Population control programs such as family planning and the introduction of sex identification technologies has helped to create skewed sex ratios in northern India and particularly in the state of Haryana. Due to a surplus of men and the numbers of missing females, an organized business of bride trafficking has emerged where poor women from eastern and northeastern states of India are bought and brought to Haryana for the purpose of marriage. This thesis explores how skewed sex ratios have contributed to the phenomenon of bride trafficking in Haryana guided by the theoretical framework of violences of development which argues that there is a hidden paradox within development. This was done by conducting a conventional content analysis in order to create a deeper understanding of the phenomenon. There is scarce research on bride trafficking, therefore this study contributes with extended knowledge in order to shed a light on the increasing trade with females.

Plusieurs chercheurs ont constaté un déséquilibre démographique important (ratio homme/femme) en Inde du Nord-Ouest qui serait l’une des conséquences directe de la sélection sexuelle prénatale engendrée par forte préférence pour la naissance des garçons. Dans les villes de Jaipur (Rajasthan) et Gurgaon (Haryana), auprès de femmes mariées issues de milieux socio-économiques aisés, j’ai tenté de comprendre comment les femmes vivent au quotidien la préférence pour les garçons et d’explorer pourquoi elles reproduisent ces préférences et discriminations envers garçons et filles dans leurs pratiques reproductives. Le recours à la sélection sexuelle semble résoudre de nombreuses tensions produites par les interactions entre les changements économiques, l’intensification de la planification familiale, l’accessibilité aux technologies de la santé reproductive et les attentes filiales de la famille. Bien que les femmes subissent de la pression familiale pour concevoir un fils, elles peuvent désirer pour elles-mêmes la naissance de fils, une préférence influencée par la construction identitaire de genre qui associe l’achèvement de la féminité à travers les rôles d’épouse et la maternité de fils. Les pressions pour la naissance d’un garçon émaneraient tout autant des structures sociales que de l’environnement familial immédiat. / Demographers have recorded a very important unbalanced sex-ratio (men/women) in North-Western India that would be the direct consequence of prenatal sex-selection caused by a strong son preference. In Jaipur (Rajasthan) and Gurgaon (Haryana), I interviewed married women from well-off backgrounds and in attempt to understand the presence of son preference and daughter discrimination in their everyday lives. The use of sex-selection seems to resolve several tensions produced by the interactions between economic changes, family-planning intensification, availability of reproductive technologies and kinship expectations from the family. Although women experience family pressure to conceive a son, they can also desire a son for themselves; gender identity construction influences the idea that women can achieve femininity and be accomplished through their roles as spouse and mother of a son. Pressure to give birth to a son comes from the structures as well as the immediate family environment.