Unwanted Daughters: Gender Discrimination in Modern India

Book Details:

• Author: T. V. Sekher

• Publisher: Rawat Publications

• Language: English

• Edition: 2010

• ISBN: 8131603237

• Pages: 276

• Cover: Hardcover

• Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches

About the Book:
Over the past two decades, India has witnessed an alarming debate on the imbalance in sex ratio and the phenomenon of “missing women.” In recent years, the focus has shifted to “missing girls,” underlining the precarious condition of female children before birth, at birth, and during early childhood. Despite improvements in female literacy and growing participation of women in economic and political spheres, gender bias persists, often manifesting as selective abortions and deliberate daughter discrimination.

This volume, comprising papers presented at a 2005 workshop at the Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore, explores key questions:

• Why are girl children still at risk in modern India?

• Is there a shift from son preference to systematic daughter discrimination?

• Are advances in reproductive technologies contributing to gender imbalance?

• Why are daughters rarely considered substitutes for sons, even among educated and well-off families?

Written by sociologists, demographers, economists, and gender specialists, these essays provide a multidisciplinary perspective on the economic, social, and cultural factors driving this social crisis. The contributors emphasize that lasting solutions require deep changes in societal attitudes toward girl children.

About the Editors:

• T. V. Sekher is Associate Professor at the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai, specializing in social demography and gender studies.

• Neelambar Hatti is Emeritus Professor in the Department of Economic History, Lund University, Sweden, with extensive research on population and development issues.