In Dausa thali ceremony is now reserved for girl child

An unforgiving sun is beating hard over the head. Yet, the women gathered in the panchayat centre, the Atal Sewa Centre, in the village of Bhavta-Bhavti, remain unperturbed. All of these women, barring a few, are new mothers. As the last of them arrive, the women sit down with their babies in tow, and start singing.

They are celebrating the birth of their daughters in a thali ceremony, usually reserved for sons. It's the third thali ceremony held this year. Held by the panchayat, because families don't, the ceremony is visibly welcomed by the women.

"It gives me a lot of happiness to be a part of the celebration. I could not celebrate my daughters' arrival, but I come here often to see these young mothers," says 70-year-old Bhagwati. Bhavta-Bhavti is in Dausa, one of the 10 districts in Rajasthan selected by the ministry of women and child development under the Beti Bachao scheme. Last year, the WCD ministry announced that it will take up the 100 worst districts, in terms of sex ratio, across the country, and provide them with special attention. The ministry also announced Rs1 crore to each district.

The sex ratio is Dausa was 929 in the 2001 census. In 2011, it shockingly fell down to 865. It is around the same time that Centre for Advocacy and Research (CFAR) launched a project, along with the JRD Tata Trust. "When we started work in Rajasthan nearly a decade ago, the situation was appalling. Female foeticide was rampant, malnutrition among girls was high, and education was a far cry. When we worked towards the implementation of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act, 1994, doctors went on a strike. In fact, the residents too were opposing us," says
Rakhee Badhwar, the Rajasthan programme coordinator for CFAR. Currently, they are engaged in Dausa and other five districts to bring up the sex ratio.

Things are looking up. Between March 2014 and April 2015, there have been 1,620 girl births and 1,460 boys in 30 gram panchayats. This is a first in the whole of the state. In Dausa, the sex ratio in 2011-12 rose four points to 869; in 2012-13 it was 913, in 2013-14 it was 930 and in 2014-15 it was 829.

"We have a task force to look into the sex ratio. We work with the WCD," says Dr Mahesh Verma, the Chief Medical Health Officer at Dausa. "We first worked on the implementation of the PCPNDT Act, and keep a close watch on sonography centres. We also keep a watch on families with two or more daughters." The problem however is the proximity of some villages to Agra. Many take the train to get a quick abortion.

There is also the system of active tracker, informs Muneer Sharma, the PCPNDT coordinator in the district. "Each of the sonography machines in the area is fitted with a tracker, and it is GPS enabled. It can be tracked online," says Sharma.

Dausa has 24 delivery points, centres where women can come and give birth. Ambulance services are dispatched for women in labour. "In the state, for the birth of a girl, the government pays the mother Rs7,300 in total. She is first given Rs2,100 at birth, along with medicines," says Dr Verma.

The Shubhalakshmi scheme, under which the money is given to new mothers, has already given out Rs 2.26 crore in 2013-14 and Rs 3.48 crore in 2014-15. Till May this year, Rs 43.16 lakh has already been spent.

In Bhavta-Bhavti, Nirmala, a young mother of 21, says her mother-in-law was unhappy with her first daughter. "But, this time she did not say much. The government has given us so many benefits, we don't have to spend much," she says.

Another scheme that has been welcomed by the locals is the 'badhai patra', a note of congratulations given by government when a girl is born. CM Vasundhara Raje, too, hands out these notes in the state. But, it was Tejsingh Sehra who started giving out these notes in 2013. He was then the sarpanch of Gudhakatla village. "I just gave these out to encourage people. At first no one seemed to care. But then, when they needed to get their Aadhar cards registered, they used it as a de facto birth certificate," says Sehra, who runs a college. He encourages girls to come and study, and let their parents pay when they can.

Sehra is succeeded by Chotte Lal. He is backed by a team of seven anganwadi workers and a few Asha sahayoginis. He says the reason for such a turnaround is the lack of girls. "They've seen how things panned out in nearby Haryana. Also girls today are doing so much more," he says, adding the daughter of fellow anganwadi worker Sarita got 90% in her tenth exams, with 100 in science. "That's unprecedented in our village," he says.

Rakhee says the biggest problem was immunisation. "In many villages, the sarpanch would simply not talk. In Pali, they asked our workers to simply leave," she says. "Many want us to go to their home and do it, while some refuse saying the immunisation leads to fever in the child," says Sarla, the former sarpanch of Bhavta-Bhavti.

Deepa Mathur, associate professor at the department of sociology at the University of Rajasthan, says there are many factors that have led to the change. "Social awareness programmes are showing results. People are now becoming aware of the beauty of having a girl child. Also, a declining sex ratio has become a cause of concern among the masses," she says.

"The biggest reason for the upward trend, I feel, is the control of the female foeticide racket. It is not so easy to get an abortion done today. Add to it, the incentives the government is giving out to people for the birth of a girl child," she says.

She adds that it is too early to say where will this upward trend head, and what are the steps needed to be done to take this trend further. But it's not that easy. Like, for instance, Krupa Ram, who has four daughters. "How much can you fight society? They consider me nothing, because I have four daughters. People say why do you need to earn, there will be no one after you," he rues. "The government is right at encouraging us to have daughters, but I think it should also help parents financially who have had more than two daughters."