'Selfie with Daughter' progenitor says campaign lacks impetus

The man behind the 'Selfie with Daughter' initiative, whose efforts were praised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his address at UK's Wembley Stadium, today said his words have encouraged him further but more work needs to be done in Haryana to give impetus to the 'Beti Bachao Beti Padhao' campaign.
The village head of Bibipur village in Jind district Sunil Jaglan said that in Haryana, the state with the lowest sex rate ratio, and even at the Central level, an independent department should be set up to monitor and ensure effective implementation of campaigns for the girl child.
"Modiji repeatedly talking about this initiative at world level is helping infuse and provide more encouragement to what I am doing back in Haryana," Jaglan, who had launched the 'Selfie with Daughter' campaign in Jind in June, told PTI.

"At various platforms, our Prime Minister is repeatedly talking about how 'Selfie with Daughters' has become a worldwide movement. In January, the PM launched 'Beti Bachao- Beti Padhao', a nationwide campaign, from Panipat in Haryana.
"Despite the fact that it is Modi's pet initiative, the Beti Bachao campaign is not getting that impetus in Haryana. I feel the State needs to do much more..," he said.
He said though on particular days the government organises functions in connection with the campaign, "more work needs to be done on ground level. I feel more activities related to the campaign should be taking place at village level".

"As Women and Child Development Department (nodal department for implementation of Beti Bachao campaign) is already burdened with other things, I strongly feel that there should be an independent department to deal with this. There should be a team which will work on this round-the-year," he said.

He said Bollywood actress Parineeti Chopra, who was in July appointed as brand ambassador of Beti Bachao campaign in Haryana by the Manohar Lal Khattar government, should be asked to take an active part.
"After an event at Gurgaon in July in connection with the campaign, she has not visited the state after that. She should travel to the villages in Haryana also for this campaign," Jaglan said.

The village head also said that a chapter on female foeticide and related topics should be made part of the school curriculum and taught to children, ideally from Classes VI to VII.