India by all means ranks very high in terms of population and in recent years have seen a significant growth in the economy and standard of living of it’s population. However, the ever increasing population and economic growth has still failed to solved a major problem, gender imbalance. India has been in the news for it’s falling girls population. The ratio of girls to boys is quite worrying.
It has been reported that some in India participate in the abortion of female child. Many participate in sex-selection techniques. On finding out pregnancy, tests are done to confirm the gender of the child. If it is a boy, it is kept. If it is a girl, the decision for some is to immediately terminate the life of the baby. Girls are said to also be killed at infancy or before the age of six. This gender injustice means the number of boys given birth to yearly surpasses that of girls.
In the census carried out in 2001, it was reported that the number of boys to girls under 6 years of age is 1,000 boys to 927 girls, thus showing a huge gap between the number of boys and girls in that age bracket. This figure saw an even more huge decline as the results of the 2011 census showed that the number of girls to boys under 6 years of age is now put at 914 girls to 1,000 boys.
This abysmal view of the girl child is quite confusing. India is known for the reverence of women. As a matter of fact, many are worshipped as gods. Quite a few are also influential in the country and many are engaging in fantastic professions. So the view that the girl child is less or not worthy of life by many in the society is quite appalling.
Why is the girl child viewed as unworthy of life by some?
For years, experts and researchers have studied this situation in India and have come up with a few reasons why some families consider girls as unwanted children. The reports shows that girls are considered to be an unwanted expense.
In families where there is great wealth, the men usually divide the wealth among themselves. When the girl from a certain family gets married, her share of the family’s wealth goes to the family of the man she is marrying.
Also during marriage, many gifts are to be bought for the girl by her family and given to the girl and her husband’s family. So huge money is spent on these, thus seemingly becoming a burden to her family. and huge money is spent
Whereas the opposite is the case for boys. At marriage, they bring home many gifts and they are considered as an additional help to the family.
Although there have been great improvement in the educational sector and economy in India, this has not really changed the perspective of many people. They still sadly consider men to be far superior and important than women.