A few years ago it looked like the curse that would never lift. In China, north India and other parts of Asia, ever more girls were being destroyed by their parents. Many were detected in utero by ultrasound scans and aborted; others died young as a result of neglect; some were murdered. In the Economist magazine put a pair of empty pink shoes on the cover and called it gendercide. In retrospect, we were too pessimistic. Today more girls are quietly being allowed to survive. Gendercide happens where families are small and the desire for sons is overwhelming. In places where women are expected to move out of their parents' homes upon marriage and into their husbands' households, raising a girl can seem like an act of pure charity.

Legacy still to be felt


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Pallavi Aiyar is a journalist and author. In China, young girls had their feet broken and bound to give them a shape presumed to be attractive to men. In parts of India, they were burned on the funeral pyres of their husbands in a practice called sati. In both countries, proverbs comparing women unfavorably to various animals, mocking their intelligence and even mourning their existence, remain common. At birth, boys naturally outnumber girls so that, all things being equal, about male children are born for every females. But all things are not equal, and gender-selective abortions in countries where males are preferred mean that millions of girls are never born, while a disproportionate number of those who are die young of malnutrition or poor medical care compared to boys.
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I'm still holding on and willing to wait for "Better days" with him after his residency. It's called selfishness and inability to set priorities. Besides the obvious brain damage that you will be made to suffer your entire married life, there are future kids to think about.