Devi's Revenge?

[Guest guest]

Is Devi taking a sort of clever revenge for the maltreatment of Her

daughters?

 

For many years, human rights activists looked with consternation at

the imbalance in number between men and women in India. In nature,

the ratio is about 1,000 boys to 1,000 girls; however , India's 2001

census showed a ratio of 1,000 boys to 927 girls, a huge demographic

disparity:

 

"Deliberate discrimination against girl children takes several forms:

nutritional denial such as inadequate breastfeeding and early

weaning; insufficient or delayed medical care; lack of attention,

causing emotional deprivation; and insufficient investment in

resources. All these have been documented as leading to excess

mortality in the female child. Excess female child mortality has been

reported mainly from South Asian countries. ... Another manifestation

of gender discrimination against girl children is sex-specific

abortion of female fetuses. ... Female infanticide - the deliberate

killing of female infants soon after birth - is a much rarer

phenomenon than neglect of girl children and sex-selective abortion."

(http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/Organizations/healthnet/SAsia/suchana/022

5/george.html)

 

As if to add insult to injury, those girls who survive to adulthood

have often been expected to bring a substantial dowry with them when

they marry into their husband's family. In some extreme cases, the

girls are murdered in staged "cooking accidents" (i.e. burnings) when

their families cannot come through with the promised money and gifts.

However, two recent reports -- one from the Singapore Straits Times

and one from the Washington Post, suggest that this despicable

situation may be coming to its logical end:

 

1. MEN NOW PAY TO GET MARRIED IN INDIA

Source:

http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/topstories/story/0,4386,158601,00.htm

l?

 

NEW DELHI, INDIA, Dec 4, 2002: Brides are becoming scarce in India

because of a growing imbalance in the number of males and females

being born here.

 

The situation is so bad that some parents are not only dropping

demands [that womens' families pay] wedding dowries, but are also

offering a "bride price" when asking for a woman's hand in marriage

for their sons.

 

Nationwide, the number of girls under six declined from 945 for every

1,000 boys in 1991 to 927 last year. The problem is also growing in

the capital, evidence that the theory which holds that a better

educated and affluent population will cast away prejudices is

incorrect.

 

The main reason for the lopsided sex ratio ironically is modern

technology. Indian cities are rife with illegal sex-determination

clinics. In cities like New Delhi and states like Haryana, parents

with better education and higher incomes pay for tests to determine

the sex of their unborn child which, if a girl, would be aborted.

 

India today tops the world in illegal abortions and female

infanticide. The prevalence of sex-determination tests reflects a

tradition that prefers boys.

 

2. India's Growing Population Imbalance

Source:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61642-2002Dec1.html

 

BHALI ANANDPUR, INDIA, December 2, 2002: Four years ago Jai

Palarwalset set out to find a bride for his eldest son. He consulted

with friends and relatives, and after two years finally arranged a

meeting with the parents of a teenage girl from another village. But

the marriage was not to be for the parents thought their daughter

could do better. Since then, there hasn't even been a nibble.

 

"The ones who are looking want a groom with a government job and

large tracts of land, and we have neither," said Palarwal, a retired

electrician. "The girls' parents have become very choosy."

 

They can afford to be. The parents in question live in the state of

Haryana, and Haryana is running out of girls. A fertile farming state

just west of New Delhi, Haryana produces a smaller share of girls,

relative to overall births, than almost anywhere else in India. The

2001 census found just 820 girls for every 1,000 boys among children

under age 6, down from 879 in 1991.

 

The lopsided sex ratio reflects the spread of modern medical

technology, particularly ultrasound exams, which allow Indian couples

to indulge a cultural preference for sons by using abortion to avoid

having girls.

 

As noted in a recent UNICEF study, South Asia "is the only region

that defies the global biological norm, with only 94 women for every

100 men, so that 74 million women are 'simply missing.'" As many as

50 million of the missing women are from India.

 

AUM MAATANGYAI NAMAHE