Thirty-six million women are missing in India. The economic burden of dowries and the ancestral preference for boys make the birth of a daughter a shameful event. Ultrasound tests and abortions, medical acts which were supposed to represent progress for women, are instead being used against them.

Daughters of Gardeners is a deeply moving and profoundly human documentary; an investigation of States where aborting girls has become a very profitable industry. This one-hour film follows the journey of a young Canadian journalist, in her quest to understand and document this demographic crisis, as well as its disastrous consequences on the entire Indian society; the inability of men to find wives; the increase in prostitution; the worsening AIDS pandemic; the kidnapping and trafficking of women and the advent of forced marriages.

Unexpectedly poetic images for such a subject succeed in capturing the human element behind a reality that nonetheless appears quite inhumane.

Also available in French: Filles de jardiniers