According to UNICEF (The United Nations Children’s Fund), close to 7,000 girls are aborted every day in India and there is only 927 females for every 1,000 males (which is a far lower number than the worldwide average of 1,050 females). Many of these illegal sex-selective abortions occur following illegal sex determination tests. Now, the government is offering to give thousands of dollars in staggered payments (including insurance coverage) to families of baby girls up until she turns 18, but only if she is sent to school and remains unmarried. The cash incentive is an effort to discourage the practice of aborting female fetuses due to the preference for sons only. Sons are typically thought of as breadwinners in India, while daughters as burdens because of large dowries put out to find husbands. “This will force the families to look upon the girl as an asset rather than a liability since her very existence would lead to cash inflow to the family,” said women and child development minister Renuka Chowdhury.

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