Rita Banerji (1967) is an author, photographer and gender activist from India. Her non-fiction book Sex and Power: Defining History, Shaping Societies was published in 2008. She is the founder of the 50 Million Missing online campaign to raise awareness of female gendercide in India.
Early career
Banerji started her career as an environmentalist specializing in Conservation Biology. In 1995 she received the Amy Lutz award in Plant Biology from the Association for Women in Science (AWIS) for her PhD work on the effects of acid rain on maize. Other awards and recognitions she has received include: Morgan Adams Award in Biology for PhD Research; Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society, Associate member; Botanical Society of America's Young Botanist Recognition Award; Charles A. Dana Fellowship for Research in Ecology; Howard Hughes Grant for research in genetics. She was also listed in Who's Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges. Many of Banerji's projects had a gender perspective. She 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.
Transition to Writing and Gender Activism
At the age of 30 Banerji returned to India and began to write on issues of gender equality and women's rights in India. Her writings and photos have been published in a range of journals and magazines in different countries. In 2009 she received the Apex Award of Excellence for Magazine and Journal Writing.
Sex and Power
Banerji's non-fiction book Sex and Power:Defining History, Shaping Societies was first published in India in 2008. The book was the result of a five-year social and historical study of sex and sexuality in India. In the book Banerji examines why current day India is squeamish about sex, despite a historical openness about the subject shown by worship of lingam and yoni, erotic art in temples, and literature on the art and science of love-making such as the Kama Sutra. She concludes that a society's sexual mores vary over time and are linked to the social groups in power.
The 50 Million Missing Campaign
In December 2006 Banerji started 50 Million Missing, an online advocacy campaign to raise awareness of female gendercide in India. The campaign was launched on Flickr, collecting thousands of photos of Indian girls and women from over 2400 photographers. Since its launch the campaign has grown and spread to other social networking sites and also runs information blogs. It is a zero-fund campaign and runs on community effort and participation. The campaign was a consequence of Banerji's book Sex and Power. She says, "The data on the systemic and mass-scale violence on Indian women and girls I was gathering for my book was playing out in its stark grotesqueness in my everyday reality. A baby girl is abandoned on the streets in my city, and as residents wait for the police to respond, street dogs kill her and start eating her…I saw the connection and for the first time felt uneasy, ashamed and outraged." Banerji contends that the three worst disasters that India faces in the 21st century, are population explosion, an AIDS epidemic, and the female gendercide. These she concludes are a result of India's deeply patriarchal and conservative approach to women and sexual morality, and the "socialized dichotomy" of men from women, and sex from the sacred. In an interview with The Big Issue in the North Banerji says the underlying problem with all three issues is a "virulent patriarchy that is self-indulgent...through [its practice of] multiple partners and irresponsible sex, and it essentially views women as sexual commodities to be used and discarded at will. A woman's only worth is in her production of sons for the continuation of the patriarchy. So daughters are routinely discarded before or soon after birth."