This is a story that changed my whole mindset in one month. I come from a small village in Uttar Pradesh. Since my childhood, I have seen girls being judged all the time, be it their choice of cloth, choice of games, or choice of friends. I have heard from my father and my elder brother saying about my sister, “8th tak padh legi bahut hai,aage padh ke kya karegi ( She doesn’t need to study after class 8th).” And they did so. They didn’t let my sister continue her studies after 8th. I became alone at schools, and now I had to care about my tiffin, my homework etc. During my graduation days, I became aware of girl child abortion. I thought of my father and my brother’s outlook towards women. They always portray girls as their burden. Maybe they are also one of those who prefer male child and might have aborted girl child. When I came to my home during vacation, I started investigating these things. And what I found after one month, was horrible and shameful. I investigated ten women who have at least two children. Out of ten, two were from my own family. Every story was dark and revealed the worst conditions of women in rural India. Each one has suffered horribly. My life changed after that month. Read this story and then decide why the right to abortion should be a fundamental right of women.
This is the story of a sister-in-law in my neighbourhood. She had three children. her first child was a girl and her family wanted next one to be a boy. They aborted the next child because a baba (spiritual guru) told them that it was a girl. She wanted her to be born, but she was beaten by her husband daily until she agreed for abortion. She told me that she was not able to walk at least for one month after that. And still, she was abused for not doing household chores properly. They said, “Itna samay nahi lagta theek hone mein,ek hafte mein sab kuchh theek ho jata hai. Ye natak kar rahi hai taaki ghar ka kaam na karna pade (It doesn’t take this long to recover. She’s faking it to escapeescape household work).” She went through two other abortions after this as they two were female foetuses. Finally, after three forced abortions she gave birth to two boys. After the birth of first boy, her father-in-law told her, “Now, you have done what you were brought for”.