Counting the girls, literally

When Raj Bala from Rohtak district drove a Haryana Roadways bus for the first time, she was greeted with raised eyebrows and disapproving looks from the community that has one of the lowest sex ratios in the country, with its female population at 859 per 1,000 males, in 2015.

Luckily, Bala’s family stood steadfast behind her, nudging the mother-of-one to ignore the jibes and become the first professional woman bus driver of the area.

“They were my strength,” recalls Bala as she introduces her 63-year-old mother Kaladevi, and her 15-year-old daughter Anjali. “I faced a lot of problems, but I always wanted to be a bus driver. They helped me achieve it.”

One of the several women from the state felicitated by the human rights organisation, Breakthrough, during its Mission Hazaar campaign to make women more visible in public places, Bala hopes others will follow in her footsteps and make their mark.

Mission Hazaar that started in the four districts of Panipat, Sonipat, Rohtak and Jhajjar in 2012, uses a multi-pronged approach to change people's mindsets and better the sex ratio. To multiply its impact and make the campaign touch as many people as possible, Breakthrough has made use of media, technology and cultural activities.

It has also involved grassroots level Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) and anganwadi workers, school children and the local youth.

“The idea was to address gender discrimination at various levels and impact families to make better decisions when women get pregnant, and later after the girl child is born," says Leena Sushant, Director Evaluation and Monitoring at Breakthrough.

An effective intervention, she explains, has been the formation of youth clubs in schools in partnership with the state government.

Christened Taaron ki Toli (band of stars), the clubs serve as inspirational platforms for children from 10 years onwards. The clubs hold theatre, music, magic shows and discussions to train the youth to recognise gender bias and help take action if gender discrimination happens in their immediate environment.

The customised 'stars' logo that school children across the districts sport on their jackets gives them a unique identity and urges them through various fun activities to be the “change makers” and “action heroes” of society.

The new awareness of gender stereotyping plays a role in the youth questioning gender related practices at home, in school and in the community, explains Sonali Khan, Breakthrough’s Country Director, India.

While evaluating the progress of Mission Hazaar, Leena's team came across Prerna, a class VIII student from Jhajjar, who revealed how she gave secret tutorial classes to a neighbourhood girl who was not being educated by her family.

“The problem of gender-biased sex selection has always been grave; youth could never identify itself with this issue. However, by establishing the relationship between lack of girls, with women's safety and restrictions on their mobility, Breakthrough was successful in drawing the attention of youth and turn it into an issue of masses,” says the staff. So now when households serve sweets and offer prayers only at the birth of a son, while a girl's arrival goes unnoticed, children don't remain quite; but often question their families pointing out the gross discrimination.

Working along with the state government's department of women and child and involving the ASHAs, the Auxiliary Nurse Midwifes (ANMs) and the workers in the campaign seems to have paid off. While the local commissioners, department heads and the police actively contributed to taking the message forward, the ASHAs were crucial to identify pregnant women and urge them to avoid sex selection.

Manat, one of the workers, tells the story of how she found out that a family was planning a sex selection exercise.

She convinced the woman and other family members through several meetings and exposing them to media campaigns to change their minds. “It worked,” says Leena whose department has turned the episode into a research case study.

Of course it is only the tip of the iceberg, say Breakthrough representatives. But they hope as they go along their rural campaign from district to district and state to state, they will eventually be able to change mindsets and come closer to Mission Hazaar.

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