Give birth to girl child and bag a gold coin in this Kerala town
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In Kottakkal municipality of Kerala’s Muslim-dominated Malappuram, girls bring joy as well as gold for their family.
Their municipal councillor Abdul Raheem has a unique way of celebrating the birth of a girl child in his ward. The independent councillor has been gifting a gold coin weighing one gram to mothers, who give birth to a girl, for the last two years. “I have seen people cursing the birth of girls. But most of them are not aware girls are the real wealth. Can we imagine a world without them?” the father of a four-year-old daughter asked.
“In all religions and scriptures, girls find a prime place. But in real life, the situation is quite different. Even in birth, they face severe discrimination and neglect. Our attitude should change,” he said.
In the recently released global gender gap index, India was ranked 108, behind neighbouring Bangladesh. The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index said India slipped 21 places from the earlier 87th rank.
British medical journal The Lancet published a study in 2011 in which it said as many as 12 million Indian girls may have been selectively aborted between 1980 and 2010.
Experts say this trend, in a patriarchal society where girls are often seen as a financial liability, has led to a rise in crimes, including rape, trafficking and the emergence of “wife-sharing” in villages where the sex ratio is low.
Kerala has a healthy sex ratio of 1,084 females for 1,000 males. But social scientists have warned that the ever-declining birth rate would affect its sex ratio. Sixteen mothers have received his gift so far and Raheem is now planning to double the weight of the coin. There are instances of parents calling him from the hospital bed to announce the arrival of their daughter and he wastes no time in felicitating them.
“As a councillor, I get a sitting allowance between ₹8,000 to ₹10,000 a month. One gram coin costs only ₹2,500. I can afford to spare my salary for this,” he said.
Hailing from a business family, Raheem, 38, is now planning a mega function to honour these mothers.