India’s missing girls

On Tuesday, the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations, part of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, considered the issue of India’s missing girls.

Representative Christopher Smith opened the discussion by showing the danger Indian girls are placed in:

The 2011 census for India shows that there are 37 million more men than women in the country.  Studies show that when families do not have enough money for food for everyone, they will feed their boys before feeding their girls, which has led to the mortality rate for girls below five years old to be 75% higher than for boys. Additionally, some girls are “pumped with hormones and surgically altered to turn them into facsimile boys,” a process called “genitoplasty.”

Representative Smith traces this perception back to policies of the United States:

According to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, girls must be valued in society before this problem can be effectively fixed:

Representative Smith’s statements on India’s gender problem:

Subcommittee Chairman Smith Opening Statement at Hearing on India's Missing Girls