Who killed Baby Falak?

"The two-year-old died a horrible death because the system did not care enough to want her to live."

The Hindu : Opinion / Lead : Who killed Baby Falak?:  A child died and we collectively mourn. She was just two years old. And she fought bravely, but the tubes and wires connecting her to life support in the AIIMS Trauma Centre were no match for the systemic failures that carried this baby to her death. For the truth is that Falak never really stood a chance.

Women and Child rights

A Glance at the newspapers in the last fortnight or so indicates that women and child abuse is rampant in the Indian society and international and national surveys reflect the same vulnerability...

Gauri Sinh explores more on the issue...

How risky is it to be born a girl in India today

India & the sex selection conundrum

"Let us agree to go beyond billboard exhortations to ‘love the girl child.' "

The decline in child sex ratio is cause for alarm, but also occasion for serious policy re-think. This artificial alteration of our demographic landscape has implications for not only gender justice and equality but also social violence, human development and democracy. The Hindu : Opinion / Op-Ed : India & the sex selection conundrum.

Sex selection is located at the complex interface of cultural attitudes, patriarchal prejudice, socioeconomic pressures, the changes wrought by modernity, and the commercialisation and misuse of modern medical technology. The impact of modernity and materialism on the decreased valuation of females i.e. enhanced daughter aversion, the lack of old-age social security i.e. son preference, increasing violence against women, property rights, inheritance laws — each of these and more play a role.

We must demand of ourselves an equally comprehensive national policy on the sex ratio, capable of addressing each contributory factor.