Letters to the Editor
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Two things
First, maybe this will serve to control India's burgeoning population. If they are stupid enough to do that inadvertently by murdering all their future women, fine. It's a net benefit in the end.
Secondly, the noise and thunder of all the pro-choice feminists about selective abortion in India is hypocritical in the extreme. If you think abortion is just fine and dandy, all the time, even late-term, whenever the woman wants it, you cannot then turn around and say abortion is "murder" when another culture practices abortion in a way that reflects that culture's mores as opposed to ours. Abortion is either a woman's right or it is murder--it can't be both. Abortion shouldn't be a sacrament for an American woman but murder when an Indian housewife does it.
We practice abortion because our culture is pathologically unfriendly to children and single mothers, extended families do not support each other, and women, rightly considering the circumstances, view children as a literally unbearable liablity. Can anybody explain to me why this makes our abortions "better" than those of Indians, who abort fetuses because of a slightly more direct concept of misogyny?
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what about the future
It has long been a custom in many societies to have boys.
Be it for religious reasons or for things like inheriting.
That boys also will bear the family name is a consideration as well.
What was recently written about south korea and women`s rights is a case in point.
But there is a dangerous issue presenting itself for the future here.
With technology now being a helping hand in conservative ideas about having boys over girls, there will be a huge potential problem for the future.
Within a generation there will be many more wedding candidates of the male sex than of the female sex.
Those that may offer a bride a good proposition will have less trouble in finding a wife.
Though even this may pose a problem as the caste system historically frowns upon marriages with those of another caste.
But seen in a larger perspective the lack of potential wives for men seeking one is a huge issue.
Those of better education can find more easily a partner.
But the underclass of men that can not find a partner for marriage poses a huge reservoir for social unrest and cultural upheaval.
Ther may be one upshot for those women in the future especially looking at india.
While I do not wish to generalise many women are not treated very well after marriage.
The potential for improvement is there in the next generation when this shortage really will it.
Dowries though illegal are often still a fact of life.
Fewer women around may later that drastically.
And the treatment of women her own family and those of her in laws may change.
Could a shortage of women lead to a new wave of feminism or better treatment and less abuse ?
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Merlin--in short, no
The gender ratio is already very skewed in some Indian states. This has not led to better treatment of women. Rather, it has led to human trafficking with a new twist. Nepalese, Bengali, and Assamese women are brought in and sold as birthing slaves. After they have given birth to a boy they may be sold to another man, and then another.
If they are light skinned they have more value. Nepalese teenagers are preferred.
Sometimes a mock marriage is performed to give a gloss of repectability to the whole procedure, and after the baby is born the "wife" disappears.
Y'all connect the dots.
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To Tina...
I see your point, I wondered about that too - if women would now be trafficked just to bear babies then 'vanish'. I've read that finding brides in China is also a huge problem since they have been doing sex selective abortion for decades now. Some villages have no girls at all. But I don't think that India, or China, will be able to do women trafficking on the large scale they might eventually want, it would get too much international notice.
I think this will thin down the population quite a bit in the coming decades, and also, as another poster commented, lead to serious political upheaval as young men are unable to get brides, and unable to create their own families. It is a disaster in the making, and if Indians are stupid enough to kill all their baby girls, they deserve it.
Orchids
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It is their bodies, right?
Let people have sex selective abortions it is their right and it would make society more fair. If you are worried that girls will disappear, you don't know parents.
When a parent has a child they often do it to enhance themselves and the interests of their child. Now if they want a boy it is because a boy will be better for them and will have a better life than a girl.
But once the gender ratio equals some equilibrium where there are many more boys than girls it will no longer be desirable to have a boy. A stable point will be reached whereby being a boy or girl is exactly the same. What men loose in not having a wife they gain in better economic conditions. And what women loose in economics is made up with a wealthier husband. If one gender is doing better parents will have more of that gender. It is markets at their finest.
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Gordon Gekko
The problem with this reasoning is that the gender ratio is not evenly skewed in the population.
Middle class Punjabis and Maharashtis are facing a girl shortage. So what? They are surrounded by neighboring states and countries with lots of poor, desperate people who couldn't afford to select against girls. They commodify their women and create a new form of exploitation.
The gender bias which created the whole mess lives on safe and sound.
It won't reach a point where it will get better until gender selective abortion is universally practiced. Also, a lot of this issue is tied up in India's dowry tradition, which makes the birth of a girl such a financial disaster for a family. If the dowry tradition would go, preventing the birth of a girl might not be so urgent.