Gift of a Girl
It is said that India is the forehead of the world mother and that Tamil Nadu is the bindhi that adorns it.
Every year in India, thousands of baby girls are killed. The dowry system which symbolises the low status of women forces hundreds of mothers to murder their babies. This practice has existed for centuries in those parts of the world where women are particularly undervalued or males particularly prized.
In parts of Tamil Nadu there has been an alarming increase in recent years in the number of female babies killed at birth. ‘Gift of a Girl’ concentrates on the movement to stop female
infanticide rather than the tragedies of its victims. Our approach takes a positive perspective, focusing on solutions rather than problems. Our main axis was a non-governmental organisation called URISE – Urban and Rural Institute for Social Education.
URISE began initially in order to challenge the issue of child exploitation. but gradually they developed to incorporate other issues such as female infanticide and violence against women.
– Mayyasa Al-Malazi and Jo Smith
Description source: Cinenova paper archive
