Where daughters are a bonus

The move to have a government supported cradle programme for unwanted girl children amounts, in fact, to supporting the abdication of parental responsibility towards girl children.
The alarming drop, nation-wide, in the female ratio has prompted the move; but we ought to have, instead, reflected on the basic issue
— why do parents reject a girl child? —
and attempted to address it.Dowry is often cited as the reason why girls are devalued in Indian society.

Actually, however, dowry is the symptom and not the disease. In a world where girls and boys are equally favoured, there would be no dowry because girls would have equal property rights as boys. The preference for sons is driven by the perception that boys are assets and girls, liabilities. Boys remain within the family and take care of parents in their old age.
Girls marry and 'go away'. Thus there is a pragmatic economic reasons for this parental reference. In the West this trend was arrested only when social security measures reduced anxiety about old age and widespread education of girls enabled them to gain in economic status and become independent.

Therefore any move to get rid of dowry and streedhan in India, in the absence of stringent measures to protect and implement women's right to property, would be ill-advised.
It would leave women worse off than before. There are millions of women who flee from violence in their marital homes and survive until they reach a safe haven all because of the little yellow metal their parents had bestowed upon them when they married and which they carry on their necks and arms.

Since modern technology is being used in India to destroy female foetuses, the problem has become urgent. We cannot wait for the slow evolution over decades of social norms. The answer then is to change parental preferences — to incentivise 'girl child parenthood' so that parents begin to perceive an economic advantage in having daughters.

I would argue that the government must step in to make the parents of girl children 'Gold Card Citizens'. Tamper-proof identity card should be issued to each parent of a girl child, carrying the necessary data. The possession of such a card must give the parents of the girl child every economic advantage that the government can bestow. This must cut across all social divides,
and be applicable even to well-off families. It is, after all, the better-off in the richer areas of the
country that have registered lower sex ratios.'Gold Card' holders should be eligible for 50 per cent of allotments of petrol pumps, gas agencies, ration shops, industrial plots, housing plots in housing schemes like that of the DDA, telephone and gas connections, municipal permits for shops and other facilities, RTO licences for autorickshaws, taxis, bus services and transport vehicles and all types of industrial licensing.But to avail themselves of the 'Gold Card', the parents of a girl child must fulfil certain essential conditions. For one, their daughter should be at least two years old — this would be important in ensuring the survival of the girl child.
Second, as far as it is legally feasible, all the allotments and licences should be in the name of the girl child as owner/allottee, with the parent-guardian as user.In rural areas there can be other incentives.

The birth of a girl child should entitle the parents to a housing plot — in the joint names of the parents and the daughter. The lease can be renewed every two years and given on ownership only when the girl child is 18 and has completed at least 10 years of schooling.The birth of a girl child must be made to be seen as a joyous event and a source of immediate advantage. Extra sugar and kerosene rations must be given for a year to a family having a ration card, on the birth of a girl child.
All employees should also be entitled to a special increment on the birth of a girl child, which should continue every year until the child turns 18. The payment of this financial incentive should be a tax-deductable expenditure for the employer. Other fiscal incentives could also be explored — such as a special 0.25 per cent rebate on sales tax on the production of the Girl Child Gold Card.

In matrilineal societies, the birth of a girl child has always been greeted with great rejoicing, since the family line continued through the girl and the property also descended through the female. If a slew of economic and social advantages are given to parents of a girl child in India,
we could see a correction of our skewed sex ratio in time.

Three Trees

Once there were three trees on a hill in the woods. They were discussing their hopes and dreams when the first tree said, Someday, I hope to be a treasure chest. I could be filled with gold, silver and precious gems and be decorated with intricate carvings. Everyone would see my beauty. The second tree said, Someday, I would be a mighty ship. I will take kings and queens across the waters and sail to the corners of other world. Everyone will feel safe in me because of the strength of my hull. Finally, the third tree said, I want to grow to be the tallest and straightest tree in the forest. People will see me on top of the hill and look up to my branches, and think of the heavens and God and how close to them I am reaching. I will be the greatest tree of all times, and people will always remember me.

After a few years of praying that their dreams would come true, a group of woodsmen came upon the trees. One came to the first tree and said, This looks like a strong tree, I think I should be able to sell the wood to a carpenter and he began cutting it down. The tree was happy, because he knew that the carpenter would make him into a treasure chest. At the second tree, one of the other woodsmen said, this looks like a strong tree. I should be able to sell it to the shipyard. The second tree was happy, because he knew he was on his way to becoming a mighty ship. When the woodsmen came upon the third tree, the tree was frightened, because it knew that, if it were cut down, its dreams would not come true.

One of the woodsmen said, I don't need anything special from tree, so I'll take this one, and he cut it down. When the first tree arrived at the carpenter, he was made into a feed box for animals, placed in a barn and filled with hay. This was not at all what he had prayed for. The second tree was cut and made into a small fishing boat. His dreams of being a mighty ship and carrying kings had come to an end. The third tree was cut into large pieces and left alone in the dark.

Then years went by, and the trees forgot about their dreams. Then one day, a man and woman came to the barn. She gave birth and they laid the baby in the hay in the feed box that was made from the first tree. The man wished that he could have made a crib for the baby. The tree could feel the importance of this event and knew that it had held the greatest treasure of all time.

Years later, a group of men got in the fishing boat made from the second tree. One of them was tired and went to sleep. While they were out on the water, a great storm arose, and the tree didn’t think it was strong enough to keep the men safe. The men woke the sleeping man and he stood and said Peace, and the storm stopped. At this time, the tree knew that it had carried the King of Kings in its boat.

Finally, someone came and got the third tree. It was carried through the streets and the crowd mocked the man who was carrying it. Finally the man was nailed to the tree and raised in the air to die at the top of a hill. When Sunday came, the tree came to realize that it was strong enough to stand at the top of the hill and be as close to God as was possible, because Jesus had been crucified on it.

The moral of this story is that; when things don't seem to be going your way, always know that God has a plan for you. If you place your trust in Him, He will give you great gifts. Each of the trees got what they wanted, just not in the way they had imagined. We don't always know what God's plans are for us. We just know that His ways are not our ways, but his ways are always best.