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According to a recent report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) up to 50 million girls and women are missing from India’ s population as a result of systematic gender discrimination in India. In most countries in the world, there are approximately 105 female births for every 100 males.
In India, there are less than 93 women for every 100 men in the population. The accepted reason for such a disparity is the practice of female infanticide in India, prompted by the existence of a dowry system which requires the family to pay out a great deal of money when a female child is married. For a poor family, the birth of a girl child can signal the beginning of financial ruin and extreme hardship.
However this anti-female bias is by no means limited to poor families. Much of the discrimination is to do with cultural beliefs and social norms. These norms themselves must be challenged if this practice is to stop.
India is fast becoming the land of the boys. The infanticide of girls is changing the male female ratio and many males are without wives. Despite the shortage of women the infanticide goes on. This is one of the many dozen stories that are available about the brutla practice of girl infanticide.
In India, there are less than 93 women for every 100 men in the population. The accepted reason for such a disparity is the practice of female infanticide in India, prompted by the existence of a dowry system which requires the family to pay out a great deal of money when a female child is married. For a poor family, the birth of a girl child can signal the beginning of financial ruin and extreme hardship.
However this anti-female bias is by no means limited to poor families. Much of the discrimination is to do with cultural beliefs and social norms. These norms themselves must be challenged if this practice is to stop.
India is fast becoming the land of the boys. The infanticide of girls is changing the male female ratio and many males are without wives. Despite the shortage of women the infanticide goes on. This is one of the many dozen stories that are available about the brutla practice of girl infanticide.
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Re: The vanishing girls of India
Tue, April 7, 2009 - 11:47 AM
Very true.
Do you know, what it feels like, for a girl, in the third world?
- survive infanticide
- grow up quickly. help with housework, cooking, taking care of siblings
- suffer eve teasing, possibly sexual abuse
- watch parents sell you to someone for $10, and end up in a brothel.
- or, watch parents sell you as a bride to some stranger and pay him a lot more than $10 to take you off their hands
- suffer husband's abuse. He will generally be an alcoholic and will come home and beat you
- suffer your in-laws harassing you for more dowry
- get burned for not bringing enough dowry.
- wonder if ending up at a brothel would've been better
The government has been trying to fix this, but I don't think they have the answer.
Asking for, and giving dowry is illegal by law, but there is no enforcement of the law.
In some villages, the government has tried to do mass community marriages, to reduce the burden of organizing a wedding (that the girl's parents generally do). The govt. also pays the newly weds, but that started getting abused (people remarrying for the money).
Regarding the "in most countries...105 female births for every 100 males", I would question this ratio.
Contrary to popular belief, the chances of having a female or male child are not 50:50, i.e. 100 female for every 100 male.
Apparently Nature favors male children (et tu mama nature?), so the scales should be tipped that way.
There have been reports of Indian families opting for abortions after finding out the gender of the unborn child.
A lot of ethical questions are raised about this. Is it wrong? why? Is a foetus considered life ?
What is a better option for a girl? death by abortion, infanticide, or burning?
Also, dowry maybe unique to India (but i don't think it is), but there have been reports of female abortions in China as well, where you can have exactly one child, and you have to name him/her in two letters (or some such absurd rule)
I think, to be a woman born in India/Asia is a curse. -
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Re: The vanishing girls of India
Tue, April 7, 2009 - 9:53 PMSpeaking on the troubled condition of our modern world, the late historian Arnold Toynbee once said, “The cause of it [the world's malady] is spiritual. We are suffering from having sold our souls to the pursuit of an objective which is both spiritually wrong and practically unobtainable. We have to reconsider our objective and change it. And until we do this, we shall not have peace, either amongst ourselves or within each of us.”
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