Designer champions cause of India’s girl child
MUMBAI (Reuters Life!) - An Indian designer has taken up the cudgels for the girl child, dedicating his show at the Mumbai fashion week to infants whose lives have been snuffed out by female feticide.
Despite laws banning tests to determine the sex of an unborn child, the killing of female fetuses is common in rural India where a preference for sons runs deep.
“This is a national shame and anything that is needed to stem this evil should be done,” fashion designer Abhishek Dutta said.
He said he and fellow designers could play a part in sensitizing people about the issue.
Dutta’s ‘Save the Girl Child’ show — featuring heavy embroidered printed jackets, knee-length dresses, saris, pleated skirts and shawls — began with a toddler walking the ramp clutching the hand of a model.
The designer said his structured and fluid ensembles in red, green, orange and gold, stood for a girl’s maturity, femininity and mental strength.
“If we are being looked at for our economy, things like killing our girl child will also be scanned,” Dutta said after the show.
The United Nations says an estimated 2,000 unborn girls are illegally aborted every day in India.
Many families in India prefer boys, as future breadwinners, to girls, on whom dowries have to be spent to find husbands.
According to a study published in the British medical journal, the Lancet, about 10 million female fetuses may have been aborted in India over the last 20 years — after illegal sex determination tests.
“We must understand that a girl is also special like the boy. We are only disturbing the balance by neglecting girls,” said Dutta, one of 57 designers showcasing autumn and winter collections at the five-day Lakme Fashion Week that ends on Wednesday.
source:news.yahoo