Nanhi Chhan

I have been greatly disturbed by the promos of an upcoming serial on the "Colors" channel. It shows an infant girl being sent to her death in a pot of milk. With the cable TV reaching into villages these days, I cannot imagine the havoc this will cause in the minds of the illiterates. Of course, you find preference for sons even in the highly educated families. :-( And though such educated lot might not resort to such ghastly ways of getting rid of the female child, I worry that this will affect them as well.

So I felt a bit relieved when I read about "Nanhi Chhan" (Nanhi means little and Chhan means shade) - a project that is being rolled out in Delhi, Punjab and Rajasthan. Read about it at http://www.punjabnewsline.com/content/view/11907/ and if you have any relatives in these regions, tell them about it.

However, one cannot help but feel the irony that in a country that celebrates Stree-Shakti through festivals like DurgaPuja, we have to launch such efforts to give the girl child a chance at life :-(