Book review
This book touches our conscience’—from the Foreword by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

‘Now they no longer feed them paddy husk or poisoned milk…they stifle them with a pillow or with a cloth.’ (Kanchamma, a midwife from Alligundam village in Tamil Nadu)

‘We knew the doctor at the scan centre and…went to the clinic that he suggested and had the foetus removed. The next two times were also okay except that I got very tired and had to give up my job. My husband said having a son was more important than having a job.’ (Renu, from Chandigarh, who has had four abortions in five years)

India has historically had a deficit of women compared to most other countries, but we now live in a time when a systematic extermination of an entire gender is taking place right before our eyes. Until the 1980s, women and girls were dying either of neglect or were killed soon after they were born. Today, the horrifying reality is that, thanks to ‘advances’ in medical technology, they are now eliminated while still in the womb. Female foeticide has become an organized crime and the ultrasound machine has mutated into an instrument of murder.

In Disappearing Daughters Gita Aravamudan uses the tools of investigative reporting to expose the imperatives that drive this horrific phenomenon. She unravels an appalling story of deeply embedded and destructive patriarchal beliefs, disempowered women who have no claim on their own bodies and the active complicity of a ruthless and callous medical and social system. This book makes it chillingly clear that the macabre practice of eliminating female foetuses spells doom for our sons as well as our daughters and is bound to have a disastrous impact on future generations.

About the author Gita Aravamudan was born in Bangalore in 1947. Over the years, she has written for a wide range of publications including nationally reputed newspapers and magazines. She joined the Hindustan Times in New Delhi at a time when there were very few women in journalism and then later shifted to the Indian Express in Bangalore to become one of the first women reporters in the city. After moving to Trivandrum with her husband, who was working with the Space Research Organisation, Gita ran a column called ‘Trivandrum in Focus’ for The Hindu for twelve years. Her published work includes a book on women’s issues named Voices in My Blood. Gita has been involved with the women’s movement for over twenty-five years. She now lives in Bangalore and continues to write on a variety of gender issues.