- Top Features:
- War Room
- Glenn Greenwald
- Broadsheet
- Joan Walsh
- Camille Paglia
- Since You Asked
- Follow Salon:
Read other letters about this article
The enforcement of laws against gender-selective abortion is an impossible task in India -- the technology is there and readily available. Declaring this practice to be illegal isn't enough of an incentive. The greater problem is that, particularly in these remote villages, Indian parents know their girl children will be born to an unbearable and heartbreaking life.
In a culture that readily accepts arranged marriages, the practice of "trading" daughters with other families could ultimately be beneficial: bringing your neighbor's daughter into your own household can serve as insurance against dowry-death and similar inlaw-inflicted cruelty your own daughter might otherwise suffer in the house of a stranger.
