11 Facts About Rita Banerji

Rita Banerji is an author, photographer and gender activist from India.

Rita Banerji is the founder of the 50 Million Missing online campaign to raise awareness of female gendercide in India.

Rita Banerji was listed in Who's Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges.

Rita Banerji worked with the Chipko women's grassroots movement in India under the tutelage of eco-feminist Vandana Shiva and for the Institute for Policy Studies and World Resources Institute.

At the age of 30 Rita Banerji returned to India and began to write on issues of gender equality and women's rights in India.

In December 2006 Rita Banerji started 50 Million Missing, an online advocacy campaign to raise awareness of female gendercide in India.

Rita Banerji has argued against the view that education and economic development are the solution to India's female gendercide.

Rita Banerji contends that it is not economics or education, but rather a cultural misogyny that is the prime factor in India's female gendercide.

Rita Banerji asserts that gendercide needs to be recognised as a gender based hate crime against women, what Diana Russell has termed as 'Femicide,' and be dealt with in the same manner as other hate crimes based on race, religion or ethnicity.

Rita Banerji explains that this lethal hatred of females is rooted in India's history, religions and traditions, which over the centuries have created a socially permissive environment for extreme and deadly violence against females.

Rita Banerji believes it is very important for the women's movement in India to have such a revolution particularly in context of putting the gendercide in perspective for Indian society.