PUNJAB: Hard work by Sunil Jaglan, former sarpanch of Bibipur village in Jind district of Haryana, towards women empowerment and gender equality for the last eleven-odd years is now visible on the ground in the form of over 10 lakh photographs of daughters posing with their fathers as part of a ‘Selfie with Daughter’ campaign, 20,000 names-plates affixed outside houses bearing the daughters’ names, chart pasted on the walls of 3,500-odd homes to keep track of the menstrual cycle of the women and some 5,000 charts distributed in schools and homes across Haryana and Uttar Pradesh as part of a ‘Gaali Bandh Ghar’ campaign which aims to discourage the use of sexist slurs.
“The biggest change came into my life when on January 24, 2012, my daughter was born a stroke of midnight in a private hospital. The news was brought to me by a nurse who bore a very pale expression on her face. She whispered carefully, ‘Beti hui hai’. I was happy and while leaving the hospital I gave Rs 2000 to her, asking her to distribute sweets in the hospital. I also instructed her to inform all that a daughter had been born in the family of Bibipur’s sarpanch. But she was reluctant in taking the money, saying that Rs 100 would do.
She said she could only have accepted such a big amount if a boy had been born,” Jaglan recalls. After being chosen as village sarpanch in 2010, Jaglan created a website for the village and started a campaign against female foeticide. In 2012, he kick-started a campaign called ‘Beti hui hai (A daughter has been born) – The three magic words’. The same year, he also started the ‘Beti Padhao Campaign’.
“As part of this campaign, we provide free books to the girls, open libraries and provide transportation to them. It was started initially in Bibipur with about 350 beneficiaries. Now it benefits 140 villages in Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh,’’ he says. In 2015, he conceived a new campaign, ‘Selfie with daughter’, and soon afterwards, shot into the limelight after his efforts to save the girl child invited praise from Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his ‘Mann ki baat’ programme.
Jaglan says, “I started the ‘selfie with daughter’ campaign after being inspired by the movie Bajrangi Bhaijan. I did not realise that it would turn into such a successful exercise. More than ten lakh selfies have been uploaded so far on our online museum.’’ In 2017 Jaglan started a campaign to affix name plates bearing the daughters’ names outside the villagers’ houses. “We started this campaign under ‘Lado Swabhimaan Utsav’ and till date 20,000 names plates bearing the daughters’ names have been put up by the families outside their houses in many states besides Haryana,’’ he says, adding that initially some people were hesitant about this but signed up after outreach programs were conducted by us under the Bibipur Model of Women Empowerment and Village Development. In 2019, he started giving period charts to young women so that they could track their menstrual cycle.
“Till date we have been able to paste period charts on the walls of 3,500 homes to help women keep track of their menstrual cycle. This helps to track any delays in the cycle, health issues, etc. so that they can be reported to the doctor, and also helps them to share the household chores while suffering period pains. In India, menstruation is considered to be impure and a menstruating woman is treated as untouchable or bad omen, a notion often compounded by superstitious beliefs and religious taboos. Any talk around menstrual health and hygiene is easily dismissed by calling it a shameful subject,” he adds.