Penguin India has just released a book by activist Gita Aravamudan on the country’s increasingly skewed sex ratio. She says that she was goaded into writing Disappearing Daughters by the realisation that it was a problem amongst the rich and educated, and not just amongst the poor.

“I realised that infanticide happened not in pockets, among the poor and disempowered but foeticide happened among the rich, the powerful, the educated; those who were aware of family planning!” she told the newspaper The Hindu.

“I started delving and was shocked by what I found. There was a deep link between female foeticide and factors like wealth, education, success of family planning, and medical progress. All these factors actually worked against women; this shocking realisation was the genesis of the book.”

She hopes to reach doctors through the book. She claims that doctors are part of the problem, even if they do not recognise it.

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Michael Cook

Michael Cook edits BioEdge, a bioethics newsletter, and MercatorNet, an on-line magazine whose focus is human dignity. He writes from Sydney, Australia.

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