Chambal women find a new stage to save the girl child
BHOPAL: Clutching her infant daughter, an ordinary village woman told her family members she would not let them kill the baby. She then looked at the people gathered around and asked them whether they could help.
Her plea was followed by a collective hush. Suddenly, the silence was pierced by a shout: Mutthi Bandho Behna (clench your fist, sisters).
As the curtain fell on the play, it left an indelible impact on the audience, comprising mostly women. Tears of guilt rolled down the faces of several mothers who in the past failed to muster courage to save their daughters from infanticide.
The play Muthi Ba- ndho Behna is the brainchild of eight women, who are on am issi-onto prevent infanticide in Madhya Pradesh’s Chambal region, where killing of girl children, who are considered burden on the family, was common, until the group decided to stand up against the social evil nine years ago.
To send across their message, the group does not depend on any written script. It recreates scenes and discussions that take place at homes in the villages of Ch a mb al, which was once infested by bandits. The eight — Sunita Gurjar, 52, Geeta Sisodia, 44, Sharmila Bhadoriya ,38, Sunita Kaurav ,43, Sangeeta Tyagi, 37, Archana Sharma, 35, Pushpa Singh, 47, and Sushma Gurjar, 28 — have staged more than 150 plays in over 100 villages so far. After years of relentless struggle, their efforts are now showing results.
“The National Family Health Survey 2015-16 (NFHS-4) revealed the sex ratio of Morena, B hi nd, Gwalior and D at ia areas of Chambal has shown improvement as compared to 2011 census,” pointed out Suresh Tomar, the joint director of women and child development( W CD) department.
In Bhind, the sex ratio increased from837 in 2011 (as per census report) to 855 as per the NFHS-4 report released in 2015.