Girl Child- why the bias against her
@normanlewisword (242)
India
March 3, 2007 1:21pm CST
In developing countries in Asia and Africa there is a social bias against the girl child. Newborn girls are left to die in dust bins or fed to the dogs!!!
You rarely find a girl child being the eldest in the family for this very reason.
And in some cases it so happens that there is a long line of girls and it finally terminates with a boy, the blue eyed boy literally. He lives a king's life while all the girls are made to slog day in day out.
Why this bias. What can be done to reduce it. Any suggestions?
1 person likes this
2 responses
@thyst07 (2079)
• United States
3 Mar 07
The bias is due to the fact that in most Asian countries, family lines are patrilineal- in other words, the family name and wealth passes down through the fathers or the males. Because of this, families want male children who can pass down their family name, rather than females who can't. A female can't carry the family name, and a female can't inherit.
In some Asian countries, like China, there is a government imposed limit on how many children one family can have. Currently, they can only have two. Since they're only allowed two children, sometimes they will abandon or kill girls until they succeed in getting a boy.
This practice is atrocious, but so far nobody has come up with a way to stop it. Infanticide is technically illegal, but the government doesn't enforce it. A small solution has been to offer adoption services so that those who don't want their girls can give them for another family to adopt, rather than killing or abandoning them. This helps, but it doesn't solve the problem.
1 person likes this
@normanlewisword (242)
• India
3 Mar 07
Amending the laws such that the daughter also has an equal share in the property..will that help? See Japan for example-they had almost made the law that a female can rule the country but just then the Crown Prince was born. Will that help in tackling the problem?
2 people like this
