As discrimination against girls assumes gigantic proportion in India, a new book focuses on female foeticide, trafficking and socio-cultural consequences of the menace by examining social and human variables at play, their inter linkages and resultant multi-facet implications.
"Life and Times of Unborn Kamla" by K K Varma tries to shed new light on the brewing crisis as a result of diminishing daughters.
The author says every 12 seconds a girl foetus is aborted in India.
"That means 700,000 girls are killed every year. All around the world, 1.2 million children are annually trafficked. Every day all across India 200 young women are being forced into prostitution. And sex selective abortion has grown into a Rs 1000 crore industry in India," says Varma, who had a teaching stint at IIT Kharagpur besides working in the social sector.
Published by Palimpsest, the book starts with the story of Kammo, who had a troubled married life as she was forced to abort girl foetuses, raped by members of her husband's family and often not given food. She was then sold to a brothel from where she managed to escape after much difficulty. She was given shelter in Shimla by an organisation working for the destitute.
Kammo then fulfilled her dream of passing the school leaving examination through an open school option. Though she was offered a job of teaching other inmates at the shelter, Kammo also decided to open a tea stall so that she could donate a little more to the shelter funds.
