The hardest thing for a mother is to lose her child. The pain caused is much greater than that caused by childbirth. Savita Halappanavar was brave enough to accept that she was losing her baby. 31-year-old Savita, a dentist by profession, went to a hospital in Ireland complaining of back pain. After being told that she was miscarrying, she sought medical termination of her pregnancy.

The moment a girl child is born in India, it’s not only the child who cries, but the whole family. The family feels disaster has arrived on their doorstep. The blame cannot be put only on poor and illiterate people, even the so called ‘educated’ suffer from this syndrome.

I have always been a “Daddy’s girl”. And I am proud to be one too. But being a privileged one doesn’t make me insensitive.  Coming from a country like India where the birth of a girl child is still considered a curse, it makes me wonder if we have really come a long way as a country.

 Living in my world as an educated, urban, independent woman I became a bit selfish. I didn’t realise that the old order of societal norms still prevailed around me. In the process of my own transition from being a much loved daughter, sister, friend to a much loved wife I had certainly become less aware of what was going on in Indian society. And the birth of a girl child is one case in point.But two incidents in a row changed it all and woke me up with a start. It was the 15 March 2012; I was browsing the Indian news channels and e-newspapers. One name that made headlines was Baby Falak, a two year old girl who died of cardiac arrest. It was her third cardiac arrest in three months. She was admitted in a hospital in Delhi on 18 January 2012 with a fractured skull and human bite marks on her body.

Jannat Bibi has 12 children to look after

Steel coat hangers and opium sticks are the last resort for most women in Pakistan who want to do away with an unwanted pregnancy. Abortions are illegal in the Islamic Republic, affecting several desperate women.

38-year-old Jannat Bibi, a resident of Dawood Shah in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan and a mother of twelve, has finally agreed to visit a government family planning centre in her village after five abortions. Her midwife, Rozina, 54, says she is now an expert in handling her cases, despite ‘hidden fears’ about Jannat Bibi’s health.