CHANDIGARH: He’s only 35. But Sunil Jaglan ’s relentless campaigns to empower women, and gram panchayats, has already earned him the title of India’s Campaign Man. A former sarpanch of Bibipur village in Haryana’s Jind district, Jaglan hit the headlines when PM Narendra Modi endorsed his “selfie with a daughter” initiative. When he was elected sarpanch in 2010, the first thing that Jaglan, father of two daughters, did was to start launch a panchayat website. “From there I also started a campaign to convert other panchayats into hi-tech ones with computers and internet facilities and their own websites, forming their WhatsApp groups, and to ensure daily records and expenses were computerised,” Jaglan told The Sunday Standard.
“In 2015, the government announced digitisation of all panchayats in the country.” Today, more than 2.5 lakh panchayats in the country have their own websites. The Haryana government has also decided to set up a library in each panchayat, first established by Jaglan in his village in 2014. His 2012 campaign of ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ was adopted by the Modi Government in 2015. “I started the campaign from my village, and the slogan, written on a pole erected near the panchayat’s entrance, is still there,’’ he adds.
‘‘On June 9, 2015, I started a Selfie with Daughter campaign from Bibipur village. Modi lauded my campaign and later appealed for its adoption to the masses,” he said. Jaglan also launched a campaign to allow daughters to host the Tricolor August 15 and January 26. Now in a few villages, the daughters hoist the flag on both occasions.
He also takes credit for the Haryana government’s decision to display nameplates of daughters born in villages outside their homes. “On July 6, 2015, the nameplate with the names of daughters was displayed outside each house in our village, and due to our constant efforts the people have started adopting it across the state,’’ says Jaglan. Today, the Women and Child Development Department puts a plate engraved with the newborn daughter’s name on the door of her home. Last year, then-President Pranab Mukherjee implemented Jaglan’s Bibipur Model of Women Empowerment and Village Development and adopted 100 villages in Haryana.