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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Cousins under the skin: how the obsession for a male child can be changed -Alaka M Basu

Cousins under the skin: how the obsession for a male child can be changed -Alaka M Basu

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published Published on Mar 29, 2018   modified Modified on Mar 29, 2018
-The Hindu

The obsession for a male child in many parts of Asia can be changed. South Korea shows the way

On the Vietnam Airlines flight to Hanoi, I did the opposite of what I usually do at take off — loosened my seat belt fully before I could buckle it. On most other flights I have to tighten the belt to make up for the passenger who occupied the seat before me. But the Vietnamese are so slender that one can only buy their elegant Ao dai at stores that say ‘foreigner sizes available’!

Equally non-threatening are the streets full of two-wheelers in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Used to feeling extremely nervous at seeing groups of young men on two-wheelers in India, especially those that wave brightly coloured flags and matching scarves, it felt strange to have these Vietnamese young men negotiate my jaywalking without honking, without shouting slogans, and without baring their teeth. I am not sure if it was the men or their two-wheelers — mopeds and scooters rather than the more popular motorcycles in India — that had this effect. It was probably both. It felt as though the ravages of years of war had led the population to abandon rage for smiles.

Shopkeepers joined me in the game of endless bargaining, but they didn’t nag me or block my way if I moved on without buying something. Perhaps this had something to do with the fact that a majority of petty shopkeepers were women. At about 77%, Vietnam has one of the highest female labour force participation rates in Asia.

Some comparisons

It felt good to be in a place where worth is not measured by girth, in humans or in vehicles. But first impressions can be misleading, so I turned to data. When I travel, I have the habit of comparing the place I am in with my home country — and ranking. But I do not look for data on the ease of doing business. I have no urge to do business and in any case, business ease is a poor way of measuring the well-being of a people. Instead, I look at quality of life indicators and a country’s attitudes towards its women.

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The Hindu, 29 March, 2018, http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/cousins-under-the-skin/article23375833.ece?homepage=true


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