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In Tamil Nadu, the gender preference was not very strong. This was shown by the fact
that In a survey, it was found that only 29.0% of married women desiring another child
wanted sons wh~le 17.0% wanted to have girls (Anonymous,l9%ia)
However, there
are a few pockets near Salem where female infanticide has been reported (Kulkam~ et
a1,1996) In the study area, which is part of Tamil Nadu, the sex ratio being 1,004
does not reflect a strong preference for sons. While a majority of the respondents to
the st~ct~red questionnaire (46.9%) preferred to have both a glrl and a boy, only
25 6% of the respondents wanted to have sons. The main reasons for prefemng sons
by the respondents were'(i) to carry the family name. (ii) to give economic support (iii)
to perform funeral rites, (iv) ~t was a great financial burden to have girls, (v) girls get
rnarr~ed and leave the family Similar reasons have been cited for preference of sons.
elsewhere in the world (Okojie,1994). Among the respondents 12.5% wanted to have
daughters because they were affect~onate, helped with domestic work and looked after
them In old age. In local terminology, a girl was referred to as "paapa" which means a
small child and the boy was known as "Thambi" which means brother The cultural
concept in this part of the country 1s that a girl will always be a small child to be
cher~shed and protected by the brother
7.5.2 Nutrition and the girl child
The d~etary adequacy and dietary discrimination at home reflects the soc~al status of a
chlld. There are several studies from India that found differences in the dietary Intake
between girls and boys. It was observed that girls usually received what was left over
and the dietary inadequacy was more when compared to boys (Ghosh,l992).
Dlscrlmlnatlon in feeding practice lnvolvlng both quant~ty and qual~ty of food has been
reported from Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Bombay (Ghosh,1992; Thomas,1992). It has