Saturday, July 28, 2007

Unspeakable cataclysm

Development has not erased traditional values: in fact, selective abortion has been accelerating in a globalising India. Wealthier and better-educated Indians still want sons. A survey revealed that female foeticide was highest among women with university degrees. The urban middle classes can also afford the ultrasound tests to determine the sex of the foetus.
-- from Foetuses aborted and dumped secretly as India shuns baby girls by Randeep Ramesh. He notes that around 10 million girls are estimated to have been aborted in the past 20 years. An article earlier this week reported that there are thought to be over 11 million abandoned or orphaned children in India, 90% of them girls.

My reading list includes Martha Nussbaum's The Clash Within
Democracy, Religious Violence, and India's Future
.

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