Rita Banerji is a renowned social activist, author and photographer and she is greatly admired for her contribution in the sphere of gender activism and promoting women`s rights. She is quite popular particularly for her book known as `Sex and Power: Defining History, Shaping Societies` which had been published in the year 2008. In order to enhance the awareness throughout the world about the continuous female gendercide which has been prevalent in India since many decades, Rita Banerji founded the `The 50 Million Missing Campaign` which is a significant advocacy campaign powered by a certain online community.

Early Life of Rita Banerji
Rita Banerji was born and brought up in India and she has grown up in as many as 17 towns scattered across the country simply due the fact that her family switched places quite often. When she was aged 18, Rita Banerji shifted to United States and there she went to Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts and later attended The George Washington University which is located in Washington D.C. She commenced her education as an environmentalist and she specialised in the subject `Conservation Biology`. Her thesis work for PhD on the impacts of acid rain on the germination and sprouting of seeds and establishing corn or Zea mays, she was granted the Amy Lutz award in Plant Biology from the organisation known as the Association for Women in Science or AWIS in Washington D.C. Under the leadership of Vandana Shiva, Rita Banerji rendered her services to the Chipko womens` grassroots movement in the nation. In Washington D.C., she also joined shoulders working with The World Resources Institute and the Institute for Policy Studies.

Works of Rita Banerji
Rita Banerji came back to India, her motherland when she was around 30 and decided to dedicate her resources to a career which would enable her to discover more and more about the position of gender equality in India which would design her ideals and thought patterns about the world. She started doing photography and writing, particularly exploring the issues of women`s rights and gender equality as opposed to her previous projects which concentrated on roles of gender on resource management and environmental management. Several of her photographs and writings are published in numerable journals and magazines in many nations. She put forward the rational argument in her book Sex and Power: Defining History, Shaping Societies, which claimed to know the reason why sex was so taboo in a country like India which promoted erotica in the form of the architecture at Khajuraho, composed literary pieces like Kama Sutra which teaches the science of love-making and worships erotic symbols like `lingam-yoni`.

The 50 Million Missing Campaign of Rita Banerji
Rita Banerji started her advocacy campaign named The 50 Million Missing Campaign during December, 2006 to increase public knowledge about female gendercide in the country and it was first made popular by an online platform which offered facilities like sharing photographs and presenting an open forum for discussions. Presently, over 2400 photographers are connected to this website which possesses the clicks of innumerable Indian girls and ladies which remind its visitors of the number of women who have been killed in the country in the name of religion and culture. This campaign has spread like wildfire to other social networking sites and even information blogs.

Beliefs of Rita Banerji
Rita Banerji feels that India has never ever experienced a sexual revolution for its womenfolk, unlike Western countries. She has protested against the dominant Indian patriarchal society which likes to determine the individual choices and rights of Indian women and over her sexuality. According to her, India must witness a strong women`s movement aimed at revolting against the idea of gendercide in unison, which would be beneficial for the Indian society and Indian women at large.

Awards received by Rita Banerji