How come there are no girls? Pregnant women in India want to know. ("Feticide")

Public Radio International ^ | 09/14/2015 | Rhitu Chatterjee

[Kid Shelleen]

The issue of sex-selective abortion is a huge and complex problem in parts of India. It’s led to gender imbalances in some Indian states that have reached “emergency proportions,”

--snip--

Under Indian law, it’s strictly illegal for a doctor to reveal the sex of a fetus “by any words, by any sign, by any way, by any means — by emailing or anything,” says Varsha Deshpande, a lawyer and activist who’s spent more than 20 years fighting against sex selection in her home state, Maharashtra.

“We see it as genocide.” What angers her most is lax enforcement of the country’s so-called Prohibition of Sex Selection Act, which is aimed at doctors but routinely ignored.

[tbw2]

India is starting to see “wife sharing”, the girl marries the oldest brother and they all share her.
We’ll know that women have more value, though, when dowries are replaced by bride price, men paying for women instead of families paying him to marry her.
And when women have a material value to their society, then the families will stop aborting them as often.

[GOPJ]

We’ll know that women have more value, though, when dowries are replaced by bride price, men paying for women instead of families paying him to marry her. And when women have a material value to their society, then the families will stop aborting them as often.

True. But culturally the women still go to the husbands family so it's not a perfect incentive...

[Teacher317]

In India boys are more valued for cultural and economic reasons.

And for the exact same economic principles, the pendulum will swing back at some point, and women will be more valued. Whether it is done by legislative laws or by the laws of human nature, it WILL happen. The only question is how much Indian culture wants to hurt itself in the process.

[Teacher317]

This is why in India there’s a massive amount more men than women, thus making it more difficult for Indian men to find wives.

Not true according to the CIA Wold Factbook. India has 0.92 men for every woman... 0.96 for ages 15-65... 0.89 for those over 65. Currently, at birth, it is 1.02, which is still in the top five of the 228 nations in the list.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_sex_ratio#cite_note-cia-1

[Lucy Hamilton]

And we’re going to trust the CIA, headed by John Brennan, spent time in Saudi Arabia where he converted to Islam.