India, however, may be the worst place on earth to be a female. Hinduism historically considered an unmarried woman to be without a soul. Marriage, however, was not much better. Widows were often cremated alive on their husband's funeral pyre in the practice of suttee, and other widows could not remarry. Girls, before puberty, were married as brides against their will, sometimes to men of advanced age, and a significant percentage of child births in India were once by these child brides. Gandhi’s wife gave birth to their first child when she was only 15. (The saintly Indian also beat his wife early in their marriage.)
What ended the worst of these practices was British rule and unwelcome publicity by Western writers in the 1930s and 1940s. Some things, however, never changed: Indians want boys, not girls, and this preference seems to be strengthening. Ten years ago, there were only 927 girls under age six in India for every 1,000 boys the same age. The most recent data show that over the last decade the number of Indian girls under age six has dropped to 914 compared to 1,000 boys.
The grim reality of gender selection by death was seen in a hospital in Morena, India. Female infants there were dying of malnutrition and outright starvation. The state has prohibited the medical staff from telling the prospective parents the gender of their unborn children in order to prevent the selective murder of female fetuses; however, the gender selection seems to be going on after birth as well as before.
Morena is a prime example of this practice. Ten years ago there were only 829 girls age six or younger for every 1,000 boys under age six or young in Morena. Today that ratio has actually sharpened. There are only 825 girls under age six for every 1,000 boys the same age. Sanju, a woman in a Morena hospital ward, sat with her severely malnourished nine-month-old daughter. She explained the different treatment for baby sons and baby daughters: “My mother-in-law says a boy is necessary.” Another woman in the same hospital, whose daughter is obviously starving to death, simply shrugged when asked what is wrong with her daughter.