Unfolding Tragedy of India's Disappearing Daughters

[RiazHaq]

The PRB report does conflict with Jensen and Oster to the extent of selective abortions and son preference which appear to cut across all castes and classes in India and China.

The situation is particularly alarming among upper-caste Hindus in some of the urban areas of Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, specially in parts of Punjab, where there are only 300 girls for every 1,000 boys, according to Laura Turquet, ActionAid's women's rights policy official.

The Indian diaspora is not immune from the cultural bias against female children, either. The male-female ratios of British Indians are also getting increasingly skewed in favor of male children. Since the 1970s, the at-birth male-female ratio of British Indians has dramatically change from 103:100 to 114.4:100, excluding the birth of the first or the second child.

Haq's Musings: Female Genocide Unfolding in India

 

[RiazHaq]

Over 40% of all child marriages in the world take place in India, making it the child marriage capital of the world. Nearly half of all the Indian marriages involve a child bride, ranking it at number 11 among 68 nations where child marriages are reported. Child marriages account for nearly a quarter of all marriages in Pakistan, according to UNICEF.

Earlier this year, the Hindu newspaper reported on an Indian study, prepared by the Population Council of India, which concluded that child marriage continues to be rampant in India with nearly one-fifth of Indian women being married off before turning 15 and around 50 per cent before reaching the legal marriageable age.

In April 2007, the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) published the results of a study on child marriage in the world, "New Insights on Preventing Child Marriage: A Global Analysis of Factors and Programs" (pdf). The ranking included 68 countries. Topping the list was Niger, where 76.6% of women were found to have married before age 18, followed by Chad, at 71.5%. The proportion of child brides was above 60% in Bangladesh, Mali and Guinea, and above 50% in Nepal, Mozambique, Uganda, Burkina Faso and India. Pakistan, with 31.6% child marriages reported in 1991-92, is ranked at 32 in the middle of this list of 68 nations.

Haq's Musings: India Leads the World in Child Marriages

Haq's Musings: Female Literacy Lags Far Behind in India and Pakistan