In India they pray for my baby to be a boy

[Tortington]

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with so many abortions of female babies - wouldnt there come a time where women and girls become a scarce resource and te tables turned somewhat?

what thinks you?

I'd always assumed that custy but i guess it takes a while - several generations perhaps.

Unfortunatley, I have heard in rural parts of those countries where so many girls have been aborted that they are already facing a shortage,there are cases of brothers sharing wives . So, even though women are a rare commodity, they are still not valued. Education for girls is one of the most important things in the world, I think - so they can stand up for themselves, value themselves and not be forced into aborting their daughters, or allowing themselves to be shared between men.

I heard that in rural China they have this problem and it led to a rise in abductions and forcible marriages.

I think that a country with not enough girls would be rather dangerous and prone to war. I also think that the existing women would become even more like possessions to be fought over.

Agree with Wilbur but, it's a bit difficult to educate them when they are not being born.

2,000 abortions of females a DAY?

Actually, it is very interesting. It is beginning to happen. In some regions men have to marry women from lower castes just to find a wife. This means that a poor woman may get a chance to marry into a higher caste, which is good for her and her family.
Dowries are being abolished for the same reason. Also women is getting more power, they can say "But I want to work, and not stay a housewife". So, the fact that male babies have been the preference is actually giving women more power now. (Not by that saying that I agree with aborting female babies, just describing what is happening)

apparently in communities where the number of women outnumbers that of men, violence against women increases

Starry - I really hope that that trend continues, esp the dowry thing.

Well, certainly societies where there are lots of unmarried young men are going to be more unstable and violent, it would be the same here if that were the case.

I agree with Pigleto. What are all those men with no hope of ever marrying or getting a girlfriend going to do except disrupt society and make wars?

Well, apparently their families look for wives further afield. There are many websites set up for that purpose in india.

very interesting - so in some parts women are becoming more 'valuable?' a status symbol would you say?

No, I reckon a deed of necessity, after all, her inlaws knows her status.

Bride burning is still happening. (newly married girls having an "accident" when cooking and burns to death, leaving her husbands family free to get a new bride and a new dowry)

god, thats terrible, but if new brides are a rarity - will this not change>?

This is so sad.

I asked at my 20wk scan what the sex was, and was told. My friend, who lives in a different health authority was told they no longer do gender identification at scans, as it led to a lot of abortions of female babies.

Actually, it is at the descretion of the sonographer, they can quote health authority regulations if they are concerned that the parents are of such etnicity that the gender of the baby matters....

afaik, dowries are actually illegal in India - but custom prevails, as it always will when people's economic survival depends on it in a subsistence society. This will not be solved easily without solving poverty..
In ecoimically wealthy sections of indian societies women have long had education, power and influence, political, business-wise etc.

I have heard the same as starry -- that women do tend to be treated better when there are less of them availble. Supply and demand I guess.

And I agree that education is the key. I wonder if there is a way to support a girl's education in some of these countries that don't offer girls the same education that boys oare offered. Anyone know of anywhere I could do this?

Eleusis, The lack of women is not so pronounced in South India as in the North. I found paradise in Kerala.
And a catholic church, an enthusiastic Father, and an orphanage. He has set up a eco resort where all the proceeds go to the orphanage. Most of the children there are girls... It is not just an orphanage, it teaches women skills, crafts, business skills so she can sell her crafts with some profits, and enables her to make a dowry so she can have a chance of getting married.

We have a scheme in place in our company. We fund the education for children of the cleaning staff, including the "office boy" (very poor, low caste) and pay exam fees etc. Even if the parent stops working for us, we are still commited to funding their childrens education. With education they have a chance of finding reasonably well paid work, so they at least can get out of poverty even if they cant leave their caste behind.

Eleusis, I forgot to say, that the best place I know to support a girls education is through the catholic church and orphanage I know.

Read the "about us" section

But I am sure there are other organisations.

oh god this makes me so ANGRY

having a daughter is the most wonderful thing there is, these fucking countries will never learn. Bloody misogynists.

did anyone see on the telly a few months ago about the ivf treatment that is so readily available in some parts of china (something like £5[shock) it has increased the rate of multiple births so where they all prayed for boys as 1 child per family laws allows they are now having twins and more to increase chances of boy/girls and larger family. i think it is one birth per faily so they are now finding any way to have more children and increase the chances of more females?
does that make any sense? not explaining it well am i?

I live in China, where it's illegal for anyone to be told. Some private clinics will tell two-Westerner couples what they're having, but not locals. My hospital is part state-owned, part private, so although I'm being treated in the private section they wouldn't tell me (even though both my husband and I are Western), which is fine - the law is the law and to complain about it would be like moving to Saudi and whingeing that you couldn't get a G&T. We went on holiday to Australia and had an extra scan and found out then .

Somehow people still manage to find out (people buy an ultrasound machine and set up illegal back-room clinics, and I assume a lot of people are working it out themselves from foetal heart rates), and I read the other day that the boy:girl birthrate is still 119:100.

I don't think it will change until the older generation dies out. I was talking to one of my local colleagues the other day. She's not pregnant, not even married yet, but said casually that her father "was looking forward to holding his grandson in his arms". She has a great job at a European investment bank, she studied overseas and worked in London, so it's not like she comes from an uneducated peasant family who need a boy to work the paddy fields. Sad.

I would love to see a cash bonus for the birth of a baby girl, and perhaps slightly more generous tax breaks for parents of girls. Education campaigns do seem to be slowly working but if there are 20% more boys than girls being born something more substantial needs to be done to swing the pendulum towards favouring girls.

You are partly right about IVF. I don't think it's IVF as any Westerner would know it - closely monitored by a doctor. Clomid is called "the twin drug" and you can buy it over the counter in some of the dodgier pharmacies.

You are generally correct about the one-child policy but in rural areas you are actually allowed to have a second if your first is a girl (or disabled). Obviously if you have twins you're off the hook, so yes, people are very keen on the idea.