One gender-related incident in Rajasthan made headlines – for a change it was for an innocuous, one could say for a heartwarming reason. A family hired a helicopter to welcome home their recently born girl child. In a state with one of the most unequal male-female ratios in the country, this is positive news indeed.
It is a common enough story in an Indian household – sweets are distributed at the birth of a boy, but celebrations, if any, are considerably muted upon the arrival of a girl. However, in this family from Rajasthan’s Nagaur District, the girl child was very welcome. So much so that the little one – named Riya – was flown home in a helicopter. The grandfather of the little one, Madanlal Prajapat decided to make this grand gesture since this was the first female born into the family in 35 years.
What is even more heartening is what Riya’s father said about her birth. It is his belief that boys and girls should be treated equally and that society should be rid of evil practices such as female foeticide. He believes that the girl child brings as much joy as a boy and he hopes that one day all Indian families will feel this way.
Even as I watched this video and marvelled at the novelty of this reaction to the birth of a girl in rural Rajasthan I couldn’t help notice how the mother was in ghoonghat. Her face was covered in what is perhaps the custom of the people of the region. Generally, this would indicate that the woman is very much confined to the home and will not even reveal her face before family elders, much less to outsiders. If Riya’s father genuinely believed that boys and girls should be treated alike, the ghoonghat seems difficult to reconcile with those progressive ideas.
Personally, I thought that the grand gesture of a helicopter; spending lakhs on the homecoming was a little unnecessary and perhaps there was some element of virtue-signalling here. Again, speaking personally, those lakhs would be better off in an investment made for the little girl's higher education. Perhaps those lakhs could have been better utilised in enhancing the local school facilities; maybe sponsor the education of a few girls in the area? But again this is me and my views. If the family is genuinely delighted with the arrival of a little girl and they want to announce it to the world via a helicopter, I say good for them. That little girl will grow up with this great story, a great deal of confidence and a feeling of being loved and valued by her family.
My real lament is that this story, no matter how positive it is, changes nothing. Rajasthan still has the fourth-worst male-female ratio in the country with just 856 women to every 1000 men. Only Delhi, Uttarakhand and Haryana have worse male-female ratios. In an overwhelming majority of Indian families, the girl child is still seen as ‘paraya dhan’. The girl child is still seen as a burden for whom money for marriage and dowry is required to be saved practically since her birth. Her education is less of a priority. She is brought up as a daughter/sister/wife/daughter-in-law rather than an autonomous individual with her own rights, her own choices and aspirations.
I can only hope that little Riya grows up as a person who is allowed to learn, dream, aspire to the life she chooses rather than a life that is chosen for her – even by a well-meaning, loving and indulgent family.
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