Well I live in India and I know how much this thing is prominent here! When I first was told about this by my Mother and saw it in a couple of movies I was like stunned, I couldn't believe this actually happened. And such cases aren't any rare in this country even now...

In Hinduism, the religion majority of Indians follow and the Indian culture itself (apart from any religion), dowry is one of the most important things which is the sad truth. Though now it's only prominent in the rural areas and hardly some urban areas, still as 72% of this countries population lives in villages, the numbers aren't less. Men have been preferred always and women are treated badly and sometimes there are cases of a Man coming posing as an NRI (Non-Indian Resident), luring parents to take their daughters to America (or other developed nations) and then ending up marrying off 5 or 6 girls and then leaving them all here and taking away the dowry. The dowry thing makes the parents most concerned about a daughter and the male child is the one who is supposed to ignite the corpse of the father (In Hinduism, bodies aren't buried, they are burnt.). And even if foeticide doesn't happen, the female child has to bear the brutalness of her own father for years until she gets married off sometimes...

It's difficult to put a stop to this and especially in India I guess, with such low literacy level in the rural areas. And some people are actually denying to have a rational thought thinking that it's "western" and it's infecting the "indian culture", I totally hate such people, for example my far-away relatives, I really can't bear them sometimes insulting my cousin sister. Glad they aren't her parents and just relatives... It sometimes makes me laugh, not the killings but the stupidity, I mean what if there are only boys and no girls left? We are already killing this planet as someone already mentioned here and this will lead to our own extinction by our own hands!

And there are various other factors related to it ranging from culture to culture and it's too complicated though I don't think it will take long enough for this to be eradicated completely, or at least I hope so.

It has been made illegal in India now to even check and see what gender is the child before birth and the Doctor can be sued for this!

This post has been edited by sylenzednuke: May 19 2007, 01:40 PM

Hi,

I totally agree with you sylenzednuke. But you have to keep in mind that people are still having child marriages, dowry and Sex determination. They do all this bribing knowing officials and carry on the act. No cop will report it as long as he has enough cash in his pockets. There are many clinics where couples go and have the sex determined and have it aborted if it a girl. I agree that the world is moving ahead in so many ways but it still remains retarded for if we really had progressed then rapes and murder would on exist. In fact the numbers are increasing at a steady state.


I know what you mean by this...There are couples who wear jeans, mini skirts make up and feel degraded when they have to speak in a language other than English but then they get the baby girl aborted and when challenged will give the above line and also say " We may be modern but still follow traditions" When they hardly follow any kind of tradition.

It is sad to see people opting for boys more than girls for in the end there will be a major drop in the boy:girl ratio. Maybe atleast the girls in orphanages will have some hope. But then there would be another problem as there would be a chance of those young girls being adopted so that a groom might get his bride. Disgusting even to think about it.