Corporate social responsibility is a concept too often bandied about without much action on the ground. In Ganganagar district of Rajasthan, however, the Chamber of Commerce is practising it in the true spirit, in improving the child sex ratio. The focus is on the girl child’s survival as well as education from primary classes up to professional, technical courses, especially in families that have only girls.

This year alone the Chamber, in partnership with the local Gurudwara Committee, has facilitated scholarships valued at Rs 3 crore for girls’ education. It has partnered the Let Girls Be Born (LGBB) campaign of Plan India and Urmul Setu to gain a free seats quota for girls from poor families in engineering, computer sciences, dentistry, MBA, BTech, nursing and other courses. Mass marriages are held for girls from low-income families and they are each provided basic household goods worth from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2 lakh. The Lohri harvest festival, traditionally celebrating the birth of sons, was converted into Kanya Lohri — an occasion to celebrate the birth of girls.

Tejinderpal Singh Timma, general secretary of the Chamber and president of the Gurudwara Committee, says it was a 2006 report on the falling child sex ratio that stirred his conscience to take up cudgels for the girl child. He himself has two sons and recalls keeping his younger son’s hair plaited for a long time to make up for the absence of a girl in the family.

The first Kanya Lohri was held in 2006 for 101 girls. The mothers received a packet of sweets, a coconut and shawl. In 2007, the support for girls increased. Subsequently, based on a list of 2,500 families that had only girls, financial support was provided for their education from nursery up to class 12.

Slowly the programme widened to a shiksha (education) package for girls in higher education and vocational courses. There was such a clamour for financial support that the beneficiaries were selected through lottery. This year there were 28,000 applications for scholarships. More colleges and schools are coming forward to educate girls from poor families for free.

Now even coaching centres for admission to IITs, engineering colleges and civil service exams have reserved 10 seats for girls. A coaching programme could cost from Rs 20,000 to Rs 40,000. These seats too will be routed through the Chamber. There is greater acceptance of girls today than 10 or even five years ago, says Timma. The support of panchayats has boosted the morale of women opposed to sex-selective abortions. Jasbir Kaur, a nurse from Gasipur, has three daughters. When her farmer-husband found she was pregnant with a girl child for the third time he wanted her “to choose between me and the child in your womb”. She chose to have the baby girl and walked out of her husband’s home to her natal home.

Obviously, ultrasound clinics continue to secretly disclose the sex of the foetus, but it is the women who are deciding to give birth to girls. Jasbir’s eldest daughter is 16 and the youngest, five. After her story appeared in the Rajasthan Patrika , the Chamber honoured her at a Kanya Lohri function. She now has a position in the Chamber and actively promotes the birth of girls. When a girl is born, she dances at the home or hospital and gifts Rs 100 from her own earnings. Her daughters will continue to receive educational support from the Chamber and there won’t be a draw of lots for them.

Timma, thanks to his position in the local Gurudwara Committee, wields considerable influence over the large community of Sikhs and Punjabis. Gurbani so kyon mandaa khiya, jise jamme rajaon (why are you rejecting girls when even kings and rulers have accepted them) — the campaigns against sex selection begin with this quote from Guru Nanak, a champion of gender equity, touching many hearts.

In 2006, the first Khalsa march was organised to change public mindset towards girls. The Guru Granth Sahib was placed in an open truck and nearly 3,000 people travelled with it through the villages of Ganganagar, Karanpur, Gajsinghpur. As it moved, more people joined in on tractors, trolleys, bicycles and motorcycles. At every village, an oath was taken against female foeticide, including a written declaration of “I will not kill the girl child in my womb and if I see anybody doing so I will raise my voice”. Nearly 52,300 forms were filled and deposited at the Golden Temple in Amritsar. No Sikh or Punjabi can take lightly an oath that reaches Harmindar Sahib. Another Khalsa march followed in 2007, shoring up support in the community on the issue of girl child survival.

However, as the march involves a lot of expense it was discontinued in favour of education and mass marriage of girls from poor families. And the wedding vows include a pledge against sex selection.

‘Burden’-turned-breadwinners

Manu Nagpal of Chunnawadki village has two sisters. All three girls have received scholarships from the Ganganagar Chamber of Commerce. Manu completed her MBA course this year. Since January she has been working with Ganganagar Commodities and earning Rs 10,000 a month.

Ecstatic and humbled by the opportunity she has had to develop to her full stature, she said over telephone “I am the breadwinner for my parents - the son they never had!”

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