India's son preference is actually better described as a daughter dis-preference. The latest India census data found only 927 girls for every thousand boys nationwide. India is in the center of an epidemic of female feticide, and, strangely, modern technology is to blame. When ultrasounds became available in the 1980s, "doctors" opened private clinics all over rural India that advertised sex-determination tests——a miracle solution to the perennial desire for sons. Low-income villagers were encouraged to take their fate into their own hands and abort the fetus if it was female.
The UN says two thousand girls are aborted every day now in India. In some parts of the country, there's such shortage of marriage-age girls that families are forced to share the same wife among several men or import brides from other states. I reported from one village in eastern India where every other household had a paro, or outside bride. Sex-selective abortion is now a crime in India. But although doctors can be imprisoned for revealing the gender of a fetus, they'll offer hints after an ultrasound instead. Tehy will say, "Your child will be beautiful like Lakshmi," if it's a girl, or they'll make a V sign for victory if it's a boy.
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Sideways on A Scooter, Life and Love in India, P225
Miranda Kennedy
ISBN 978-1-4000-6786-2
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