Indian Women Stand Up to Husbands Who Demand Sex-Selective Abortions

Selvi holds her tiny baby girl somewhat clumsily in her arms. She carefully strokes the thin legs of the helpless creature and pulls a soft white blanket over her body. There is a sense of disbelief in Selvi's face. If her husband had his way, the little girl would have never been born. He simply did not want a girl.

He and his mother tried to push Selvi into having an ultrasound scan to reveal the sex of the child. Even though sex-selective screening is against the law in India, every year thousands of fetuses are aborted for being female. Indian society wants sons, heirs to the family name and its fortunes, somebody to look after the parents when they are old. Girls are a financial burden, their future marriages clouded by dowry payments that ruin families for decades.

Having a girl, an Indian proverb says, is like watering your neighbor's garden.

But now, the first cracks are appearing in the sexist system. Selvi (who asked that her real name not be used) was born and raised in Dharavi, a...