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Disappearing
Daughters: The Tragedy of Female Foeticide
The author has used the tools of investigative reporting authenticated by analysis, statistics and case studies. The shocking revelation is based on the first-hand experience that she gathered while living across the length and the breadth of the country. More importantly, the author has tried to break the barriers of silence by probing into the deep-seated attitudes and practices against women. The author has laid bare the Indian psyche, and examines in detail how family, community and caste in everyday life conditions our behaviour. The narrative is full of anecdotal evidences that highlight the gruesome practice where their own families kill the girl babies. "... they are killing a girl child... he ran with her to the house where the incident was taking place and found a female infant lying on the mud floor, its limb twitching.... The infant, he learnt, had been fed the milk of a poisonous plant... he realised that female infanticide was not a myth but something which really happened." Isn’t it a self-destructive act? Ironically, they legitimise this practice by putting forth their conviction that by doing so they liberate their daughters from the hardships they would otherwise have to face. Sex-selective scanning that subsequently leads to abortion is a new scientific reality. It is an alarm about the daughters who are scientifically eliminated before they could enter the world. Such a high-tech crime has resulted in a gender imbalance in some parts of the country. It is ironic, the scanning machines which are meant for the well being of humanity, has turned out into a murder weapon. In other words, female foeticide is an "organised genocide". The author is able to strike a chord in the wake of which emerged several questions that "touches our conscience". Why sons are required over girls? Why a woman is facing the threat to her very existence? Why she is denied the right to life in a country that claims to be culturally rich? When a woman kills her daughter, who is the victim? Basically, she voiced her explicit opinions that this evil can only be eradicated if the consciences of the people concerned are aroused. It is only by a combination of introspection, aggressive educational campaign and effective legal implementation that this discrimination can be eradicated. To summarise briefly, drawing upon original research and varied sources, the book is a bold, illuminating and superbly readable study that can prove to be the researchers asset. The author has definitely taken a step in the right direction. It has been rightly said, instead of cursing the darkness, let’s light the candle. And that’s what she has been able to do.
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'...they
would sedate the new born with a drop of opium and bury her alive in a
mud pot. Now, they scan the uterus and abort her before she is born.’
Gita Aravamudan’s Disappearing Daughters is a ground-breaking
work that explores the issues of female infanticide and female foeticide
in India from a sociological perspective. The book has a foreword by
President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.