India to give cash to couples who have a daughter

A state government hoping to stem a decline in the proportion of girls in India has announced a 100,000 rupees (US$2,300) bonus for couples who have a single girl and agree to have no further children.

The money, in the form of an insurance policy, will be paid to the girl when she turns 20, provided both parents undergo birth control operations, said Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, the top elected official in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.

Many Indian parents, especially in villages, prefer boys because they are considered better suited to help earn money, while marrying off girls means paying dowries. The preference for boys has skewed the sex ratio in India, a nation of more than 1.06 billion people. The number of girls per 1,000 boys declined in India from 945 in 1991 to 927 in 2001, according to government census-takers.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2005/03/12/2003245917

sonograms, and if the fetus was a girl, they were having abortions. It was happening by the thousands.
I remember discussing it with some friends and wondering what was going to happen when women started to become a scarce commodity. Guess they realized it was going to happen.