jun 24th, 2011 CE
i was listening to an interview with the author of this book; 160 million missing women in east asia and the indian subcontinent.
i am beginning to wonder if the culprit is development: it is the more affluence middle classes who wish to have only 1-2 children who are selectively aborting female fetuses, it sounds like. this has been the experience in punjab etc.
4 comments:
In a developed and also agarian economy women are needed, hence valued. Women if seen as potential earning members are not seen as a burden hence less incentive to commit infanticide.
In some sections women are not valued. In one particular suburb, which is very affluent has the worst female to male ratio in New Delhi. So, I am not sure it is the lack of money. What I see is a lack of values, ethics.
When my first daughter was born(now 14) there were remarks from people saying "So nice to see a cradle ceremony of a baby girl. It has been a while since I have been to a girls ceremony'.
Sad but true.
This is correct.
Many English educated Indians have a vested interest in spreading the falsehood that it is the poor who unable to afford kids (esp girls) who are doing this. That is a pure lie.
The problem is worst among urban, so called "educated" middle and upper classes.
Punjab and Haryana are by no means poor states when compared with say Bihar, Orissa etc but they have the worst sex ratios.
I remember that according to the 2001 census the community with the worst ratio was Sikhs followed by the Jains, hardly "poor" and infact the opposite is true.
It is also in the attitude, many urbanites are brainwashed by gov't family planning propaganda and look on children as a burden or toys to show off.
In families that actually follow Dharma abortion is something unthinkable unless the mother encounters serious health problems, the Dharmashastra's and Vedas are very clear in condemning abortion as murder. Those who do such a vile thing should truly be outcasted.
It is a testament to how confused the Hindu movement is that they made the worthless UCC (which anyway goes contrary to the Hindu spirit of allowing different communities to govern themselves by different laws) a central plank but never even thought of the far more important issues of restricting abortion (and actually implementing it) and allowing people the right to bear arms.
Well, I'll chalk it down to an EQ gap - Indians see male children associated with success, and therefore they want them more. A society that is less competitive would probably put less emphasis on having male children.
@ San,
When a society is faced with war or war like situation it helps to have male children.
But, in a competitive world women are doing quite well, in engineering, medicine etc. I think in a competitive modern world children are not valued. Every children reduces the mothers earning power. I am talking with experience!
@ julian, absolutely, true. It is wealthy communities that practise more sex selection.
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