News in 2007

India Acts to Save Female Babies  – by starting a cradle scheme to adopt baby girls, who will be otherwise killed by their parents.  Nothing is going to change unless atitudes in Indian society change and that is not going to happen soon. 

At times, I feel my parent’s generation , who grew up in newly independent India was far more progressive in some ways than people I interact with today. Amost everyone you meet today, is very materialistic. Marriage for many educated persons is just a means to get more dowry, more gold, a better car , a bigger flat.

A girl is cursed from the moment she is born , I have seen this happen in lower middle as well as upper middle class people. I was buying some fruits and 2 ladies were discussing the birth of  a third dauughter to a relative. They were both cursing the mother for giving birth to a third girl and the baby girl . The fruit seller overheard the conversation, took pity on the newly born girl and said – “aisa mat bolo, ladki Lakshmi hoti hai” (translated from Hindi -”don’t speak like this, a girl is Lakshmi” – the Hindu goddess of  wealth) . The ladies retorted - who will pay so much dowry when she grows up?  

This happens almost everywhere in India, instead of starting a cradle scheme the government should try to change the atitude of  people.