Return of the Girl Child?
You have probably heard about the issue of female foeticide in India. The practice is unusually common in low middle class families in some areas on North India. Now, here is a question that I asked myself and its intrigued has been a bother ever since.
“How many people that I know, have had a baby girl in recent years?” I was wondering if in educated and well-off circles I roam in are also falling prey to same social pattern. The answer was as shocking as it was revealing. I counted among all the people I know who had a child in last 3 years and 80% of those were baby girls.
While in some parts of society due to female foeticide the female population is decreasing, it looks like (based on this small sample), that in circles where females have less chance of being killed while in womb, their birth rate is increasing!
As now now I do not have good statistics to confirm this. I am trying to gather it. But the meme is in! What has been your experience?
Sudarshan wrote:
So, in a few generations, all the girls around will belong to well-off, educated families while the boys will be poor and traditional… then the typical manmohan desai poor-boy-rich-girl romance movies will start to look like social commentary :)
Posted on 14-Jul-08 at 2:23 pm | Permalink