We all lead wretched lives.

Real life is stranger than fiction. Who would have believed that one Pawan Kumar started a ' Kunwara Union ' or ' Batchelors Union ' in 2009 in Haryana. This organisation is now coined a slogan, ' bahu dilao, vote pao ', which means ' a bride for a vote ', for the coming elections. The reason for this bizarre demand is that there are only 877 women for every 1000 men in the state because of widespread abortion of female fetuses, made possible by ultrasound scanning. A survey of 56,520 residents in 92 villages in Haryana in 2010 by a Pune based NGO found 13.5% of men in the age group of 25-29 years were unmarried. High rate of unemployment may be partly to blame. This is because standards of education are so poor in India that only 25% of graduates are employable in the IT sector. Lots of educated women with high paying jobs are choosing to remain single because they see marriage and babies as hindrance to their careers. As is usual politicians have passed a draconian law which requires every ultrasound machine to be registered and bans portable machines. But where there is a demand there will be supply so the practice goes on. Just as women are still being killed for dowry even though the evil practice was banned in 1961. In fact, the fear of having to pay a dowry when a girl grows up is cited as one reason for the epidemic of euthanasia of girls. Why wait for the girl to be killed by her in laws after we have spent so much on her growing up, let us save money and do it ourselves. What is absolutely inexplicable is why there is so much violence against women in India. Women who had an English education parrot the western feminist view that India is a patriarchal society and men just want to subjugate women. Do we? Even though we are born of women. Fathers go out to work leaving women to being up their children. Why don't they brainwash their children that violence in any form is repugnant and every women must be respected. Perhaps women are part of the problem. Women do not like women and they treat their daughters harshly while pampering their sons, who grow up to be bullies. It is not just women. India has over 40 million guns, second only to the US and everyday someone is shot dead for some trivial reason. Perhaps it is best that girls do not have to face wretched lives.