Fazal Sheikh: Ladli

In India it costs a poor family 50 rupees, to hire a midwife to administer the birth of a child. For an additional ten rupees, the parents are assured that the birth of a girl will be met with an act of infanticide by the midwife. The alternative for many is an institution like the Delhi orphanage in which Fazal Sheikh’s work on the predicament of the girl-child in India began - 99% of that orphanage’s population are girls. By delving into the story of the girl-child, Sheik renders the other side of the spectrum of women in India. Girl Child is the second part of his project on India, which was begun with Moksha (published in 2005 by Steidl).