India's secondary sex

What kind of society are we that we consistently, deliberately - and systematically - fail our women?

Doctors at the trauma centre of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi are used to handling horrible cases. But even they were shaken by this one. A 15-year-old girl — a child herself — had brought in a two-year-old for treatment claiming to be her mother. The unnamed toddler had a fractured skull and human bite marks all over her body. The doctors, who named her Falak, which means “sky” or “heaven”, said they had never seen a child in such a terrible state. The little girl died after nearly two months in hospital, and after having