Trying to spread the word about female foeticide is a new Assamese film Me and My Sister. The film that was conceptualised last November shows the effect of sex discrimination on the foetus growing inside the mother’s womb.
Producer Nepon Dhoula says that after coming across various cases of female foeticide, he decided to develop a story on the issue. “I have seen moms crying for their babies who were killed even before they could come out of their wombs. It was painful. The various stories of this gory crime that flashed on the TV screen time and again hurt me too. I wanted to speak up through my film,” says Nipon.
Nipon feels that the effect on a mother who is going through the trauma of a forced sex-detection test or abortion can still be understood by some, but what the foetus suffers is ignored. “Sometimes, too much pain given to the mother affects the baby very badly. In this film, through animation, we’ve tried to show the trauma that the baby goes through and how she is born visually impaired,” he says.
The film shows a couple who is expecting twins — a boy and a girl — and how the family is against the girl child. After the episode on female foeticide on the show Satyamev Jayate, many NGOs contacted Nipon to release the film in other states as well. “Now, we are releasing it in seven languages — Assamese, Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Rajasthani and English,” he says.