Success story: A family complete with 4 daughters
CHANDIGARH: Behind Fatehgarh Sahib’s success story in improving child sex ratio in the district, there is a change in mindset of people such as 39-year-old Amritpal Singh Sodhi, who is a proud father of four girls.
Sodhi, who is a businessman, initially had the dream to “complete the family” with a boy after having a daughter as the first child. But even after having a second child as a daughter, the family took the third and fourth chance which were girls too.
“As a part of society having typical mindset of having a boy in the family, we took the chance even after having first two children as girls. But I am proud that neither I nor my wife or mother were in any sort of desperation to have only a son,” Sodhi said.
“Because I have contacts in the health department, I could have illegally gone for sex determination tests. But my family was very clear that we would accept what God would bless us,” he said.
Amritpal’s wife Gurwinder Kaur shared an incident she faced in the Fatehgarh Sahib civil hospital during her third delivery of a girl child. “We were celebrating the birth of Gursimran (third girl child) when another lady next to my bed was in a deep shock after God blessed them with the girl as a first child.”
Harvinder Kaur, head of the family and the girl’s grandmother, remembers the time when Fatehgarh Sahib got the tag of the district having the worst child sex ratio in 2001.
“I don’t know what is the condition of sex ratio today but the mindset of society is changing. Let me tell you that financial status of my two sons has drastically improved ever since these girls landed in our family,” she said.
Hindustan Times also came across a case wherein the family of a school teacher from Makaron village of the district decided not to go for a second child, after having a girl as the first child.
“We decided that in case we get a boy in the first chance we will go for a second chance, to try for a daughter. But if the first child would be a girl, we will live with the single child,” said a 34-yearold school teacher, who wished not to be named, citing social pressure on her.
“I am happy that I and my husband took the call together and we are not bothered what others, including my own parents, who are after me to go for a second child in order to have a son, have to say,” she said.
Another case is of Kusum Kumari from Sirhind, who adopted a girl child because she was not conceiving initially, but after 10 years when she conceived she was blessed with two daughters one after another.
“I don’t know it’s by chance or what. But I have never ever felt that there was any need to have a male child,” she said.
Real winds of change started in the district in 2007, when three villages — Kotli, Fatehpur and Longo Majra — showed improvement in sex ratio, having more girls as compared to boys.
In 2010, the district got a new high when, as per district health department, 105 out of 453 villages, witnessed birth of girls outnumbering boys.