The Endangered Sex: Neglect of Female Children in Rural North India

The Endangered Sex is about unwanted children. It is also about the power of culture which shapes family attitudes towards children and determines how children are treated differently, depending upon their sex. The author says that it is about India, but could have been written for many other parts of the world, too. The preponderance of males over females in the population of India has been a subject of concern and controversy since the late eighteenth century. This book addresses the fact of, and the reasons for, unbalanced sex ratios among children in present-day rural India and considers some of the cultural links between the present and the past. Barbara Miller examines sex ratios throughout the world to explore how culture affects these ratios, specially among juveniles, and then focuses on India to demonstrate how the practice of female infanticide has altered the proportions of the sexes. A regional and social pattern of infanticide is then uncovered to show that this practice is most prevalent in north-west India and among the higher castes there. The book illustrates the powerful relationship between culture and mortality. Culture often plays an important role in determining those targeted for death; in this case the target group is north Indian girls.