After assuming charge of the top job in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a historic announcement of the party’s flagship ‘Beti Bachao, beti padhao’ campaign among others in his maiden Independence Day address from the ramparts of the Red Fort. The campaign was aimed at saving the girl child by fighting the menace of female foeticide that had been rampant in some of the states, including Haryana. A quick reality check paints rather a gloomy picture of the much-hyped campaign as nothing seems to have changed on the ground even as two years have rolled by. We need to do a serious introspection to convince ourselves on 1) if we have succeeded in stopping the recurring incidents of female foeticide 2) done a precious little to take on the zombie of skewed sex ratio and 3) stopped inflicting atrocities on the womenfolk? The million-dollar questions evoke no plausible answer.
The Rio Olympic Games seems to have ushered in with a whole new message on the changing scenario. ‘Desh ki betian’ were the real show stoppers this season of Olympics, in a sense. The frenzy generated by the formidable girl brigade on the foreign shores was palpable. It was the year of the Indian eves, who sweat it out at Rio to live up the aspirations of teeming millions of countrymen, giving them a good reason to rejoice, by taking on and trouncing their toughest rivals. Buoyed by the stunning victory of the young grappler, Sakshi Malik (23), social media went in an overdrive posting tweets to tom-tom the rare feats of the tough Haryana eve. Out of the trillions of tweets appearing on social media, one had this to say it all: “Bahuon (daughters-in-law) se gold ki maang karne wala desh aaj unse gold ki umeed lagaye baitha hai…karte rahe gunah hum, kewal bête ki chahat nei kitne hi ‘gold’ maar diye jeete hi kokh mein” (A country demanding gold from its daughters-in-law (In dowry) looks up to its daughters to translate the golden dream at Rio. We kept committing the heinous of crime (killing them in foeticide) in our quest for a male child… We have ‘killed’ many in their mothers’ wombs”
As we all sat glued to the TV screens with a bated breath, the Indian squad failed to bring a glimmer of hope to live the big medal dream till the time Deepa Karmakar, the bubbly Tripura babe took the centre stage of the star-studded sporting spectacle, igniting a flickering hope to translate the cherished dream into reality. Her dare-devil feats on the floor took the entire sporting world by surprise. Her sterling performance made her the darling of teeming millions of her fans across the globe though she missed her bronze by a whisker. The tricky scene turned tumultuous as Sakshi Malik, the stocky-built freestyle female grappler from the Haryana heartland, which is fighting the stigma of skewed sex ratio, stormed the podium in a big way and bagged a bronze medal by trouncing her Kyrgyzstan’s Aisuluu Tynybekova in a keenly-contested bout of nerves, thus giving India another good reason to rejoice, after a long wait.
The feats of formidable Sakshi, ‘Sultan’ Sakshi to millions of her fans, an endearing sobriquet that she earned for her stellar role to live the cherished dream, a la Salman-starrer blockbuster ‘Sultan’, augured well for India, as more medals were in store for her, as PV Sindhu, another shining star shuttler brought another good reason to rejoice. As this focused shuttler beat her rival Japan’s Nozome Okuhara in a thrilling semi-final match, before cruising into the finals to take on the Spain’s consummated badminton sensation Caroline Marin, already a reigning world champion. Her historic win in the semi-finals had the Indian fans rooting for her, by performing ‘yagnas’, ‘havans’ and offering ‘puja’ at various places of worship, invoking the divine power to bestow its blessings on the queen of shuttle to live the India’s golden dream. Even as the spirited Sindhu had to console with a silver medal, she gave her rival a tough time till the end. Sindhu, who was nicknamed Sindhustan for a while, turned out to be someone who scripted history in the realm of badminton. The medal conferring was followed by a slew of awards and accolades that poured in for these Daughters of India, thick and fast, earned global recognition for the country.
The saga of their success stories doesn’t end here. There are many more of the ilk who excelled in their chosen fields and made the country proud. The prominent among them include Sprint sensation PT Usha, female grappler Mary Kom, Tennis star Sania Mirza, shuttle Czarina Saina Nehwal and now, the big league are Deepa Karmakar, an ace gymnast, Sakshi Malik, a female grappler and PV Sindhu, an ace badminton star, to be precise, who scripted history of sorts. There are other iconic names that need a special mention amongst the achievers, which include those of Astronaut Kalpana Chawla, Flight Attendant at Pan Am, Neeraja Bhanot and many more. Even in schools and colleges, we see girl students doing better compared to their male peers, in terms of bagging good grades in academics and making their presence felt in the sporting world.
The incredible achievements of these Daughters of India take us to the wonky little world where they are waging a formidable war against gender bias. Even as they have proved their mettle in every sphere, be it her role as a mother, a daughter, a sister, a spouse, an administrator, an entrepreneur, an educationist and, to top it all, as a politico, thus securing a safe space for themselves. Do all her laurels immune her from being targeted by a male-dominated society? The answer is emphatic ‘no’. The screaming newspaper headlines tell us about the ever-burgeoning crimes against women, including gang-rapes happening every single day, the cold-blooded murders of women and subjecting them to social and economic inequalities. With the horrific honour killings touching a new high in the country, including the state of Haryana, the situation on the ground is alarming. Cases of female foeticide are on the rise despite stringent laws in place. Women even dread going to police stations to file a complaint against any wrong done to them.
What is more mortifying than mystifying is the fact that our society still rues and rants over the birth of a female child in a household. What to speak of the unlettered even the elite and educated choose to give such celebrations a miss. The visibly glum faces of members of the family reflect their deep anguish over the female child. While the birth of a male child brings cheer to one and all in the family, with the marked celebratory mood and ‘mizaz’, which reigns supreme in the family. A male child is considered to be the torch-bearer of carrying forward the family ‘lineage’, a dominant feeling that keeps us hooked to our age-old predilection to have at least one. Rumblings from Rio are a prominent takeaway for us to change our mindset and shun addressing our daughters as ‘Betiyan, praya dhan’ and ‘Frailty thy name is woman’. We have seen brave girls performing last rites of their parents and extend them a helping hand during their twilight years. Time has given us another good reason to carry forward the spirited campaign of ‘Beti bachao, beti padhao and bet khilao’ across the country.