Ramli is 17 years old, but she did not look a day older than 14 at the hospital when she appeared from behind her mother—spine straight and a piercing gaze with her strong and gentle eyes. She was wrapped in a shawl, unnervingly silent, and keenly observant. Occasionally, she would allow a smile. The slip from the community health centre at Bhairamgarh, in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region, only said that a foreign object was lodged near her spine, and referred her to another hospital without offering any explanation.  Ramli’s parents Raje and Vijja, along with Reena—a young woman from a nearby village—had accompanied her. They rushed from hospital to hospital—Bhairamgarh to Dantewada to Jagdalpur—with no one telling them what was wrong but each of them expressing alarming urgency. Each time, the note from the medical facilities had the same instruction: “Refer to a higher facility.” It was only when she was…

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