4 books on the girl child

International Girl Child Day was observed on October 11. The day, declared by the United Nations, recognises girls’ rights and the many challenges they face across the globe.

Metrolife brings you five books to help understand the situation of girls and women in India.

Disappearing daughters

Author: Gita Aravamudan

In this book journalist Gita Aravamudan uncovers what drives female foeticide in India. She talks about the deeply embedded patriarchy, the lack of bodily autonomy among women and the callous medical system that allows this. The book is a poignant reminder of this phenomenon and it also includes the experiences of women who have
faced this.

Lifting the veil

Author: Ismat Chughtai

This book is a collection of 21 short stories, and it brings together Ismat Chughtai’s fiction and non-fiction writing. It explores female sexuality in a way that is rare for the period in which it was written. The stories speak candidly about issues like gender roles, politics, religion, marriage and relationships. Addressing taboo subjects like desire, and homosexuality, she does it in a way that is raw, sensitive and at times humorous as well.

Chup
Author: Deepa Narayan

Based on 600 interviews with women and some men across India, Deepa Narayan brings this well-researched book which points out certain habits that dominate the life of women, no matter their education, financial status or background. The book aims to show women who believe they are untouched by misogyny, that these seemingly harmless habits have an enormous impact on their life.

Why loiter?

Author: Shilpa Phadke

‘Why loiter?’ looks into women’s safety in various urban spaces in India, in the 21st century. It is based on over three years of research conducted in Mumbai by the author. She tries to show that even though women today have greater access to public spaces, they do not have equal claim to them. She does so by going beyond the surface level risks associated with a woman’s presence in public, and urges the readers to loiter in public spaces which she believes to be a radical act.