India throwing out girls?!

[mike3]

Hi.

I saw this:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110504/ap_on_re_as/as_india_no_country_for_little_girls

What do you think? What could be done about this problem?

[Wudang]

If you have the heart for it google "The dying rooms" to see a documentary on similar things in China. I'm not the most emotional of people but I wept watching it.

[bignickel]

I would think chucking out the whole dowry system would be a positive first step.

[PhantomWolf]

I would think chucking out the whole dowry system would be a positive first step.

Or even better, reverse it. With the scarcity of girls, the boys should have to start paying the girl's family for the right to marry her. (Yes I know this raises certain issues too.)

[rjh01]

If future, if you are a woman in China looking for a man to marry you will have a choice. Many men will never be able to find any woman to marry.

[bignickel]

If future, if you are a woman in China looking for a man to marry you will have a choice. Many men will never be able to find any woman to marry.
Actually, I've heard that it's becoming the opposite: the women in China have even less choice. They end up marrying whichever man their family tells them to, based on how much money the man will pay the family / position / etc.

[rjh01]

Actually, I've heard that it's becoming the opposite: the women in China have even less choice. They end up marrying whichever man their family tells them to, based on how much money the man will pay the family / position / etc.

Ok, the families of females will have more choice. At least if the family of the man pays the family of the female a huge amount of money then at least the man has an incentive to look after the female.

[Magyar]

just another example of the evil that is religion.

[geni]

just another example of the evil that is religion.

More cultural than religion.

[sylvan8798]

Population control - are people really doing a better job than nature did? What goes around will eventually come around.

http://www.amazon.com/Mothers-Ordeal-Womans-Against-One-child/dp/0751508071/ref=sr_1_38?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304643842&sr=1-38

[Susheel]

I am an Indian and this is one of the things that makes me ashamed to be one. In India, women are seen as more of a burden. The extreme case is termination of pregnancies and abandonment at birth, but there are the more widespread and hidden technique. Arranged marriages with the first available bloke, who cares if she can get along with him or if he is a wife beater. :(

[TriangleMan]

Or even better, reverse it. With the scarcity of girls, the boys should have to start paying the girl's family for the right to marry her. (Yes I know this raises certain issues too.)

Unfortunately it does appear to be more a cultural issue than a religious one. Pakistan is a Muslim country and under Islam the groom pays a dowry (Mahr) to the bride. Despite this the gender ratio in Pakistan is still skewed, perhaps only slightly better than in India.

Great research paper on it here (http://economics-files.pomona.edu/GarySmith/Econ190/PakistanSexRatio.pdf) with excellent maps of region-by-region comparisons of Pakistan and India.

[Eddie Dane]

Add to that that many people in the third world now get access to cheap abortions and ways to know the gender of the baby.

Expect gender ratios to become much more imbalanced in the future.

[rjh01]

Add to that that many people in the third world now get access to cheap abortions and ways to know the gender of the baby.

Expect gender ratios to become much more imbalanced in the future.


This is a good and a bad thing.
Good - One form of birth control. The fewer females there are the fewer people who will be born in the next generation.
Bad - Men without wives may do things that are not of benefit to society.

[shandyjan]

If you have the heart for it google "The dying rooms" to see a documentary on similar things in China. I'm not the most emotional of people but I wept watching it.

I don't remember this, I couldnt watch, just reading the transcript was enough. Its stuck with me, disturbed me.
It still disturbes me becasue I know 15 years ago is nothing because these kind of things still go on! It's a sick world.

[epepke]

I want some Indian girls. Where do I sign up?