‘God cannot be everywhere so he created Mother’. I feel this saying is very old and we all love our mothers. Let me put it differently. ‘Angels cannot be everywhere so God created daughters.’ Strange but true, we desire for a loving mother and a beloved wife but we don’t want daughters. We worship goddesses as and kill daughters. This problem of gender discrimination has been in India and almost all the developing countries for centuries. In our country this problem is aggravating day by day and this is reflecting in the Child Sex Ratio (CSR) which is defined as number of girl per thousand boys between 0 and 6 years of age. The CSR has decreased drastically from 945 in 1991 to 927 in 2001 and now to 918 in 2011. This decline in CSR is a glaring indicator of gender discrimination and social mindset of Indian masses. This grey situation drew the attention of almost all the governments of India and the present NDA government under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi launched a divine program with great fanfare named ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ (BBBP) to save and empower the girl child. This program was launched on 22nd January 2015 from Panipat, Haryana. BBBP is a tri-ministerial endeavor of Ministries of Women and Child Development, Health and Family Welfare and Human Resource Development.
Through various awareness programs, the government is trying to sensitize the masses about the importance of daughters. The emphasis is to mobilize communities at ground level and bring about a change in the way the society looks at a girl child. Social media too is being utilized to its fullest to share this awareness and we know how selfie with daughters became a world-wide hit overnight.
Under BBBP Scheme, the District Tasks Force and Block Task Force have been formed to reach upto each stratum of the society and disseminate the actual motive of the scheme at a wider level. Villages too are encouraged to come up with ideas and they too are participating enthusiastically. Street plays potraying the problems of sex-selective abortions and issues related to girl child are being organized in Pithoragarh. Mansa district in Punjab launched an initiative ‘Udaan-Sapney Di Duniya De Rubaru (Udaan-Live Your Dream for One Day)’ to inspire people to educate their girl child and the Sarpanch of Bibipur was the one who came up with the idea of ‘Selfie With Daughter’. People are beaming with ideas and this initiative has been received with open arms by one and all.
Under this scheme, a strong effort is being made to save and educate a girl child. A money saving scheme called ‘The Sukanya Samriddhi Account’ has been introduced, the saving amount of which will be free from tax deduction and only the girl can withdraw the amount after she reaches the age of 18. A total of 100 districts have been identified with low CSR and ` 1 crore has been given to the villages for maintaining sex ratio. It is high time, we as a nation paid attention to this grave problem. The government is doing the best it can but we, the common masses, need to introspect. Are we ready to change?
No country in this world has reached the Developed Nation’s Status if the women folk of that nation are not equal partners of their male counterparts in every walk of life. Educated and financially independent women add to the strength of nation but we as a nation is struggling to fix the CSR and it is a distant dream for us to bring the women folk at par to the men of the country. The initiative of Modi government at such a large scale and with so much of enthusiasm can do wonders if we go strong towards implementing this initiative at the grass root level of the country and let the girl child live and prosper and spread wisdom and knowledge for if you educate a man, you educate a man but if you educate a girl you educate generations to come. Let her live at least. Life finds its own way to flourish.
