According to a recent news release from the Associated Press, it’s still a man’s world. Matter of fact, in India it literally is a man’s world since men outnumber women. Why? Because in India people think so much more of men than women that women routinely abort female fetuses. With the widespread use of ultrasound technology, the gender of unborn children can be determined. And this is leading to the ‘disappearance’ of girls in India. There is new evidence that there are about 7,000 fewer girls born each day in India. From a BBC article, India has lost more than 10 million female births in the last 20 years.

Presently there is a parliamentary debate going on in Inida which is attempting to curb this tide of ‘male mania’. Abortions are legal but ’sex-selective’ abortions have been banned. And, although doctors in India must not tell couples the sex of a fetus, some just use coded signals instead. According to Indian experts, they say this practice is tied to socio-economic factors based on an agrarian society in which a girl child has traditionally been considered inferior. She was also considered a liability since a bride’s dowry can cripple a poor family financially.

Even if you are fortunate as a female to be born at all in Inida, according to UNICEF in an article:

“After birth, discrimination continues against girls in India, limiting their access to nutrition, healthcare, education and maternal care.

Only 67.7 per cent of females between the ages of 15 to 24 are literate in India, compared to 84.2 per cent of males, and against 98.5 per cent of women of the same age group in China.

Around 45 per cent of Indian women are still being forced into marriage before the age of 18 in violation of the law.”

Is it no wonder that women are being forced into marriage before the age of 18 with estimates of their being 800 girls to 1,000 boys in 14 districts across northern India? With an imbalance in nature such as this, there will be consequences. With the lack of available women in India, they are being forced to marry earlier, drop out of school and die earlier in childbirth.

I still can’t believe this is going on today. With India moving from an agrarian society to one of technology with knowledge-intensive services and software, why should this stigma still continue against women? It appears that even though outlawed in 1961, dowry payments are still common practice. Dowry and wedding expenses can add up to more than a million rupees in a country where the average civil servant makes 100,000 rupees a year, so females are viewed as economic liabilities and are looked down upon. India is a country where the age old, sterotyped views still exist and are a fact of life. So, until these traditions end that have lasted thousands and thousands of years, even with new laws in place to prevent it, female feticides will continue and it will remain a man’s world in India.