Save the girl child

Beti bachao beti parao

On 11 October, the day of Dussehra, I was returning home in the morning with my son Kartikei. At the  red light our auto stopped and a beggar child dressed as Kali Mata approached us for alms. Istuck a conversation with the girl as I was curious to know more about her. I said that if she answered all my questions I would pay her what she earned in a day. She asked me for Rs 100 which I promised to pay her after she answered my questions. I found out that her name was Seema and she did not go to school. Her mother wanted to send her to school as well but she could not go as she had to earn money for the family. She told me that she lived nearby, in a small structure made of rags at the wall of the stadium nearby. She pointed out her home and I saw her mother with a lot of small naked children milling around asking passer-by’s for money. All this was very depressing I thought of the travails of this family and the difficulties they must be going through raising so many kids in the streets.

In the evening that day I went with my son to watch the burning of the effigies in the Ram Lila ground. While walking on the crowded road we saw around 10 to 12 girls walking holding hands. I approached the girls and asked them why they were walking like this. What they told me was weird and sad in a way. They said that they were walking like that so that they would not get lost as it was unsafe for women and they could be killed. They said that they had been advised to hold hands by their mothers as it was a bad world for women. This made me wonder about the safety of girls and how they feel insecure and threatened.  

After Ravan dehan we were coming back from the Ram lila  ground at around 9 pm. I noticed a temporary road side shop opposite market that was selling trinkets. A well man was manning the shop with the help of two young girls who were working enthusiastically. The two girls were the man’s daughters. I stuck a conversation with him and asked him if he ever regretted that he had two daughters not a son? With folded hands he told me that he would always thank God for blessing him with these two gems.