दशपुत्रसमा कन्या, दशपुत्राप्रवर्ध्दयन् यत्फलं लभते मर्त्यस्तल्लभ्यंकन्ययैकया
Bharat is a land that emphasis on rich and dedicated cultural heritage. The social structure has imbibed religious fabric and interwoven it in forming values that society worships.
Woman, is a source of strength, knowledge, wealth and wellbeing of human kind in Bharatiya culture. In Hindu scripture, such values are portrayed by Goddesses. Devi Durga is worshipped as Goddess of Strength, Ma Lakshmi portrays Wealth and Wellbeing and Devi Saraswati blesses to aquire knowledge. Goddesses symbolises womanhood, hence from ancient times, Bharat has been worshipping woman.
But
With advent of Islamic influence due to Moughal invasion,the significance of woman,was neglected and daughter began to be considered as burden.The society became prey to horrifying rituals such as Dowry and child marriages.
As a result, Female foeticide (भ्रूण हत्या)-abortion of a female foetus outside the legal methods became prevalent. Birth of a daughter was considered inauspicious. In many areas in Haryana, Rajesthan, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, infant girl child was murdered in extremely brutal manner.
This was the atmosphere in pre-independence era, where huge section of population was living in rural areas and hardly had access to education. But, the condition remained unchanged, even after sixty plus years of independence.
The natural sex ratio is assumed to be between 103 to 107 boys per 100 girls. As per 2011 census, the child sex ratio was found to be extremely high in states like Maharashtra (118 per 100 girls), Haryana (120 per 100 girls) and Jammu & Kashmir (116 per 100 girls) etc. It was popular belief that cases of female foeticide was a rural phenomenon and conditions were better off in urban area due to exposure to modernisation and higher literacy rate but unfortunately this is a myth. Urban Bharat has higher child sex ratio than rural Bharat according to 1991, 2001 and 2011 census data, implying higher prevalence of female foeticide in urban Bharat. The Government of Bharat has passed Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act (PCPNDT) in 1994 to ban prenatal sex screening and female foeticide. It is currently illegal in Bharat to determine or disclose sex of the foetus to anyone. However, it is a matter of concern that PCPNDT Act has been poorly enforced. With introduction and spread of literacy, the myth regarding importance of Male heir should have been busted but till now, all initiatives and its implementation have remained in Advertisements or in Policy on paper since independence.
No Government or any authority has taken an initiative to inspire the crucial relevance of female child in 65+ years since Bharat became independent.
In my opinion, we observe the differentiation in attitude imparted towards girl child in our daily lives and it has become norm which we have accepted as matter of practise. The reasons could have been plenty, as per the circumstances of earlier times such as prevalence of dowry prices, lack of financial return in the future, educational and health expenses, the ‘utility’ of raising a female child was considered to be in negative. Generally, male children were preferred because they provide manual labour, maintains the family lineage and take care of the parents in their old age. A son is often preferred as an ‘asset’ where as daughters, who would be married off to another family, hence would not be able to contribute financially to her parents and is considered as ‘liability’. This belief regarding woman being inferior, had penetrated in society to such an extent that the birth of a girl child was unwelcome.
To eradicate such stigma attached to womanhood, enacting law to ban pre-natal sex determination test was not sufficient. Imparting knowledge about gender equality, disallowing differentiation in opportunity in education and jobs, ban on dowry expense for daughter’s marriage and above all inspiring enlightenment towards daughter’s love- all in all, an entire strategy to create change on social and economic front was the need of the hour.
Narendrabhai Modi ji has always been ‘Man of Sentiments’ and as Chief Minister of Gujarat, he had taken fruitful steps to change the prevalent scenario. In 2007, as the then CM of Gujarat, Modiji had published a vision document as a part of Matruvandana Yatra for creating awareness to stop Girl Child Abortion and Save the Girl Child. Gujarat‘s Child Sex Ratio, at that time, was extremely alarming. There were only 840 girls being born per 1000 boys! He had earnestly appealed to people of Gujarat, especial those residing in urban areas to prevent this gender imbalance as Man and Woman, together are two wheels of the family and it is essential to have both the wheels operating smoothly for social harmony.
