Unwanted Girls

Earlier this year in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, farmer Ram Kumar made a shocking discovery.

Sticking out of the earth was a tiny human hand.

Barely audible, were the cries of a newborn baby.

"There was a girl wrapped in a cloth and buried deep in the ground," said Ram Kumar.

"The baby should not have been alive but somehow it was."

The two-day old baby was rushed to a local hospital to recover from her ordeal. Her grandfather meanwhile confessed to the girl's attempted murder.

Boys are still prized more than girls because they will carry on the family name and traditionally provide for parents in their old age

So great is the burden that girls are seen to place on a family, that some believe it is better that they are never born.

In the past, infanticide was seen as one solution. Now with advances in medical technology, many parents are resorting to ultrasound scans to determine the gender of the baby.

If it is a girl, parents often pay for an abortion.

Sex selection tests and abortion on the basis of gender have been banned for 15 years in India. But the law has simply forced the trade underground.

UN figures state that 750,000 girls are aborted every year in India.

[url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/this_world/7050657.stm]BBC[/url]

Are these sentiments cultural, biological or social?

Has anyone else ever faced/heard of discrimination against women?

If you were expecting a child - what would you prefer, and why?

And is it 'really natural' for men to want more boys?