Usilampatti’s unwanted girls: review of Rajasree Variyar’s ‘The Daughters of Madurai’

Rajasree Variyar’s ‘The Daughters of Madurai’ tells the dark tale of female infanticide in Tamil Nadu

In the 80s and 90s, Usilampatti taluk near Madurai, Tamil Nadu, made bewildering news for its practice of female infanticide. The fear of dowry led parents to kill their girls with poison.

A woman was allowed to keep the first baby girl while the rest were all taken away to be either killed, abandoned or sold. Penury, a weak social security system and the desire for a male child made girls dispensable.

Debutant novelist Rajasree Variyar writes the story of a mother — belonging to a poor Kallar family, the landless community infamous for female infanticide — who is constantly reminded that she is worthless if she bears daughters.

It is a poignant work set in 1992, a haunting reminder of a time when young mothers in Usilampatti were consumed by fear of losing their daughters in the womb or immediately after birth.

The Kallar community, concentrated in Usilampatti taluk, accounts for nearly 80% of its 2.65 lakh population. It is said there is hardly a poor Kallar family where a female baby was not murdered during the 90s. People are aware of the cruel crime but do not admit it, and it continues sporadically.

The Daughters of Madurai opens with the line: “A girl is a burden, a girl is a curse”; and it hits a raw nerve. Just like the innumerable newspaper reports on Usilampatti’s social malady that undervalues women and their reproductive rights. It compelled the author to tell devastating stories about families. The book leaves a trail of heart-wrenching, endearing, hopeful and powerful emotions in the reader’s mind.

While exploring the phenomenon of female infanticide, the story sensitively underlines the indomitable strength of women and the beautiful bond that mothers and daughters share. It also brings out the enigma of love and how it helps to defeat the obstacles in life.