Girl Power

Arora says she tried explaining the genetic code to the rural folk in the villages of Punjab as simply as she could. “It’s not possible to explain the concept of X and Y chromosomes to villagers,so I used the metaphor of threads. I told them that all humans have 46 threads,and two threads determine the sex of the child. While mother contributes green threads,father gives a green and a red. The child with one red thread is a boy. So eventually,it’s the man who literally determines the gender of a child. I called it the thread theory,” she says.

For many of the rural women,this awareness became a boon to emancipation,particularly in the face of domestic abuse and societal pressures. “At least they could tell their husband that the responsibility lay with them,when they were beaten up for not having a male child,” she says. The attitude of the men too underwent a change. “They said that they knew how the machinery of a tractor worked. Now they could understand the human body better too,” she smiles.

Her study threw up other data too,such as how only about 11 per cent rural women in Punjab were aware of the fact that marriages among blood relatives contribute to genetic disorders and only 17 per rural women were aware that genetic contribution from father determines the sex of a child. Talking of Punjab’s abysmal sex ratio and spiraling foeticide cases,she wears a pensive look. “I am the youngest of three sisters,and had always thought that my parents were expecting a son,when I was born. To overcome the feeling of being unwanted,I started educating parents about gender issues,” she says. A product of PAU,Ludhiana,Arora has also worked on socio-economic empowerment of women in the Shivalik foothills by promoting cultivation of medicinal and aromatic plants.

Recalling the glittering evening in Mumbai,Arora says she didn’t know that the evening would be attended by the likes of Aishwarya Rai,Sushmita Sen,Saroj Khan,Zoya Akhtar and Miss India Pooja Chopra among others. “Most of the awardees had come with their families. I wish my mother had been there with me,” she says.

The awards function will be telecast today,Women’s Day,at 8 pm on Sony