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BBC

[quote]India's 2011 census shows a serious decline in the number of girls under the age of seven - activists fear eight million female foetuses may have been aborted in the past decade. The BBC's Geeta Pandey in Delhi explores what has led to this crisis.

Kulwant has three daughters aged 24, 23 and 20 and a son who is 16.

In the years between the birth of her third daughter and her son, Kulwant became pregnant three times.

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My mother-in-law said if I had a daughter, my husband would leave me. Thankfully, I had a son.â€

Somehow I doubt that the importation of large numbers of brides from another continent will go down very well among the indigenous population, since they are having trouble adapting migration between states within India. By the time they become more cosmopolitan in their attitudes, they may well have ditched the anti-girl bias. Besides, some parts of Africa might well begin to see the same problem as they become more affluent.

For all that, Africa is long overdue to coming into its own.

The big killer in India has been the dowry. While illegal, the family of the groom still expects a large payment from the family of the bride. This has been in the thousands of dollars and people have been murdered... At the weddings over this. As you can guess, this is one of the big reasons girls are seen as an economic drain.

In Africa the dowry is not a uniform practice, in some places bride prices are common, others there just massive social showings and feasts (this is what we do) and in others they have no such exchange.