An ancient forgotten tradition became a means for spreading awareness on respecting and caring for girl children. On Friday, the management of Chilkur Balaji temple organised ‘Kanya Vandhanam’ at a government school. About 35 girl students of class I were part of the programme which involved offering them new clothes and bangles. While the priests chanted the name of goddess Mahalakshmi 108 times, the students were applied turmeric and made to perform certain rituals.
“Girls are considered a form of goddess Mahalalshmi in our culture. But, many are increasingly becoming insensitive towards girls today. If you look at the male-female ratio, though the girls are in low numbers, they are not treated properly. Through this programme, we wanted to sensitise the society on the need for treat girls properly,” said C.S. Rangarajan, Archaka, Chilkur temple.
Boys of the same school were asked to promise that they would not treat girls badly. According to Mr. Rangarajan, they plan to replicate the programme across all government schools in and around the city.
