Letter Published in The National UAE onEfforts being made to tackle female infanticide in India are laudable

I write in reference to Taniya Dutta’s article As India grapples with gender selection, this village is planting trees in honour of baby girls (November 26): it is laudable that the village of Piplantri has taken up the fight against female infanticide in India, a country where many people still discourage the birth of girls.

The odds are genuinely stacked against Indian women and challenges begin right from birth as many parents believe boys are superior. In my view, they are both equal but that should be every Indian’s conviction as well. Women are as much a part of the story of India’s progress as men are.

Rajasthan in particular has a gender parity issue. So it is important to acknowledge efforts being made by a village in the state to tackle it – symbolic as they might seem.

K Ragavan, Bengaluru