Is This The India Where Women Are Burnt As For Dowry? Poem by Bijay Kant Dubey

Is this the India where women are burnt to death,
Kerosene oil poured over and a lit match stick given to,
Is this the India where the newly-weds are burnt,
Suffocated, killed and murdered and thrown?

Is this the India where on suspicion and suspect
Of chastity and virginity,
Women are tortured,
Is this the India of the girl-child brides
Turning widows at an early age,
Dying unnatural deaths?

Is this the India of neglect and rebuke meted out
To the daughters,
Food given late after all have taken,
Left overs just for her?

Is this the India where they used to burn the widows
On the funeral pyre of the husband,
Where they used to desist her from taking even onion and garlic,
Wearing red and eating red?

Is this the India where we used to bury alive or throw off
Our weeping girl children as for sons
And patriarchy,
Is this the India where we used to make the excessive girl child
Lick salt at her birth to die soon?