Girl child

Women stand in a doorway of a home in the village of Magrihawa in the Shravasti district of Uttar Pradesh. (Christie Johnston for the International Herald Tribune)

[Article]
A lot of us Indians have experienced gender bias personally or know families where this bias was prevalent. We also know that when the families are either able to pay dowry or when the system of dowry is weakened, the girl-child is treated better albeit not at par with the male child. So even with the elimination of the dowry system the bias will still exist in a toned down form. In the new economy (which is just affecting cities)  the girl child can be as effective a bread-winner as a boy. However the culture in India is that the girl is to leave the family and join the boy's family. After the boy is married parents will still hold onto their male child. The girl child is however considered out of bounds by many. My impression is that this feeling is not restricted to small shanty towns and is shared by most of the urban population (more strongly by the migrant work force).

So if you were a  leader of a small rural village like this in UP what would you do ?
a) Enforce the anti-dowry laws.
b) Incentivize the female child (free education and some form of relief to the families). I know people who still don't care if the education is free for the girls. They'd much rather pay for the sun going to some fancy school than send their kids to school. People also think the girl could be over-qualified to marry the uneducated men in the community.
c) Women are still the weaker sex in these settings and are considered of lesser value. I dont know how to make their value more apparent.
d) Work with NGOs to promote birth control
e) Incentivize co-operative, grameen bank loans, Small-Scale-Industries with women leaders. Once they find the inner power they can be more aware of their human rights and feel more dignified.


Can you think of any more ?