In India, there has been a rise in the amount of unwanted girls within the country. According to Huffington Post, the traditional practice of preferring sons over daughters is still occurring. A recent study has shown that this practice has left about 21 million unwanted girls. People continue to have children until they have their desired number of sons. The study mentions that these girls often grow up to have poor nourishment and less education than boys. Due to this practice, it has created a skewed ratio between males and females. It is said that testing to determine the sex of the child is illegal. This law has not stopped families from finding out the sex of the unborn child. According to the article, people still test of the gender of the baby and if it turns out to be a girl, they have an abortion. This has lead to the gender gap in India. Some of the reasons behind the preference of sons over daughters are because of religious reasons (men can only perform certain prayers for their parents), property is only passed down to men, etc. Researchers suggest that India needs to reflect on their culture and society in relation to their preferences of sons. I personally agree. When I first read this article, I was a little surprised that this was going on. I know years ago this was happening but I didn’t expect for this to be happening in today’s society. This practice is very dangerous. As the article mentioned, the unwanted girls have poorer health and education, this is problematic. People who still practice this need to realize that having a daughter is not a curse to the family. Men and Women are capable to contribute the same to society/family life. Gender should not be factor in this.
Any thoughts on this?
-Haita Toure