India's 'shocking' child sex-change epidemic

India is known for preferring sons over daughters, most famously (and troublingly) through the demographics-distorting practice of gender-based selective abortion. Now, hundreds of daughters

age 1 to 5 are reportedly being "converted" into boys through a sex-change procedure known as genitoplasty, which involves fashioning a penis out of female sex organs, then

pumping the child full of male hormones. This "shocking, unprecedented trend, catering to the fetish for a son," is drawing parents from all over the nation to the central Indian

city of Indore, the _Hindustan Times_ reports. Ranjana Kumari, a top campaigner against aborting girls, blames "social madness" and greed. "People don't want to share

their property or invest in girls' education or pay dowries," she says. "It's the greedy middle classes running after money." But there's no excuse for forcing

your child to have a sex change... right? RIGHT. THIS IS BEYOND AWFUL: India obviously takes its gender preference seriously: It has 7 million more boys than girls under age 6, says Meredith

Carroll at _Babble_. But really, "it’s beyond reprehensible to subject babies to something this serious because of financial reasons or social status." And whether a parent aborts

the girl or turns her into a mental and physical wreck of a boy, it's "beyond warped" that any willing parent wouldn't just love their child, "whichever flavor

comes their way." "Extreme gender preference: Indian baby girls..." SUBSCRIBE TO THE WEEK Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple

perspectives. SUBSCRIBE & SAVE SIGN UP FOR THE WEEK'S FREE NEWSLETTERS From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly

to your inbox. From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. OK, BUT THE MONEY FACTOR ISN'T INSIGNIFICANT:

As awful as these "corrupt doctors" are for re-gendering the girls, it's arguably better than the "not uncommon" blight of female infanticide, says the

_International Business Times_. And when you compare the $3,200 it costs to turn your daughter into a son (of sorts) to the dowries of up to $100,000 that parents have to cough up for their

daughter's wedding, "it is not surprising to see girls' parents" opt for the sex-change. "Indian daughters transform into sons to avoid dowry" THERE MUST BE A

BETTER EXPLANATION: The "claim that this is all the fault of the 'greedy middle classes running after money' sounds dubious," says Margaret Hartmann at _Jezebel_. And

there's a grey area for intersex children born with male and female sex organs. But if this "shocking" report is true, and parents really are forcing healthy girls to become

sterile boys, that's "an extreme and very disturbing sign of what happens when women are undervalued." "In India, parents push surgical attempts to turn girls into

boys"