Issue 4
Just Another Girl :



Ever thought about how it feels to be a murderer? No? By the time I'm finished, you'll start thinking. This happened a few months ago, when I was in law school. Being in a new city, having left my comfort zone behind, I looked for a place to rent. In the midst of that, I met a genuine family of two, having a beautiful daughter, 6 years old. They asked me if I wanted to shift as a paying guest in their home, and I agreed.

During the first two months of my arrival, everything seemed perfect, but gradually I realised that the color of the milk wasn't white. My landlady, the 'lady' that she claimed to be, used to curse her daughter and criticize her. And she did it only when I wasn't around. To get to the root of the situation, I decided to keep a vigilant eye on her.

I came to know after a few weeks that she was to bore another child. But her frequent trips to the doctor was the indication that something was definitely fishy. The following night, I overheard her conversation with her husband about her next appointment with the doctor. Then I understood what the big fuss was about! SEX DETERMINATION.

The couple wanted a son and the foetus had turned out to be a girl. They wanted to abort 'it'. Not only that, they had already aborted two pregnancies, because it was a GIRL! Innocent, beautiful girls, who were murdered before their birth. And the frequent abortions had taken a toll on her body, physically and mentally. As a Law Student, I knew the repercussions of firstly, Sex Determination and secondly, aborting a girl child. I took help from my mentors and filed an anonymous letter to the local newspaper, stating the crime and also the Xerox copies of the medical reports of the landlady. Also I decided to leave the house that day itself, and shifted elsewhere.

A few days later, I saw a few reporters and police officers at the doctor's clinic, questioning him about his morals as a doctor. I was disgusted at the fact that I had lived with criminals. But I was glad to have done my part as an honest citizen of the nation. As for the landlady's daughter? She is, well- Just another girl in India."

Article By: Ishita Kumra

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