Just a little on the death rate of female babies in India.
One of my Uni tutors did her Phd on village life in a part of Northern India. She stayed in an extended family where the women were in purdah but where the mother ruled the roost. All of the women slept in the same large dormitory like room and the men would come in the evening to ask the mother if they could spend some time with their wives.
This was never a straight out asking for her sexual favours but would be prefaced by, say, "Could Abhilasha come and help me find my red socks". The mother would probably reply "Go and look some more".
Ten minutes later he'd be back and say that he couldn't find them.
Mother would sign to the wife to go.
Next night would be a repeat but on the third night he'd get told to choose another color and would not come back.
Pay days the father and the sons would hand the mother their unopened pay packets and she would give them their pocket money after she had counted it up and entered up the books.

When my tutor told them that she would be getting married on her return to Australia they were very interested but expressed surprise and some concern for her when she said that she and her husband would live by themselves. Typical concerns were how would she cope with no one to help her in the daily chores and when she had a baby who would look after it when she needed to rest.
They thought that living with one's husband was not very desireable at all.
This family was not typical at all and I mention it only to show that there are exceptions to what we may regard, from the media, as the norm.
The family was from a sub-caste that had been financial advisers to the Indian Nobility and which was now interested in their own stocks and shares.

(continued)
Now to the not so nice part of her PhD thesis.

There was a village a few miles from where she was living where there had been no female children, who had lived beyond the first month of life, for twenty-five years. It was a local scandal but nothing could be done about it.
The Officer-in-Charge of the local police pointed out to her that most of the deaths were reported as suffocations during the night when the mother rolled on the baby in her sleep and that some were reported as snake bites. He had no doubt that the snake bites were genuine as it was relatively easy to catch a snake.
But he said that proving anything was impossible unless they caught the perpetrator in the act, and so it went on.

I spend a fair amount of time in India and I've never personally come across a family where there are all sons due to daughters dying, but then I rarely see village life as we spend most of our time in the cities and even then in the more salubrious parts, but that said, 'accidental' burnings of new brides is often reported in the local papers and I know one family where such a thing happened about twent years ago.

Cossomby, said...

"Back to India. Clearly big social problems ahead with an excess of males; but in the long-run less women = lower birth-rate"

Oh really:) and what do you intend to do about the males that pressures them in the hope that a son is born? India might want to think about nutting a few of them:) Look, populations are out of control in that country, and guess whats controlling the minds of these simple people, its religion! Again and Again it all comes back to religion. Women are never equal! and why do I hear you saying....its because of religion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul4RF9sCPXI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qP02WlJ1kkw

For all the people on or off this site, who thinks humans are not a plague or birth control/abortion is not valid in this day/century........well...you just might want to go and have your heads examined.

LEAP

QL I would be well advised to just urn my head and ignore your rage.
That is what I see in your post,that and other rather pretentious stuff.
Know this, your views are more interesting if less aggressive.
Yes those two posts add much to the debate.
And I am aware of other country's that have such female control.
Do we have any right to interfere?
We see the arrest this morning of a mass murderer, and do we have the Right to see him charged.
Hollie says I have all the answers.
No I do not.
But the useless thing we call the United Nations is bombing Libya, and not Syria.
Ignoring North Korea, but challenging Australia's refugee policy's.
Half the world is starving, half under dictatorship or worse government.
Does it make it better if those girl children are MURDERED by a woman.
Why can humanity not have a human rights law system that works for all?

Hi Belly,

Interesting thread. I've had major computer malfunctions so was incommunicado for a few days.

The reason that the U.S. isn't hassling North Korea is that that country is more than readily primed to defend itself - also if the Americans got a bit too personal, China would be standing behind the door with a rolling pin.

Btw, in China there are around 117 male births for every 100 female births.

Yes but Belly, I think we still need to clarify your posts once again.

7 million is over 10 years.

We are talking about abortions primarily, not murdered children.

The Indian governmnet has tried many measures to solve this problem.

Sanctions that you suggest against India would only make the problem worse.

Abandoning population control policies would just ensure more poverty and deaths of actual children

pelican, Jewls,

Just thought you'd like this...

http://articles.nydailynews.com/2009-04-10/entertainment/17919373_1_strict-birth-abortions-gender

'If you've got highly sexed young men, there is a concern that they will all get together and, with high levels of testosterone, there may be a real risk, that they will go out and commit crimes," said Therese Hesketh, a lecturer at the Centre for International Health and Development at University College London. She did not specify what kinds of crimes.'

Hmmm. I wonder if there was a shortage of men, whether it would be opined that women would turn to crime. Of course not, the virtuous gender is there to keep the abusive gender on the straight and narrow. All that testosterone is a dangerous thing, a recipie for crime.

Also, Belly,

'Some families hide the births of daughters, never registering them with authorities, so they can legally try for a son, making it harder to measure the problem.'

I'm sure this scenario is more prevalent than infanticide.

As to the ratio, Bees seem to manage with a Queen and worker bees. I think we can come up with uses for the excess expendable males.