Unwanted

 ' Dali, 'The name was a little different." But the girl was innocent. They are the fifth or seventh children of their parents.

As the eldest, she is beloved by her father. Her older sister, Lachha, had learned from my class. Elder brother Dashrath was in my class. And now Dali is one of my first standard students. If Dali did not come to school, it was usual to go to her house, meet her parents, and explain to them. When the father became the deputy sarpanch of the village, he said, 'Madam, I have a lot of work to do." Where do I get the time?" The real answers started coming. Her elder sisters had dropped out of the same school. Big family, mother pregnant every year, taking care of younger siblings, so none of them had completed their education. Dali is good at studying in it. So it was my struggle that at least her education should not be interrupted.

I once went to her house, like always. When I explained this to her mother, she became pregnant again. "Why don't you do a family planning operation?" The answer to my question was, "We are expecting a male child.". 

I returned to the school, explaining that Dali should be sent there. But Dali was absent. After many days' absence, Dali came back to school.

"Why didn't you come to school for so long? Are you worried about your studies?" I asked her angrily. "Ma'am, I have a new-born sister. So I was at home." Dali said.

"How is your sister?"

"She is dead," Dal replied to my question. What will happen if she doesn't die? I was muttering to myself. How much to explain? It doesn't matter.

I was looking at Dali. "Was your sister sick? How did she die?"

"Covering the basket on baby down, she said then," Dali was saying easily. I didn't refer to her sentence. The first standard little girl who was saying anything. I asked her to sit down. "Little girls say anything," I casually asked the cooks at lunch break.

"Ma'am, she is telling the truth,"' said a cook. 'Among them, the girl is killed at an early age. Tobacco is put in the leaves of the Nagarvel plant, and it's placed in a newborn girl's mouth. And she is covered in a basket. The girl dies of suffocation within an hour and a half. Then most of them bury in the house.'

The cook was saying, and I was listening dumbfoundedly,How is this possible?" I was confused. A family was seen aborting the fetus through gender testing. But this was very scary. explained in detail. I did not know how to react. How can a newborn baby be treated so cruelly? At least, how can a mother's heart agree?

"Madam, they feel nothing. For them, this is just a custom," cook Tai was saying.

Killing a living girl like that? How terrible it feels to hear. An unwanted girl lives with the stamp of unwantedness all her life. But here, her right to live was taken away. Instead of killing an ant, we are sinful people who think, 'Put sugar on it and it will go away'... Here, the young soul is suffocated; it is only for the girl because she is unwanted. The essence was shocking to my middle-class mind. And the subject was so sensitive that there was nothing I could do. My protest was like gently patting an elephant on the back. The elephant would not feel anything, but it would be time to go to the feet of the elephant to try patting on its back. At such a time, the laws of equality, rights, and protection of women all seem to be stupid. Fortunately, soon we were transferred from there, and my thoughts on this subject stopped. A period of 10–12 years passed in between. When I re-investigated, it was much improved. Killing girls is rare now. But what Dali's parents did was have a son.An awful incident happened in Dali's parents lives as a result of what they had done to have a son. His only son also committed suicide at the age of 16. The son did not remain. But the girls they didn't want are the same girls with them...