I believe that for this to change the international development community has to first acknowledge this fact and then convince girls, women, boys, men, policymakers, and government officials that girls are more valuable as educated, physically and mentally strong people with a voice—able to contribute to important conversations and national growth—than they are as young brides, uneducated household servants, or disposable property.
I know my view of girls’ status sounds harsh, and it would be easy to dismiss my view as hyperbolic and attention-seeking. But let me describe the current situation for girls in West Bengal, India, as one example. For poor families in rural villages in West Bengal, each girl born to that family is a burden. With very limited resources, a daughter has to be fed and educated, and, most onerous of all, a dowry will have to be paid at the time of her marriage—how much will depend on the community standard, but it is always more than a poor family can afford. Certainly, while daughters live with their parents they contribute to the household by providing physical labor—they fetch wood and water and work as day laborers in brick factories or on large farms. But having too many daughters can bankrupt a family. For families with one daughter and one or more sons, the family may be able to stay afloat because they will receive a dowry when their son marries. For families with many daughters and fewer sons or no sons, their survival is threatened.