Mandal celebrates 100th anniversary with girl child as theme

The sounds of festivities at Camp’s Shripad Tarun Mandal this year is very special as the mandal is celebrating its centenary year. To mark the occasion, the mandal has decided to highlight the issue of female foeticide during Ganeshotsav.

The mandal’s president, Atul Gondkar, said that foeticide-themed decorations have been made specially by artisans from Ahmednagar. “We decided on this issue during our brainstorming sessions. Members suggested a variety of activities highlighting this subject,” said the mandal’s secretary Vikas Bhambure.

Besides scenes from real life and mythology, the mandal members have also prepared a special script. They requested professionally trained voice-over artists to record a CD that is played at least thrice a day at the mandal.

Some of the scenes depicted in decorations are: a pregnant woman being forced by her husband and mother-in-law to undergo a sex determination test; a scene on consequences that shows there would be no brides for future grooms as a result of foeticide; and a scene from Hindu mythology that shows Yamraj making a note of families who kill their girl child.

Besides decorations, the mandal has come up with a slew of activities around the theme. “On Daughter’s Day, we felicitated all families in our neighbourhood that had only one child who was a girl child. We have notified the Pune Cantonment Board hospital authorities to notify us about all women giving birth to a girl child, as we would felicitate them with a ‘Welcome Baby’ kit,” said the mandal’s executive president Suresh Khemkar.

Last year, the mandal had not taken out the procession on the last day to save the money, which was used to pay for the treatment of a kidney patient. However, this year, the members have hired the services of two well-known artisans to design a special ‘rath’ for the last day of the procession.