India is facing a growing crisis:

In villages and cities across India, parents are aborting girls more often than at any time in history, doctors and children’s rights groups say. In some rural areas, girls are also being killed after they are born. It all adds up to a dramatically skewed national ratio of females to males: 954 girls are born for every 1,000 boys, according to the government’s 2001 census. In the United States, there are 1,050 newborn girls for every 1,000 newborn boys.

The government recently announced a plan to counter the growing trend: pay families up to $2,900 to raise daughters. In a country where many Indian villagers make less than $1,000 a year, the staggered payments would “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 Renuka Chowdhury, the women and children development minister. But some think the plan is the wrong one:

“It does not increase the value of the daughter,” [said Razia Ismail, co-founder of the India Alliance for Child Rights]. “It’s a very sad way of valuing a person. Is it a person or is it a commodity? … It’s to say that ‘if you don’t beat your children, I’ll give you money.’ No. You have to do something about offenders.”

Instead, many are advocating for better education, saying in the long run it will be more effective than bribery. What do you think?