Re: Indians prefer sons, snuff out girls
it is more of a southasian cultrure for preference for male child
IMPACT ON DEMOGRAPHY
Nevertheless, estimates suggest that by 2020, there will be an excess of
four million men. This suggests that, when roughly even numbers of each sex
may expect to be born, an almost equal number of girls have not survived.
Pakistan is one of the few countries in the world where population gender
statistics are skewed in favour of men, demographers say. Out of a
population of 149 million people, there are already 105 men for every 100
women, according to the latest demographic profiles.
FAVOURING BOYS
The reasons for this go beyond the issue of pre-natal gender selection. As
many doctors will testify, many more girls than boys die under the age of
five, since they are often fed less well than their male counterparts and
are less likely to receive prompt medical care when ill.
“It is generally true, parents bring in sick boys far more often than sick
girls. A girl’s health and physical well-being is placed at a far lower
value compared to that of a boy child,” said Dr Ahad Abbas speaking to IRIN.
He has been posted for two years to a tiny Rural Health Centre (RHC) near
Taxila, in the northern Punjab.
Parents do not deny this bias. “For each of my four daughters, I will need
to pay out a huge sum when they wed, as dowry and as expenses. My two sons
will however add to the household earning,” maintained Rafiuddin, a father
of six children who lives in the rural area of Narang Mandi, some 100 km
from Lahore. He added, “I love my daughters, but they are some harsh
economic realities that poor people like us must face.”
UNETHICAL BUT COMMON
Nearly a decade ago, as gender determination through pre-natal ultrasound
screening became increasingly common, both the Pakistan Medical Association
(PMA), the body of medical professionals, and the Pakistan Medical and
Dental Council (PMDC), the main regulatory body for the profession, declared
it to be ‘unethical’ to tell parents the gender of an unborn child.
However, the adherence to the declaration is almost impossible to enforce,
with ultrasound clinics offering gender determination services now operating
in almost every urban locality in a city like Lahore. Too often, the
announcement that the baby is a girl will be followed by a visit to a
back-street abortionist, functioning illegally in the Temple Road area of
the city.
“Women come weeping to us, because they are carrying a second or third or
fourth daughter. They are often too scared even to tell their husbands they
are pregnant with another girl
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