Wednesday was a day of celebration for three families in this village in Kondapur mandal.
About 15 km from the district headquarters, Haridaspur is in the news, for good reason. It has become an example for cleanliness and Haritha Haram programme. Instead of mentioning Ibrahimpur of Siddipet district, and Malkapur of Medak district, officials are now citing Haridaspur as a model to emulate.
Breaking stereotypes
As if that was not enough, it has taken another unique initiative. In a bid to encourage gender equality, the village panchayat has decided to encourage parents who give birth to a girl child, and how. Between December 2019 and January 2020, three girls were born in the village. Uppari Vennela gave birth to a baby girl on December 12, 2019. This was followed by birth of two girls – one to Banothu Sangeeta, and other to Aloori Satyavati – on New Year day, January 1, 2020.
In a transformation mode, the village panchayat has decided to celebrate the arrival of the newborns. They decorated the panchayat building by illuminating it with colourful lights. Parents of the newborn babies were invited to attend a function. As birthday gifts, they were handed over cheques issued on their names. The programme was taken up in view of the low child sex ratio in the village with 880 females against 1,000 males, according to the 2011 census. “To empower and provide self-respect to our girls, our village celebrates the birth of a girl as a good omen. Also, to financially help the family of the girl child in her education and marriage, the panchayat provides ₹ 1,000 in five instalments to motivate parents to enrol the girl in Haridaspur village, Kondapur mandal, , village panchayat, girl child, gift chque, Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana , a Central government scheme offering a high interest rate,” said Rohit Kulkarni, panchayat secretary. Further, the fathers — Vijay Kumar, Mallesham, Kishan Goud — have been given ₹ 1,000 each in the form of five post-dated cheques of ₹ 200 each,” he added.
Mr. Kulkarni, along with District Rural Development Officer Ch. Srinivas Rao and Sarpanch Md. Shafi too have donated ₹ 1,000 each for this programme.
