Friday, June 30, 20065
The "curse" of having a girl in India
An Indian BBC correspondent writes:
If our baby is a girl - her arrival is likely to be greeted, by some, with condolences. A friend - delighted with his new daughter soon became infuriated at comments that his home had been cursed with a girl.
"Relatives arrived laden with gifts of sweet meats," he said. "They cuddled her and shook their heads at our misfortune."
These are attitudes engrained in many sections of Indian society. More than 10 million female fetuses have been aborted in India in the last two decades.
The prospect of paying a dowry and knowing a daughter could never generate the income of a son is enough for some families to commit murder.
Comments
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Gasman
Gender imballance is just one of many social time bombs that India and China face in the comming decades. Just imagine hoards of unmarriagable males; marriage will go to those with education, financial stability and social status. The tens of millions left out and without the stabilizing effect of a family to support will be perfect fodder for al Qida and other such groups to recruit.
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Samson Isberg
Add to that the unexploded HIV time bomb in those countries. As in the 1350s, nature will exact its revenge.
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Anonymous
This doesnt make any sense to me.
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Anonymous
to Anon 923 -- "wouldn't that forced society to change and make the MALES pay the dowry...?" In traditional societies, tradition is a hard thing to change...the reason for the female infanticide is the tradition...until the burden on society is so great that it can no longer be sustained, the tradition is unlikely to change. The 'tipping point' hasn't arrived yet...but it's coming.
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Anonymous
I wonder if this situation with having a lot of young males without women would lead to some unrest or war? North of China and India, there is Russia where there is some small preference for girl babies at least among women. Not nearly to the same extent as the preference for boys in India and China and not enough to create major imbalance, but to the extent that a single mother who cannot take care of a baby is more likely to keep a girl and give a boy to an orphanage. At least judging from the waiting periods for international adoptions from Russia - one needs to wait longer for a girl.
Post a Comment »12:34 PM
On the other hand, I do not see why it is more morally reprehensible to abort fetuses just because they are female than for any other reason. For the fetus being aborted, I would imagine the mother's reasons are completely indifferent.
2:55 PM
If there is a big male/female imbalance, forcing males to go unmarried, wouldnt that force society to change and make the MALES pay the dowry instead of females?
If females are in short supply, it doesnt make any sense to have them pay dowrys
8:23 AM
10:36 PM
So, some young Indian or Chinese males might just have to look North to find a woman - no dowry, of course and not enough women there for everyone as the birth rate is so low, but young sex-starved males might just not care.
6:14 PM