On 10 Apr 2011, at 08:40, "Anish" <[email protected]> wrote:
>> Having said that, I'm not sure what >demographic she comes from in India; >> she's almost certainly not representative. >AIUI her parents are doctors >> in a small town, so relatively affluent. > > Some states are different from others, Kerala has population inversion. There > is a huge divide across India :) > Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device I haven't seen the state-wise breakdown of these data yet, but the last census (2000) reported declining 0-6 gender ratios in Kerala too. The absolute ratio there was at that time still marginally in favour of girls. Some other random facts: I recall reading that the girl to boy child ratio among US Indians was lower than for other US ethnic groups. Access to sex determining technology, mainly in urban India, has also worsened the situation. All the measures tried thus far - criminalising sex-selective abortions and abetment, financial incentives to enrol and keep girls in school, changing economic patterns that give girls an advantage e.g. disproportionate growth in the service sectors do not appear to have been effective. Add systematic neglect that deprives girls of healthcare, nutrition and education disproportionately, dowry deaths, 'witch' killing that is usually linked to preventing a widow from inheriting her husband's property and mass migration of adult men to cities that contributes to rising rates of violence against women as well as continuing biases in recruitment, wages and professional growth for women across sectors to get the full picture of the situation of girls/women in India. The scheme that facilitated parents abandoning their daughters anonymously did help somewhat. Visibly demonstrating the possibilities for girls - panchayat leadership, other role modelling within the community, enlisting support from religious leaders where possible and ensuring women have equal or greater rights to asset allocations e.g. land from government/NGO programmes all help as well. At the risk of provoking angry responses here, I will say that we need leadership from the Hindu community in particular on this issue. And to stop "condoning" bias in our own circles.
