Walter Astrada / Reportage by Getty Images for the Alexia Foundation
Violence against women in India
In India, millions of girls have been eliminated since the early 1980s through infanticide and widespread use of sex-selection via ultrasound tests and abortion.
Young women in India face strong social and family pressure to honor their husband with a son and it is not uncommon for mothers-to-be to undergo three or four abortions until they are sure they are expecting a boy.
The shortage of girls then leaves many young men with no eligible brides, mainly in the northwestern states. Some ask middlemen to find them a wife, at any price, and bride-selling is a practice that has developed extensively over recent years, with girls generally bought from poor families in West Bengal or Bihar, or countries such as Bangladesh or Nepal, to be sold to bachelors in Punjab or Haryana.
Read the interview with Walter Astrada
Interactive Map
Just click on the interactive map of the city of Perpignan above to go to the location finder of all the exhibitions, screenings and key addresses for this year's Visa pour l'Image.