Gender Discrimination and Development Paradox

India's story of economic development has not translated into corresponding gains in the social sphere. This paradox is indicative of how development can sometimes be a misnomer if it does not change unjust cultural thought and practice. The overall socio-economic development in India that has improved health care-especially maternal, infant and child health-increased life span, narrowed literacy level gaps between males and females, and expanded opportunities for work, particularly for women, has not resulted in equalizing sex ratios, in general, and gender relations in particular. Rather, the child sex ratio declines are not only getting worse but taking newer forms and manifestations. In this on-going process of transformation, there is an unholy alliance between tradition and technology of selecting sons and deselecting daughters, thus playing havoc with the already declining child-sex ratio. The present volume examines the ways in which sex-selective technologies, such as the ultrasound, are misused at the family, community, and state levels. The contributors to this volume attempt to understand and comprehend the multi-layered dimensions related to adverse child-sex ratio. Scholars have put together their diverse research, studies, and ideas to examine the strategies to check further decline in sex ratio, in general, and child sex ratio, in particular. [Subject: Gender Studies, India Studies]