The Missing Women

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The Missing Women
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Oh, God, I beg of you, I touch your feet time and
again, Next birth don't give me a daughter, Give
me Hell instead... -Folk Song from Uttar Pradesh,
India A person has to have sinned in his past
life to be born a woman. Ancient Indian
Proverb Source http//www.thp.org/sac/unit4/unwa
nted.htm
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The issue

• 60 to 100 million fewer women in the world than
  there should be
• Recent estimates 50 million in India alone
• Not a new issue
• Geographically widespread not restricted to
  developing world
• Girls in parts of the world have a lower chance
  of survival

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• This is independent of the 1000s of women who
  have disappeared as adults, mainly through the
  sex trade.
• Biologically, girl babies are stronger. The world
  average for women to men is roughly 990 women for
  every 1,000 men. In some regions, such as Western
  Europe, there are as many as 1,063 women to every
  1000 men.

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• In South Asia, however, the numbers go against
  the biological norm. In Bangladesh, for every
  1000 men, there are only 945 women. In India,
  there are only 927 women. The upcoming 2001
  census in India is expected to show a figure of
  only 900 women to every 1,000 men. In some
  regions of India, the sex ratio is even more
  greatly distorted. In part of the states of Bihar
  and Rajasthan, the female-male ratio is 600
  to1,000.

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Why does this happen?

• Patriarchal society - males are dominant.
• Females not valued - dont work dowry issue.
• Women leave the family - dont support parents.
• As an Asian proverb says, "bringing up girls is
  like watering the neighbors garden." The money
  spent to raise and care for a daughter is often
  considered "wasted."
• Some religious factors, eg., Hinduism - no son,
  father goes to Hell.
• Chinas 1 child/family policy discriminates
  against women.

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What is a dowry?

• Dowry is the money, land or other possessions
  that a woman must bring to her husband when she
  is married.
• Dowry is a cultural practice, without foundation
  in any major religion. Its roots can be traced
  back to the beginning of South Asian society.
  Experts say its practice "has reached shocking
  proportions" in the last fifty years in South
  Asia.
• Although giving dowry is formally illegal in both
  India and Bangladesh, it persists at all levels
  of society.

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• In addition to dowry at the time of marriage,
  there are other ceremonies after marriage -
  including pregnancy and childbirth - when the
  daughter's family is expected to provide other
  monetary gifts.
• Payment of dowry is financially debilitating for
  many families. Dowry can be as much as five times
  a family's annual income. Many rural families are
  forced to sell land and go into debt to
  accommodate the dowry demands.

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How?

• Female infanticide poison, suffocation, beaten.
• Abandonment.
• Bride burning. Very rare, in India.
• Abortion. Ultra sound. Of 8000 abortions at a
  Bombay hospital, only one was male.
• Neglect. Main one. Poor food, lack of health
  care. Especially true for 2nd girl.

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What can be done?

• Education. Parents, especially females, to
  improve the status of women.
• Mass media.
• Ban dowry system.
• Often ineffectual unless the people get behind
  it.
• Provide safe places to leave unwanted female
  babies (for adoption).

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• Making infanticide a crime rarely works. Its
  more of a social/cultural problem than a
  law-and-order issue.
• Made worse by poverty and illiteracy. Birth rates
  decline with improved standard of living.
• Some success by development agencies which offer
  incentives to keep girl children alive.
• In the West we covet business with China and are
  reluctant to speak against their government, or
  condition in the conditions in the country.

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• In China, girls are badly mistreated in
  orphanages. Social norms, values, supported by
  government.
• One key solution is to improve the status of
  women - through education and thereby imporve
  their sense of self-worth.
• Women are consumed by self-loathing which turns
  into hatred of daughters.

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• For those of us not living in the conditions of
  hunger and severe gender discrimination, the
  murder of girl children can be extremely hard to
  understand.
• We can only begin to imagine the experience of a
  new mother in South Asia.
• She has been taught her whole life that she is
  inferior because she is a woman that she is
  cursed for being female.
• She is mistreated verbally and physically by her
  family - and taunted by the members of her
  community - for giving birth to a girl child.

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• She is frightened by the economic threat of a
  dowry which could leave her family deeply in
  debt.
• She is unwilling to let another generation of
  daughters suffer her own fate.
• Under conditions more challenging than any of us
  will face in our lives, she ends the life of her
  girl child.
• Without interventions in the way women are seen
  by society, and are taught to see themselves, the
  severe mistreatment of women will persist.

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O father, you brought up my brother to be
happy. You brought me up to shed tears. O father,
you have brought up your son to give him your
house, And you have left a cage for me. -South
Asian song
http//www.thp.org/sac/unit4/image5.htm