I recently came across the news that, in Delhi, for the first time in many years, the number of girls born was higher than the number of boys.
Having long campaigned against a cultural discrimination towards baby girls which has led to a growth in the aborting of female foetuses, campaigners said figures, which showed that in 2008 1,004 girls were born for every 1,000 boys, could mark a break-through.
Dr Dharm Prakash of the Indian Medical Association, which ran a campaign against aborting girl foetuses, said: “The community has responded to our request that girls should be born.” Selective abortion has been illegal for years, but the practice remains rife. There are often reports of police raiding clinics where such operations are performed. In 2007, police in Gurgaon, a satellite city of Delhi, arrested a doctor after the remains of up to 35 foetuses were discovered in his clinic. The government has estimated that up to 10 million girls have been killed, before or immediately after birth, by their parents over the past 20 years.
In Delhi, some credit for the turn-around has been given to the local government’s so-called Ladli scheme. Under this project, the government deposits 10,000 rupees (£125) on the the birth of a baby girl and makes subsequent payments as she passes through school. The money is used for further education or to pay for a wedding and setting up home. (link)
In total, the Delhi government is committing to spend Rs. 1 Lakh (~$2000) to support families that give birth to girls. As I understand it, the program is limited to lower income families.
Livemint raises questions about whether the “Ladli” program, which was only initiated in the spring of 2008 itself, could have become so instantly successful. In a way, it would be even better if it wasn’t the government-financed program, as that might suggest that behaviors were starting to change on their own, at least in Delhi.
For the curious, here is the Delhi government’s web page outlining the guidelines for the Ladli scheme.
(See Abhi’s previous post for grim statistics on female foeticide in India, and indeed, around the world.)
I think the Tibetans would disagree.
KolaNutTechie wrote:
KNT, I’m just curious– have you ever tried going to the West and asserting your Indianness there?
I wish we’d stop talking about the Khasis or the NE. My point was “matrilineality” and how that affects the value of girls in a family. That is why I brought those communities.
I’ve found that we, being minorities, tend to overplay the role our race plays in bad treatment we may get.
Usually what I’ve experienced is that jackasses are out to hurt your feelings and they will use whatever they think will harsh your mellow most effectively. If they can rag on your for your race that’s what they will do. If not your race then it will be something else. Usually it’s more a consequence of assholes doing what assholes do rather than assholes targeting me specifically for being Indian. That happens from time to time as well, but more rarely.
And the Uighurs and all other minorities in China would disagree too. Communism in China will give you equality if you are Han Chinese, not otherwise. If NE was under China, it would be flooded by ethnic Han chinese by now from Eastern and Southern China, as is the policy of China, and the de-facto people of NE would still live in the economic misery it is in now, with added oppression and seeing the loss of land and jobs go to ethnic Hans. The scale of migration of Han chinese are massive in magnitude, compared to say migration of bihari laborers to Assam, because the former is a state sponsored policy, whereas the latter is not (and also in terms of numbers).
“And the Uighurs and all other minorities in China would disagree too. Communism in China will give you equality if you are Han Chinese, not otherwise. If NE was under China, it would be flooded by ethnic Han chinese by now from Eastern and Southern China, as is the policy of China, and the de-facto people of NE would still live in the economic misery it is in now, with added oppression and seeing the loss of land and jobs go to ethnic Hans. The scale of migration of Han chinese are massive in magnitude, compared to say migration of bihari laborers to Assam, because the former is a state sponsored policy, whereas the latter is not (and also in terms of numbers).”
Either you’ve been watching too much Fox or I suggest you read Pallavi Aiyar to get a more balanced view. Attitudes like that remind me of people who give all credit of victory in WW2 to Churchill. Their logic: Stalin was a murderer, hence he could not be given credit for winning the war. Your logic: Han migrate into minority areas hence minorities don’t have equal opportunities in China. Really, we don’t mind Biharis (Why use Biharis as a pejorative when its the Bengalis who are really flooding NE) and other Indians coming into our territories as long as the same constitutional right is extended to us more than just in principle. Its a tough task because the Indic people will never accept other foreign looking people except maybe Whites because of an old master slave matrix. State sponsored terror like this makes India’s case even worse: http://www.tehelka.com/story_main42.asp?filename=Ne080809murder_in.asp
No, it’s actually two different premises.
1.) Minorities don’t have equal opportunities in China, full-stop. 2.) The PRC floods those areas with Han Chinese migrants to swamp them so that they never get uppity.
Whose logic is this? Who are “they?”
KolaNutTechie, I am hardly disagreeing with the bias and prejudice that people from NE have to face in other parts of India. But, just because things are not rosy in India, it doesn’t mean things are rosy in China, which you seem to presume. So I wanted to point out the plight out the Uighurs and Tibetans (no, not covered in Fox at all,rather its the times: I suggest you read too before becoming full fledged China supporter). Fortunately, in very recent years attitude towards people from NE in India seem to be changing with more intermingling. Really great was the winning of Prashant Tamang (orig from Darjeeling) and Sourabhee Debbarma who are distinctly from NE in their appearance. They had a lot of support from their state (for Prashant, it had to be all of West Bengal), but had to get many national votes as well. Meiyang Chang, of Chinese origin was one of the post popular contestants in the Indian Idol and even compered the whole latest season because he was so popular all over India. So, hopefully things are changing bit by bit, though I don’t claim to a sweeping change.
I brought up Biharis, because they have been facing the brunt of extremism in recent years. The Bengalis you mention are refugees from Bangladesh, most of whom are settled from during the partition, and many more still coming in through the porous borders, from Bangladesh
Nice,I had no clue the statistics were like that. lol.
KolaNutTechie, not to belittle the importance of what you are talking about, but there is a sense of perspective that is missing here. Who indeed are ‘Indic’ people (I’m sure you will have answers to that from Hindutva-obsessed nuts)? That is an ironic comment.
Last OT comment. Apropos exploitation of resources, the North East and its people are hardly alone in this respect (and not just in India). Look at Jharkhand, Chattisgarh or Orissa. This is a deeper issue than just discrimination of people who ‘look different’.
The on going real estate ‘boom’ threatens to leave these in the shade – the ones being exploited would be described as very Indic. Powerful interests vs powerless (individually at least) is what it is, IMO. The house my parents built is on land that was earmarked ‘tribal’ (we bought it from someone who bought it for peanuts from tribal people). Cities and towns need to expand and agricultural, tribal and forest lands are magically transformed into commercially tradable property. Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Kolkata… this is relentless. Only consolation is when there is any compensation.
its a good thing to help girls