Around the misogynistic tradition of daughter-aversion thrives a 2000-crore industry of ill-gotten wealth through illegal sex determination, gender-selective abortion and medical corruption.
This artwork in its many layers tries to depict the sordid tale of female foeticide while leaving space for a conscious choice to reverse this reality and make a positive change.
The lotus symbolises femininity and in this case, the womb of a pregnant mother-to-be, a Lakshmi in distress. She is faced with the horrific non-choice of destroying her own daughter, a tiny Lakshmi or battling the intense social and economic pressure to let her be born.
The stitches in red-coloured thread symbolise the immense unspoken trauma and the continuing future repercussions of pain and violence. The web represents the intricate web of deceit, regressive beliefs, economic pressure, insecurity and patriarchal conditioning that the hapless mother is caught in and the cannibalistic collusion of murdering a baby girl for vested interests.
P.S The statistical data is staggering :- 7000 foetuses are killed every day all because of their gender ; We have lost 6.3 crore girls in 10 years, more deaths than both the world wars put together.