Save Girl Child , Beti Bachao, Laadli , Beti Ko Beta Samjho - Projects For Girl Child- Let Us Take Stand

It is 2011 right now. 63 years have passed since India got independent . 63 years is long long time if we consider human life  span. 63 years is long journey . Lot of things can change in 63 years. In India too lot of things have changed in last 63 years. From eduction to communication to mode of transport to way of dressing to way of conducting life. If a person who might have died 63 years ago comes back to life , he would be shocked to see India and world today. Nothing seems to be the same.

But as saying goes more things change , more they remain same. There are some things which remain unchanged. One such thing is attitude towards girl child in many parts of country. How important the issue is can be understood by various programs run by various state government and central government for girl child. Today as I logged in to my twitter account I saw tweet of Mahesh Bhatt , famous filmmaker of India. He has shared his picture taken during press campaign for girl child in haryana.Gender ratio in haryana is among the worst in India and it is good to see government trying to tackle it by various means.

It is ironical that in country which feels proud of itself for its vibrancy , diversity , its culture and tradition we still have social evil like foeticide ,dowry which refuses to die. The programming of thousands of years refuses to get de programmed. It is ironical that we have sonia gandhi who is chair person of UPA , Honourable Pratibha Patil who is president of the country and role models like illa bhatt , saina nehwal , sania mirza , kiran bedi , kalpana chawla to name few and we still need to run programs to makes sure that girl child is given birth to , nourished.

I too am working on a project with title 'Beti Ko Beta Samjho'. The project would be about taking three hundred interviews of proud parents of girl child from various walks of lives. The interviews would be compiled and published in three different languages and distributed to NGOs . The interviews would also be published on website. Real Life Stories which can inspire aspiring parents or those who already have girl child .The idea is to change the very
perceptive of seeing girl child from unwanted guest to someone to be proud of. The interviews would cover the feeling of parents when child was born , the social pressures if any , the concerns , the worries , the aspirations and how do they feel now.

I got the idea of this project from two common people of my city. One is small time tea stall owner while another is auto rikshaw driver. One is muslim while another is hindu. Both have never met each other and both dont even know that another does even exist but still both have three things in common. First being their income bracket. Both belong to just above poor
people bracket and some where in lower middle class bracket. Second thing which is common in them is social pressure of being father of girl child and third thing being common between them is pride of having girl child.

Once I was on my way to meet my client. I stopped to have tea on Prakash's stall. An hindu by faith prakash would be around 55 years of age. He was talking to another person who was in mid twenties. The younger person was worried that he might become dad of a girl child. Prakash might not be very educated but his words did make me think of working on this project.

What he told to younger man was that 'whether child is girl or boy ,it is god's gift and you are mere care taker , she would bring her own destiny , so you dont worry, do your best to support her and forget what world says'.

I had similar experience with sulemaan who rides rikshaw and has two daughers whom he calls 'allah ki den hai' (they are god given gifts). He naratted me about how people want him to have male child . Being firm believer of his faith he cited how prophet had a girl child .

India is paradox as far as girl child in concerned. India is perhaps only country where feminine power too is worshiped.

India is perhaps only country where god is not only He but She too and still we have many pockets in the country where birth of girl child is considered to be unwelcomed event and girl is more of burden than a joy.

With globalization though things are changing for better and there lies the hope. Urban places are soon emerging as play ground for girls to aspire for their own dreams , their own zone , their own space and their own canvas to paint their lives and their own voice to express , to love , to choose , to decide .

With changing times comes changing realities but at same times comes resistance towards change. Resistance cannot be broken by force but can be melted by inspiring , motivating and enrolling.Let us hope that with changing times girl child issues too sees change.