One of my Indian colleague is going to be a dad soon.\u00a0 I congratulated him and asked him is it a baby boy or baby girl.\u00a0 To my surprise, he said he have no idea.\u00a0 It turn out in India it is illegal for the doctor telling the parents the sex of the baby.\u00a0 The India government have such a law is because killing unborn baby girls is quite common in India.\u00a0 The male to female ratio in India is 93 to 100, which means 7 out of 100 men cannot find a wife.\u00a0 The problem is so bad that the government have to pass laws in order to have more baby girls.<\/p>\n
I know Indian discriminate against woman, but discrimination alone won’t explain the killing of baby girl.\u00a0 Your son have to marry a woman when he grow up, if everyone only give birth to boy, where the wives come from?\u00a0 It turn out there is a financial penalty of having baby girl.\u00a0 In Indian tradition marriage, the parent of the bride has to give a large sum of money to the groom.\u00a0 Some people even take out a loan so that their daughter can marry the guy they like.\u00a0 Here is something does not make sense.\u00a0 According to the law of supply and demand, there are not enough women for every men in India.\u00a0 Women are short in supply and high in demand, their price should go up.\u00a0 In a free market of getting marriage, the groom should pay the large sum to find the right bride.\u00a0 In a long run, the Indian wedding tradition is due to change, nothing can defying the law of economics forever.<\/p>\n
If I am an Indian parent, I rather my daughter remains daddy’s girl then paying a large sum to get her a husband.\u00a0 Any guy asking money from the in-law are not suitable to be a good husband.\u00a0 If the Indian wedding tradition is the cause of killing baby girls.\u00a0 Forbidding the doctor telling the parent the sex of the baby only treat the symptoms, it is not fixing the problem.\u00a0 Assume we have to work within the constraint of arranged marriage, maybe the government should setup an internet auction platform for match making and require all parents using the auction platform to arranged the marriage for their sons and daughters.\u00a0 An open auction platform just like eBay will show the true market value of the bride.\u00a0 Given the lack of women in India, the price signal should strong enough to reverse trend of killing baby girl.\u00a0 There is also a plan B, the Indian government can simply legalize gay marriage.\u00a0 For the 7 out of 100 poor men who can’t find a wife, they just marry another guy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of my Indian colleague is going to be a dad soon.\u00a0 I congratulated him and asked him is it a baby boy or baby girl.\u00a0 To my surprise, he said he have no idea.\u00a0 It turn out in India it is illegal for the doctor telling the parents the sex of the baby.\u00a0 The … Continue reading Infanticide in India<\/span>