India, Aug. 11 -- She breathed her last on June 1, the day her younger daughter turned two.

Admitted in the burn intensive care unit (ICU) of the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, 10 days earlier, the mother of two daughters stated in her dying declaration that she had set herself on fire due to mental and physical torture by her husband and in-laws for not giving birth to a boy. In her statement to the police, she mentioned years of abuse that had forced her to take the extreme step. It had all begun when she gave birth to her first daughter and worsened after she delivered the second girl child.

The next day, the news of her death was buried as a small report in the paper. We as a society ...