Fellow come to the clinic with his wife who is complaining of dizziness. Fellow is eighteen years old, works as day labour and has been married two and a half years. The girl does not know her age. Looks about fifteen years old and would have been about twelve or thirteen when she was married off. Turns out she is pregnant. I get furious and tell the fellow he should be hanged but he looks completely blank. He has no idea that he has committed a crime by marrying an underage girl and is guilty of rape under Indian law. The girl looks bewildered not having any idea what pregnancy means or what the future holds. Even after thirty years of medicine it is heart breaking. Repeated pregnancies, chronic malnutrition, a long miserable struggle to bring up children and may be a merciful early death. Next day I attend the Annual Sports day at a local school. Girls of all ages laughing, screaming and bouncing around the sports field while proud parents took photographs. No confusion here. These girls looked happy in the present and confident of the future. Unfortunately such girls are in the minority in India. Even among the middle classes boys are prized while girls are seen as liability. Among poor paople girls are seen as curses and millions are aborted or killed just after birth. No one seems to realize that without women you cannot have sons. Two women are in the news this week. Both married without parental consent, one of them married a fellow of different religion who was found murdered. Although volumes of pious words will be written most people will think that these are prime examples of how girls bring shame on families and destroy honour. Is it better to be aborted, not to be born rather than face a life of hardship and misery? Wish I knew.