MLAs Of Jalandhar Celebrate The Birth Of Girls By Visiting Their Houses With Sweets. Maybe This Will Fix The Skewed Sex Ratio?

MLAs Of Jalandhar Celebrate The Birth Of Girls By Visiting Their Houses With Sweets. Maybe This Will Fix The Skewed Sex Ratio?

Off late, every day I wake up with this overwhelming lethargy that is hard to shake off for the rest of the day. While my parents think it is because I am not a morning person, I know that the real reason runs a little deeper than that. You see every morning that I wake up, I already know that I am going to come across yet another story of a poor woman being raped, a child being exploited, or an infant being killed in the womb before she was even born. And that kind of depressing news makes it harder for you to put a smile on your face when all you want to do curl up and not think about it. But today, I surprised myself and maybe a hint of a smile even played on my face as I came across a news that instantly put me in a better mood. It was about MLAs and SDMs in Jalandhar visiting houses of new born girls with cakes and sweets.

The Jalandhar district has a ratio of 956 females against 1000 males, has taken a great initiative of increasing it by the next year. They have thought of doing this by spreading awareness and visiting the houses of new born girls with best wishes, sweets and cakes to wish well to the family.

Part of the ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ campaign, this is being spearheaded by the Jalandhar deputy commissioner and so far over 100 houses have been visited. The district programme officer Gurwinder Singh Randhawa, spoke on the matter and said, “Each house where a girl was born has been visited after a discussion with accredited social health activists and local panchayat members. The aim is to counter the stigma among people who still feel disheartened by a girl’s birth.”

Also Read : Kaali Khuhi Teaser: Real Horror of Female Infanticide Is At The Heart Of Netflix’s Reel Horror, Starring Shabana Azmi

Considering how in a country where news of female foeticide makes the headline almost on the daily, this initiative is a great start to bring some sort of uniformity and rectification to the otherwise alarming sex ratio. This step of congratulating young parents on the birth of a girl child, will hopefully encourage other couples and households to see that females are just as much a blessing as a son could have been. Or even more, as the women are not behind in any field or profession.

Hoping this might urge other states follow suit and the example set by Jalandhar, we may finally see this century old mindset of wanting a boy over a girl, die a well-deserved death. Here is to cherishing the birth of every girl child in a house, and wishing that families see what a blessing they can be if given a chance. After all, without us women, the world won’t take long to come crumbling down on its knees.

Also Read : 4.6 Lakh Girls Went “Missing” At Birth Between 2013-2017 In India Because People Don’t Want Daughters. Gender Inequality Is The Bigger Pandemic Here

Sadhika Sehgal

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