Her book created waves in the country as did her articles on female foeticide. Sixty-one- year- old Bangalore based author Gita Aravamudan created waves when she presented the disturbing picture of how female foeticide is rampant even today. The book was launched by ex-President Abdul Kalam, a long-time family friend of Gita’s who also wrote the foreword. Artist Meera George watched an interview of Gita’s on the television and decided to contact  Gita, an authority on the subject, to grace her exhibition on female foeticide, with a book reading. 

Gita’s journey began when she was a journalist, she says, at a time when there were hardly any female journalists! She did a series of articles for The Week, on female infanticide. Travelling to places where the female infanticide rates are the highest- Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Haryana and Gujarat. Gita says that during her travels it began to show that female foeticide was also rampant.

After that, Penguin (publishers) got in touch with her and to see if she would write a book on the subject. “I began research on the impact on women and methods used. It was one of the most gruesome experiences ever. During my research I realised that foeticide is a more organised crime,” she says. Gita came across some disturbing truths when she probed further, “Foeticide is by literate, educated, middle-class and upper-middle-class people all over the country. I found that in states with high literacy rates and where family planning is a success, there was foeticide. It is a crime undertaken by the educated. Even in a place like South Delhi, it is prevalent.”

Another hard truth was that the doctors were not just involved in this illegal business but there are many that have taken it one step further, “There are doctors who say declare a male foetus female, just so that they can perform the procedure and make quick money,” explains Gita.

Hard-hitting and brutally honest, Gita was accused of exaggerating in her book, but she says she stands by her point, “Female foeticide is like a holocaust. One just needs to look at statistics and the census and surveys to understand this. After all, what is a world without women?”