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The practice of selling children, especially girls, was not uncommon in early 20th-century Singapore. It was primarily driven by societal stigma, economic hardship, and cultural preferences for male offspring. During the 1930s and 1940s, there was a tangible demand for female children, often for marriage or domestic roles, with transactions sometimes as low as $5 or as high as $88. These sales were typically informal, based on word-of-mouth agreements, but there were also documented contracts, such as a 1939 record of a girl exchanged for $88 at age 12.