Hospital wards in India are huge and airy, and the stone floors are well scrubbed and cool. However, it holds one of the most horrifying sights in the world – ten extremely malnourished children, nine of whom are girls.

The girls who are starving in the hospital include a 21-month old child whose legs and arms are as thin as twigs and a year old baby with vacant eyes. If they will not be given proper and immediate medical care, most of these girls will not live to celebrate their next birthday.

Recent census reports show that India has 914 girls ages six years and below for every 1,000 boys in the same age group. Ten years ago, the ratio was 927 to 1,000, and even then many were horrified. This is the painful reality that Indian girls have to face – despite significant economic growth and huge cities with lots of luxury cars; India still fails its girls.

The discrimination starts from the womb as it is very common in the country to abort female fetuses. It continues with sheer neglect of girls. All these continue despite years of campaigns to solve this issue. The government has actually passed a law prohibiting medical staff to reveal the gender of the child before it is born- a law that is hugely circumvented.

One of the many reasons why sons are favored over daughters is the large amount of money required to marry off a girl. It is part of the Hindu tradition for the bride’s family to give dowry to the groom’s side; this sometimes leads to massive debts. A boy on the other hand, will one day bring dowry with his bride. Also, only male children can light parents ‘funeral pyres.

Professor Ravinder Kaur said that the law is not enough because although in theory it is a great way to address the issue, many still commit underground abortions.