India, June 13 -- After spending years building his business in Rewari, a 50-year-old entrepreneur-turned-poet chose Gurugram as his second home. The idea was to step out of his comfort zone and use the bustling city as a stage to encourage social consciousness about female infanticide and skewed sex ratio in the state.

Today, Somveer Jangra splits his time between Rewari and his daughter's home in Sector 89. He describes Gurugram as an urban maze filled with youthful energy and a disconnect that prevents community formation.

Jangra uses his Haryanvi verses in vernacular and local dialects to provoke his largely rural audience to question practices that devalue other genders and reflect on how skewed sex ratios can fuel social instabili...