To save a girl child

I made this picture a couple of days back and I thought this would be a good place to share it.

According to the current census, male to female ratio is 1000 to 940 in India.

One of the reasons for this is Female infanticide (the deliberate killing of girl babies). As horrifying as it sounds in the 21st century, this is still practiced in India. India is a male dominated society. Boys are considered to be the bread-winners of the family. They are expected to take care of their parents in their old age. A girl on the other hand, brings nothing but expenses. Traditionally, weddings in India are done by the girl's family and it costs a lot of money(add dowry to this - the cost of buying a husband and the expenses sky-rocket). Once the girl is married, she belongs to the new family. No financial support can be expected from her for her ageing parents. A middle class family can barely afford these expenses, let alone a poor family. If young girls are educated more, they will go out and find jobs. They wont be financially dependent on the father and then on the husband. They won't be viewed as a burden. More girls go to work now. But changing the mindset of an entire country is not an easy task. In a country as old as India, wanting a boy baby is seeped in our tradition. Even families with money, families where the women are well-educated want boy babies because they have been brought up to want it. How do we change the mindset ? The only answer I can think of is to get people talking. People aren't inherently bad. Sometimes all it takes is for us to see the other side of things to figure out that a certain tradition is outdated. This is why I like making pictures that revolve around social issues. In the hope that someday, somewhere, one person would look at it and change their mind about what they want.