Modiji had implemented Kanya Kelvani Yatra to inspire Girls education. Every year in June, at the time of beginning of new academic year, the school going girls would be dressed up in finery, with music band and in procession would be admitted in a school. Modi ji himself, along with team of ministers and bureaucrats would participate in this initiative and create worthwhile reminiscent of lifetime for the girl child. Education, hence would become an important aspect for the girl from beginning.
Modiji distributed entire earning of his tenure as CM of Gujarat, sum of 21 Lakhs, among daughters of Class 3 and 4 officers of his staff in Gandhinagar for their education.
After NDA Government attaining Power in 2014, Modiji was determined to create a welcoming atmosphere for daughters. Daughters who are symbol of Mother Nature and are instrumental in nurturing the next generation, must be entitled to get equal opportunities to be raised and empowered.
राष्ट्रस्य श्व: नारी अस्ति
(Woman is our tomorrow)
नारी राष्ट्रस्य अक्शि अस्ति
(Woman is the eye of the nation.)
समाजस्य कुशलवास्तुकारा अस्ति
(woman is the perfect architect of the society.)
To create this awareness campaign nationwide, Hon. Prime Minister launched The Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao (BBBP) Scheme on 22nd January 2015 at Panipat in Haryana. It is a joint initiative by Ministry of Women and Child Development, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the Ministry of Human Resource Development. The initial aim was focus in Multi-sector action in 100 districts throughout the country where there was a low CSR.
Variety of initiatives were implemented to propagate bonding with daughter. Sunil Jaglan, The Sarpanch of village Bibipur, Jind, in Haryana, took a selfie with his daughter Nandini and posted it on the Facebook on June 9th 2015. It was promoted with hashtag #SelfieWithDaughter and garnered worldwide fame.
The central government designed the strategies to successfully carry out the BBBP scheme: It emphasised on implementing social mobilisation and communication campaign to create equal value for the girl child and promote her education. It underlined the issue of decline in child sex ratio/sex ratio at birth in public discourse, improvement of which would be an indicator for good governance.
- Focus on gender critical districts and cities.
- More stringent Anti-Dowry Act. Preventing Child marriages through compulsory registration of marriages.
- Celebrating the birth of the girl child.Emphasis on the education of the girl child for their empowerment.
- Zilla Panchayats led the prominence in implementing and monitoring BBBP.
Sensitive State Governments too created iconic schemes to promote the cause.
Government of Madhya Pradesh had launched Ladli Laxmi Yojna in 2006. Under the Ladli Laxmi Yojna, the state government bears the girl’s expenses right from birth up to completion of education and marriage. Swagatam Laxmi Yojna was launched in 2014.
After the BBBP’s launch nationwide by the central Government, the Odisha Government launched the ‘Biju Kanya Ratna Yojna’ to mark the birth centenary of legendary Biju Patnaik. The scheme was implemented in three districts with very low sex ratio. It was a pilot scheme to be initially executed for three years, funded by the state govt. it aimed at improving the Sex Ratio at birth and the Child Sex Ratio. It’s important focus would be at providing elementary education to girls, provision of toilets for girls in every school, self-defends training for girls, tracking the drop out ratio of girls from school, sensitising adolescent girls on sexual and reproductive health issues and training of elected representatives to mobilise communities to improve girl’s education.
In Pithoragarh, in Uttarakhand, the awareness about Beti Bachao Beti Padhao created through organising street plays and story visualisation in villages and market areas to generate larger audience. In Mansa district in Punjab, the initiative to inspire girls education was launched under its ‘Udaan- Sapney Di Duniya De Rubaru’ Scheme. The Mansa administration invited proposals of girls belonging to classes 6th to 12th and presented them with opportunity to spend one day with professionals they aspire to be - doctors, police, engineers, IAS and PPS officers among others.
The Bharatiya Janta Party formed a National Executive Committee to promote BBBP across the nation. The committee is organising number of programmes to promote “Save Girl Child” and “to educate Girl Child” since January 2015. The Beti Bachao campaign is also supported by the Indian Medical Association.
