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Stemming girls’ chronic poverty: Catalysing development change by building just social institutions
‘I had no right to eat breakfast. Instead I had to prepare the
sandwiches for the children at school. I so wanted to devour them.
But I had no choice. My aunt beat me, with shoes or other things.
Sometimes she beat me very early in the morning. Once I revolted
against this all. I did not want to go sell things on the street. I had not
even had breakfast yet. She forced me to go anyway. I cried […] I was
with a man, he did garbage disposal. He wanted sex but I refused.
But I was too hungry, so in the end I gave in. I ate well that day. He
gave me GNF500 or 1,000, I cannot remember. I was six or seven
years old. I did not feel OK about it, I did it against my will’ (in Human
Rights Watch, 2006).
Psychosocial impacts
The impacts of son bias on girls’ psychosocial well-being are
not well researched, but fragmented findings suggest that this
is an area of concern, and one that requires further analytical
attention. First, evidence from a range of contexts emphasises
that daughters face a much higher degree of control over
their behaviour than boys. In Confucian cultures in East Asia,
whereas boys are perceived to have intrinsic worth from birth,
girls are seen as ‘blank slates,’ with their value depending
on socialisation and tight restrictions on their behaviour
(Rydstrom, 2003). Similarly, Reynolds (1991, in Vogler et al.,
2009) notes that, in Zimbabwe, for instance, there is much
greater control of girls’ time use, especially after puberty,
owing to concerns about controlling girls’ reproductive
behaviour. A Population Council study in Pakistan found
that parents not only allowed sons much greater mobility (see
also Chapter 5 on Restricted Civil Liberties) but also accorded
sons considerably greater decision-making freedom relating to
work, education and marriage (Ul Haque, n.d.).
In order to escape strict parental control, adolescent girls in
Latin America often opt for early marriage and/or pregnancy,
not only as a result of a desire to engage in sexual relationships
but also as a means to leave the family home and especially
fathers’ control (Pereznieto and Campos, 2010).
‘I started to work because I did not want to stay at home as my father
treated me badly […] no, it is not that they treated me badly, it is just
that I don’t like to stay at home because he beats me, he tells me off,
I can’t even have a rest. He is a carpenter you see and he asks us to
do all kinds of things, I have to help him with sanding […] I don’t even
have the time to do my homework’ (female child domestic worker, 14,
Peru, in Vargas, 2010).
However, such ‘choices’ often result in reduced opportunities
for future development. Teenage mothers are often compelled
to leave school without completing a basic education and are
forced to acquire new responsibilities with which they are
unfamiliar.
‘Well, I was studying, I finished second year of secondary and I gave
birth just after I finished. After a few months I started third year but
I was unable to finish because it was very difficult to leave the baby
with someone all the time. Back then the Estancias programme
hadn’t yet started’ (single adolescent mother, Mexico, in Pereznieto
and Campos, 2010).
© Sven Torfinn / Panos Pictures (2009)
Bangladesh, Tangail. 10 year old Argina works as a house girl for a family in Tangail.
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2 | Son bias
A second important psychosocial impact relates to girls’ general
relegation to domestic work responsibilities. This gendered
division of labour in favour of sons not only has negative
implications for daughters’ human capital development and
future income-generating potential (see above) but also,
because of the too-often invisible and undervalued social
construction of domestic work activities, may lead to girls’
lower levels of self-esteem and confidence (see Box 18).
4. Promising policy and programme initiatives
In order to tackle son bias and the negative impacts it has on
girls and their vulnerability to development deficits and
life-course poverty, a multipronged approach is required
– one which addresses the complex mix of economic and
socio-cultural factors underpinning intra-household gender
discrimination. Initiatives designed to influence legal
frameworks, attitudes and behaviour directly relating to son
bias need to be complemented by efforts to enhance girls’
human capital development opportunities, to prevent and
protect girls from abuse and exploitation and to reduce girls’
time poverty. In this section, we review promising policy
and programme initiatives covering three of these four broad
areas from a range of country contexts, in order to highlight
initiatives that could contribute to altering norms and
practices that perpetuate son bias and help stem life-course
and intergenerational poverty transfers. Issues relating to
prevention and protection of girls from abuse and exploitation
are discussed in Chapter 4 on Physical Insecurity.
Directly targeting son bias
As discussed in the previous section, son bias is not only
the product of cultural and religious traditions. It is also a
rational response to pervasive societal gender discrimination
and exclusion, on the one hand, and underinvestment in
social protection systems, which often leaves families solely
responsible for their life-course security, on the other. In order
to challenge intra-household inequalities, an important starting
point is to ensure that legal frameworks are in place to prohibit
sex-selective abortion and female infanticide. Legislation
banning sex-selective abortions has been introduced in a
number of countries (India in 1983, South Korea in 1987,
25
China in 1989, Nepal in 2002), but legislation is often only
weakly enforced (see Box 19).
Legal action by itself, however, is not enough to eliminate
harmful traditional practices. To be effective, legislation needs
to be part of a broader integrated public education campaign
that involves opinion makers and cultural leaders. Several
promising approaches have been undertaken in China and
India. India’s Save the Girl Campaign aims to lessen son
preference by highlighting the achievements of young girls
in India. The campaign was launched in 2005 on International
Women’s Day and has involved a series of activities, including:
working with anganwadis (public child care workers), women
Children negotiate personal freedom in a number of ways,
including through work refusal. This can constitute a powerful
statement, given that involvement in work activities is highly
valued in many cultures (Vogler et al., 2009). Nieuwenhuys
(1994), in her study of children’s daily activities and routines
in a village in Kerala, India, emphasises that, for the poor,
gender and age are crucial in the household’s division of
labour and are closely linked to the perceived value of a
member’s contribution. ‘It is their being allotted tasks that
are not valued in monetary terms that makes for children’s
work, and in particular girls’, to be held in low esteem’ (ibid).
Box 18: Links between the value of work and
girls’ self-esteem
In India, enforcement of legislation outlawing sex pre-
selection technologies has proven challenging. In 1994, the
Prenatal Diagnostics Techniques (Regulation and Prevention
of Misuse) Act was passed, becoming operational in 1996.
Although this ended advertising about pre-birth sex selection,
the act was difficult to enforce, partly because of a lack of
political will and limited engagement from the public and non-
governmental organisations (NGOs) (UNFPA, 2004). However,
in 2000 health activists filed public interest litigation on the
non-enforcement of the act in the Supreme Court, which led
to the government issuing directives and incorporating the
act into various public health programmes to try and improve
enforcement. In 2002, the bill was amended to expand
the definition of ‘prenatal diagnostic techniques’ to include
preconception techniques, as well as the imposition of a fine
of up to $2,000 and threat of the cancellation of licence for
health care practitioners who divulged the sex of a foetus.
By 2006, 300 doctors had been prosecuted in accordance
with the law (Mudur, 2006); however, only 37 cases have
been filed for communicating the sex of the foetus and
27 for advertising sex selection. The first conviction with a
prison term was ordered on 28 March 2006, when a doctor
and his assistant were sentenced to two years in prison
and a Rs 5,000 fine in Palwal, Haryana. Until this, only one
case had resulted in successful prosecution, but even that
person received an insignificant punishment.
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Similarly, a
2008 report demonstrated that practitioners who are willing
to disclose the sex of a foetus are still easily found, with
the practice justified as a ‘social duty’ which prevents the
ill-treatment of unwanted daughters (ActionAid and IDRC,
2008).
Box 19: The challenges of legal enforcement