ulta pulta
Girl shortage
Jaspal Bhatti

The figures that Chandigarh has — 777 females per 1000 males—might have stunned many but not me. Many consider this data shameful for a city, which has a high literacy level. It is rightfully so, because I think education, especially the knowledge of mathematics, makes marriageable boys wise enough to do dowry calculations. One solution could be that we should remove maths altogether from the curriculum. The other option is to encourage girls to start demanding heavy dowry. Mind it they would be in a position to ask for it as their decreasing number is surely going to put them in great demand.

Parents in India prefer boys because the girls have to leave home after marriage. I strongly recommend the system of ghar jamais to buck the trend. Ghar jamais should be honoured at public functions. The government should give interest-free loans to the boys who leave their parents’ house to stay with their in-laws. It should be made mandatory for government or Non- Government Organisations (NGOs) to give extra increments to ghar jamais.

Imagine parents of the boys seeing off the doli of the groom accompanied by a hefty dowry of cash, gifts and jewellery and still be totally unsure of how his mother-in-law is going to treat the innocent boy in the girl’s house. If this flight of fancy comes true, mark my words, the sex ratio will be reversed.

HOME