Sixteen-year-old Lakshmi’s voice travels through the streets of Mubarakpur. She sings in the Hindi-Bhojpuri strain of Chandauli, a district in Uttar Pradesh bordering Bihar. “Apne bojh bhale Papa, lihab utaare, hamra ke deb Papa, jite di ki maari. Kam hi umar mein Papa, kar na biyah ho,” (Papa, even if you get me married thinking I am your burden, you would have killed me while I am still alive. Papa, please don’t marry me off at such a young age).Lakshmi wrote the song for her father when she w...

The Singwai household at Dhani Bhojraj village in Haryana’s Fatehabad district is filled with the sounds of mirth and merriment. Trophies, from dance, kabaddi and kho-kho competitions, earned by the ten daughters of the family line a shelf above their mother’s bed. Above the trophies, photos of baby boys are taped to the wall.Thirteen-year-old Sushila, the third daughter of Sunita and Sanjay Singwai, holds up a drawing she made last year of an imagined brother, a smiling baby surrounded by butt...

Disclaimer: Sex determination is illegal and a punishable offence under the Pre-Conception (PC) and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PNDT) Act, 1994After having three daughters, my husband would get drunk and threaten me with divorce if I did not give him a son,” says Delhi-based Pushpa (name changed to protect privacy). Then one day, 11 years later, when the tests revealed a male foetus, she was relieved. The pressure from the family would ease.

In the last two years, Pushpa Mitra, 40, replaced the disappointment, bitterness, and heartbreak lingering at her home in Delhi’s Pushp Vihar with the sweet smells of cookie dough and cake batter. Now a baker by profession, Mitra says,“Main mehnat se ghabraati nahi, magar mehnat ka phal bhi milna chahiye (I am not afraid of hard work, but it should yield fruit).” Mitra refers to her previous job as an anganwadi worker. She was terminated from service three years ago for protesting for better pay...

Until two years ago, Ravi’s days in Jharkhand were filled with playing with friends, singing and piano practice with his bandmates for competitions, and working on school projects. These activities disappeared from his daily routine when he moved to Delhi and enrolled in a coaching institute. Now in Class 12, Ravi (name changed upon request), says, “I hardly move outside this building.” He lives and attends coaching classes within, barely stepping out.

In the winding alleys of Haryana’s Nalwa village, Hisar district, just about 165 km west of New Delhi, India’s Capital, a group of teenage girls takes time out from studying and housework to meet in the evening. They talk of leaving, to study in a bigger city and build a life of their own. For Raveena Saroha, 16, the appeal of going out to study stems from her desire to “experience the world outside”. Saroha, who hails from a family of farm labourers, has relatives who moved to Delhi, and who, in...