India – Vanishing Daughters Part 4: Testimonies of women who have seen it all

Illegal sex determination and unsafe abortions continue to plague Haryana, claiming lives and exposing systemic legal failures, while women bear the brunt of this gender-biased crisis.

Sreya Chatterjee
Apr 14, 2025

In India’s northern state of Haryana, where the gender ratio has long been skewed against girls, the brutal consequences of illegal sex determination supported by unauthorised abortion are not just reflected in numbers—they are etched in the broken voices of the women left behind.

In this fourth instalment of our investigative series, The Vanishing Daughters, we travelled deep into the villages of Haryana to meet the families and survivors of a war waged silently, but violently, against unborn girls. Their testimonies lay bare a harrowing truth: while sex-selective abortions continue despite legal bans, it is the women—wives, daughters, mothers—who pay the ultimate price of a shady industry exploiting loopholes.

Continued: https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/vanishing-daughters-part-four-beti-bachao-beti-padhao-sex-determination-gender-bias-abortion-bride-trafficking-2708865-2025-04-14


India – The Unwanted Daughters of Rajasthan: Sex Determination And Female Foeticide

A strong preference for boys means many families try to find out the sex of the child illegally, and abort the foetus if it's a girl, or many born girls are unwanted and treated badly.

By Jigyasa Mishra
27 Mar, 2023

Jaipur (Rajasthan): “Bojha, Aanachhi, Kachri, Nirasha are some popular names given to girls born as a second or third child here,” says Kachri Bai, who lives in the rural outskirts of Jaipur, the capital of the western state of Rajasthan.

Bojha means burden, Aanachhi means unwanted or bad, Kachri means garbage and Nirasha means gloom. Kachri bai is the third girl in the family, after her sisters Roshni and Renu.

Continued; https://www.indiaspend.com/gendercheck/the-unwanted-daughters-of-rajasthan-sex-determination-and-female-foeticide-857635