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Journalism of Courage
Good news stories from Punjab rarely come with photos of smiling little girls. But this one certainly does.
A sleepy village in Nawanshehar, Khothran, celebrated the birth of 44 girls against 33 boys in 2005—a ratio of 1,334, up from 897 in 2004. The state has a sex ratio of 886 overall and an abysmal 753 in the 0-6 age group.
A little push from the administration and a huge effort from the community have helped them rewrite a familiar script. So the mothers are beaming. Kanta, 32, who delivered her third daughter a few months ago, says: ‘‘I am happy, girls love you more.’’ She says she and her husband are doing their best to educate the older two in a private school. Harjinder Kaur, who had her second baby girl at about the same time, says what is rare to hear in rural Punjab: ‘‘My husband and in-laws are fond of girls.’’
The sarpanch agrees. ‘‘The family considers girls lucky,’’ says Nirmal Kaur, the sarpanch. ‘‘Kaur’s elder sister-in-law has six daughters while her younger sister-in-law has three,’’ she says.
S S Basra, a former village sarpanch who is now settled in San Francisco with his three daughters, says traditionally the village never looked down upon its girl child. ‘‘So we never felt the need for foeticide,’’ he says.
The Jats of the village, in fact, are also known to give daughters a share in ancestral land. Says Basra: ‘‘This tradition was started by a few wealthy families and soon caught on.’’
It was beginning to slip and the sex ratio was turning slightly skewed when the district administration stepped in. Nawanshehar DC Krishan Kumar adopted a carrot-and-stick policy towards violators of the PNDT Act once he saw the downward turn in sex ratio.
His campaign began with a federation of 50-odd NGOs in the district called Upkar Coordination Society. Recently, its members held a dharna outside the house of a woman who had reportedly aborted her female foetus.
‘‘The idea is to mobilise public opinion against foeticide,’’ says Kumar, who has set up a 24-hour, toll-free number (555501) for the public to come forward with information on foeticide. He himself attends the phone at night. Sarpanchs of all the 45 villages have been told that they would be booked for conspiracy if they allow foeticide in their village, and mothers-to-be are monitored.
There are incentives as well. Parents of girls are honoured and remembered on New Year and Diwali with cards.
The measures are working. Himshikha Kapil, a teacher at the only primary school of Khothran, says that the large number of girls in her classrooms is a testimony to the healthy sex ratio.
‘‘We have 74 boys and 76 girls. In Class I, there are 15 girls against 11 boys,’’ she beams.
