Gender in India

A few days ago my father sent me a Wall Street Journal book review of Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls and the Consequences of a World Full of Men by Mara Hvistendahl*. This book is about the systemic biases against girls in countries such as China and India. In addition, I have recently seen a PSA in the metro reminding women that it is illegal to find out the gender of a child in utero in India and a news article in one of the national newspapers about prosecution of doctors for performing sex change operations on infant girls. In the midst of working for Indian women I am being reminded of how difficult it can be to be female here – sometimes even before birth.

In his review of Unnatural Selection Jonathan V. Last states that Hvistendahl writes about advertisements in India for abortions on the grounds that it is better to spend Rs. 500 now – on a sex test on a fetus – than Rs. 5,000 later for a dowry. Hvistendahl makes the claim that an improper balance of the sexes (she claims that naturally there should be 104 males for each 100 females) leads to an increase in violence. Apparently there are a lot of statistics that back up this contention and the review states that, in India, the best predictor of violence in a given area is sex ratio. I suppose given this it’s not surprising that the instance of violence against one SEWA’s members happened. With thoughts of gender related feticide, infanticide, and plastic surgery on my mind the research into the laws, but as they are written and how they are actually in effect, is both less shocking and more outrageous.

For me it is both shocking and very disturbing that this problem still exists and that, according to Hvistendahl, still is prevalent in higher, educated classes. I find that shocking in a country that is home to impressive women like Indira Gandhi, Ela Bhatt, Renana Jhabvala, and, for example, the mother of a friend, who used to be the Post Master General of India. How is it that in a country that respects these women parents are still so desperate for boy children that they will have their young daughters surgically made into boys?