After reading Anne Manne’s article ‘Gendercide’ (June), I was touched, but also faced with a confronting reality. Being adopted has led to a life revolving around questions concerning where I came from and my birthplace, and why I am here and not ‘there’. I am of Indian descent, and despite having had a privileged upbringing in Australia from the age of two, Manne’s article cut the very wounds I hide on a daily basis, the constant questioning as to whether my birth mother could have ever thought of me in the way the women in the article think of their baby girls: as a liability, unworthy of their love.

For me personally, it is not a matter of being one of the ‘lucky ones’. It is the sheer fear that as a girl, and simply for existing, I was quite possibly the cause of someone’s shame and loss of dignity. Manne’s article reveals something I have questioned all my life. How can a mother hold such disdain for her child? How can a mother bear such hate for a living being she has brought into the world and abandon it? Manne deserves much attention and respect for her efforts to draw attention to an issue that few care to discuss.

Shashikala Davidson

Wattle Park, SA