess ive expenditure for their marriage, but this has been greatly curtailed.
The phase which the crime once presented in Southern India was quite different from that which is now presented by the same crime amongst the northern Rajputs. Infanticide in Southern India, it is believed, used to be practised chiefly amongst the caste of temple dancing-women, and, strange to relate, led to the murder, not of female, but of male children. This was remarkable. Infanti cide in India has always, generally speaking, meant the murder of girls, so that the expense (so crushing to Hindus, to whom marriage means feasting and lavish expenditure) of wedding them to the sons of neighbours might be avoided by poor parents. But in the case of the caste of temple women, females were profitable, whilst male children were useless. So the new-born male infant used to be cast into some particular well or secret receptacle, whilst the girls were trained from infancy to read, sing, dance, adorn themselves, enjoy the emoluments of the temple, and take part in the worship of the god.