New Delhi, Oct 26 (PTI) Obstetrician-gynaecologist Dr Aruna Kalra reveals the persistent desire for a male child among her patients in her autobiographical account “I Want a Boy” and also captures the absurd lengths they adopt in their quest for a son.
According to data, an estimated 4-12 million female foetuses have been aborted in the past three decades, and the brutal killings still continue.
In an era of technological innovation and evolving social values, one would expect traditional biases to be a thing of the past. But that is not the case.
The plea for a male heir resonates everywhere, whether in upmarket maternity homes or in chaotic government hospitals where the author did her three-year residency at the start of her career.
The book, published by Vitasta, is peppered with personal anecdotes and is also a commentary on the repeated pregnancies, selective abortions, and outdated rituals for a boy baby.
Kalra says all the stories in her book are real, though names have been changed to protect identities. “I have highlighted the world inside a maternity ward in most government hospitals in India.” She says she wanted to share these stories because the “truth is often buried deep inside these hospitals, and it needs to be exposed and addressed more aggressively”.
She asserts that perceptions must change.
“These stories are being enacted daily in real-life for the vast majority of our country’s women – women who have no voice and are forced to succumb to the norm,” Kalra writes.
She also says that the desire for a male offspring is “no less among our rich, educated upper class who throng our costly corporate hospitals, as it is among our uneducated, or lower middle-class families”. PTI ZMN RB RB
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