Bittersweet: Fruit trees save girls' lives

[monster]

An Indian village plants fruit trees when a girl is born to provide for their future dowry and marriage costs, and so prevent female foeticide and dowry death which are hignest in that region of India.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/sou...a/10204759.stm

"The whole world should emulate us and plant more trees," says their father Prabhu Dayal Singh.

or maybe not. Trees good. Reason for planting good. Reason for reason for planting BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD.

Whilst this process saves lives by providing money for the girls, it does nothing to make girls' lives more valuable, which would be the miracle solution. When all the other villages catch on and ll girls have fruit money for dowries, the dowries will go up and these girls will be in no better situation.

So... bittersweet.

A band-aid on a gash that will probably never heal, but I live in hope.

And yes, I know it's not my place to project my values onto other cultures. But I'm human. Bite me.