A beacon called 145;Punjab146;s Santiniketan146;

In a region where female foeticide is rampant an institution is changing attitudes towards daughters.

As the sex ratio in north India continues to decline despite the diktat of religious heads and laws banning sex determination tests, there were recent reports of availability in Punjab of US kits, used for sex detection of the baby within the first seven weeks of pregnancy. Banning these US kits was the government8217;s instant reaction. Policymakers were busy scratching their heads in helplessness over this development and do not seem to have any answer to the problem of female foeticide. They fail to realise that recommendations of Western NGO8217;s are not applicable to rural India where gender equality is an alien idea.

To begin with, parents are worried about the security and well-being of daughters and 8220;protect8221; them by discouraging interaction with men. Educating girls is still a taboo in many areas. Once girls are of a marriageable age, the next problem is raising the dowry for them. Dowry continues unhindered by laws that ban it, and generally a family8217;s life-long savings go into paying for it. So the general view is that a girl8217;s life is full of sorrow and female foeticide is seen as the rational option.

Merely banning sex determination tests isn8217;t enough, since other means 8212; like the recently discovered US kits 8212; can always be found to determine the unborn baby8217;s sex. The key is to devise schemes which make girls self-sufficient without challenging the social structure. It is time to think of home-grown models which take into account the sensitivities of those from the not-so-privileged classes. One such model is the Baba Aiya Singh Riarki College for women, located in Tughalwala village in Gurdaspur. It is often referred to as the 8216;Santiniketan of Punjab8217;. Started in 1976, it8217;s an example of gender emancipation at the grassroots level.

First of all, in this all-girls institution it is compulsory for every student to teach another. Intelligent students are assigned the responsibility of teaching junior classes. It is the students who manage the school and there are only six other staff members, including the principal. The affairs of the institution are also managed by a committee of six students. The courses are basic: mathematics, science, English and spirituality. The second interesting feature of the school is that the vegetables and fruits needed for the consumption of the inmates are grown on campus. Students cook food themselves. For meeting energy requirements, there is a bio-gas plant.

The students from this institution have been performing very well in board and university examinations 8212; of late, a large number of them have their eyes set on the civil services. While there is no empirical data to link the success of these students with the sex ratio in the region, it can be said with a degree of confidence that institutions like these could contribute significantly towards changing attitudes to daughters in rural north India.