To ensure safety for girls, is a joint effort of number of departments of Government machinery. Fund were allocated for schemes for safety of women on Public Transport by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. Ministry of Home Affairs allocated funds to increase safety of women in large cities. From the Nirbhaya fund, Crisis management Centres were set up, in all districts of Delhi at Government and private hospitals.
At the time of launching Beti Bachao Beti Padhao campaign,the NDA Government initiated Sukanya Samriddhi Account (Girl Child Prosperity Account). It is a govt. backed saving scheme targeted at the parents of girl children. The scheme encourages parents to build fund for the future education and marriage expense for their daughters. Under this scheme, the daughter’s account has to be opened at any commercial bank or at the post office, from the birth of the daughter till they turn 10 years of age and deposit an amount every month or once a year till she attains the age of 14 years. The scheme currently provides an interest rate of 7.6% and tax benefits. The minimum of Rs. 250/- (initially it was Rs.1000/-) and maximum of Rs. 1,50,000/- can be deposited per year. If Rs.1000/- deposited every month, would amount to deposit of Rs.12,000/- per year and it would turn into deposits of Rs. 1,68,000/- in 14 years. The girl child would be entitled to receive Rs. 6,07,128/- at the maturity on attaining 21 years of age. 50% of the amount can be withdrawn at her age of 18 years for educational purpose and rest of the amount can be received at maturity to avail for her marriage expenses.
Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Scheme is instrumental in creating awareness about gender equality and importance of having a daughter. In Bikaner in Rajasthan, Doctors of Maternity Department along with BBBP awareness programme team members, welcome the birth of daughter by beating thali and ringing bells as mark of an auspicious event. In Tumkur district of Karnataka, two young girls named Devika and Bhagya, engaged in rag-picking, were sent to rehabilitation centre by Children Welfare Department and under BBBP scheme, enrolled for studies. Hence, now their journey would change for betterment. Shyama’s dream of becoming doctor and Devika’s ambition to be a teacher would be realised leading them to bright future prospects.
My inner feeling says that parents always love all their offspring equally but the social beliefs have conditioned then to see daughters as burden and liabilities. BBBP Scheme nurtures the bonding of parents with daughters by creating awareness and busting prevailing myths. In rural Mathura, the group of villagers in their fifties, admit their approach towards viewing their daughter’s progress has changed post BBBP Scheme. Now, they value their daughter’s aspirations and encourage them to fulfil their ambitions.
In Gulivia village in remote corner of Chhattisgarh, Education was unknown world, for decades. Life of girl child was confined to closed doors of their homes. Advent of BBBP Scheme changed the scenario. With efforts of Government, educational opportunities became available to such remotest corner and girls of Gulivia got wings to their dreams. They were given Bi-cycle by state Government along with all education material to travel to school. Now, they are marching ahead to fulfil their dreams in various direction such as joining Army, Police force to serve the nation and becoming Teacher to impart knowledge to the next generation.
The essential fact to be noted here is that allocating funds and schemes alone would not work wonders. The laws have to be implemented, the culprits have to be vigorously punished, the ones involved in sex determination and sex selective abortion should be punished severely and the state governments need to talk tough to prevent doctors from indulging in this malpractice. Personally, according to me, connecting first with society, at large, has to be established initially to make citizens more sensitive towards feelings of ill- treated girl-child’s feelings.
The associated problems of girl’s marriage expense, Dowry system and discrimination in the society have to be communicated in the society to sham those indulging in it. Our Prime Minister has been targeted of not understanding the family related issues, as he is single...!!! But I would say, he is a Sanyasi, who has imbibed the sensitivity towards each in abundance and dedicatedly works for their welfare.Prime Minister’s Mantra of ‘Beta Beti Ek Saman’ should be adopted by everyone.
यत्र नार्यस्तु पुज्यन्ते, रमन्ते तत्र देवता : (God rejoice where Women are worshipped)
Why kill innocent girls...? Bring a smile to their faces.Save Girls... Educate Girls...
पुत्री देवो भव: