The Khalsa March― Sri Ganganagar Combats Female Foeticide
Meeta SINGH (India)
Sri Ganganagar is a border town of Rajasthan famous for its prosperity and fertile lands.
It is called the granary of Rajasthan, the largest state in India. Sadly it is also infamous
for the worst girl child sex ratio in Rajasthan; a dismal 850 girls to a thousand boys in
the 0-6 year age group. The majority of the town's population is comprised of Sikhs whohave the worst girl child sex ratio at 786 girls to a thousand boys. But the Sikhcommunity in Sri Ganganagar has vowed to turn the tide.
Under the leadership of Sardarni Kuldeep Kaur, the seventy four year young woman
community leader of Jaipur, several steps towards combating female sex selective
abortions have been taken up by the community. Following a workshop to sensitizecommunity leaders, organized by Rajasthan University Women’s Association (RUWA)
and a non profit international organization IFES with support from USAID in October
2005, Kuldeep Kaur has became achieve concerning this issue. Since then she has moved
from strength to strength. It all started with forming women's community groups forworship in each of the 20 gurudwaras (Sikh temples of worship) of the city of Jaipur, thestate capital. Each month these women's groups meet in one of the 20 gurudwaras,
discuss the issue and get people to pledge against sex selection and female sex selectiveabortions. Kaur took this initiative further and liaised with the Sikh sangat(congregation) in Sri Ganganagar, where in November 2006 the community organized amass wedding. At this function, nearly 1000 guests and the 20 newly wed couples wereadministered an oath against sex selection and sex selective abortions.
Taking this another step forward, the Sikh community of Sri Ganganagar organised aKhalsa March on February 25, 2007 and dedicated it to combating pre birth eliminationof females and erasing this evil from society. It was a unique opportunity to witness
community mobilization at the grassroots level and on such a massive scale.
.
Huge crowds gathered at the Baba Deep Singh Gurudwara, the holy temple of the Sikhs
and the starting point for the March. The March was led by the head priests who, at thebehest of the community, travelled from Nanaksar Gurudwara in the Punjab and thePatna Sahib Gurudwara in Bihar several hundreds of kilometers away.
The cavalcade was lead by a huge flower bedecked, transparent glass walled coach,called the Palki (pronounced paa-l-ki) on its platform covered in orange satin rested theGuru Granth Sahib, the holy book of the Sikhs. A young priest sat beside this platform
and gently swayed "chor sahib", a sort of wand with a white candy floss like tuft at one
end, side to side over the holy book as a mark of reverence. A group of singers "raagis"sang hymns from the holy book to the accompaniment of soft lilting music.
As the hymns softly faded, a strong confident voice was heard on the public address
system. This was Tejinder Singh Timma, a young community leader, entreating thecrowds to wipe away the shame of the community and stop killing unborn girls in thewombs. The clerics too addressed their flock and quoted from the Holy Book, theCommands of the Gurus, stating that anyone committing the killing of girls is a criminaland should be ostracized from society.

The cavalcade halted at several villages from Paanch ji Saharanwali to Dhalewada toTatarsar to Rattewala to Padampur and so on covering nearly 25 villages in all, across astretch of a little more than 120 kilometers. In each of these villages, there was the same
impassioned plea against pre birth elimination of females by the community leaders andthe holy priests; the same warm welcome by the village dwellers and the signing of oathpapers to never commit or support female sex selective abortions. The March lasted
through the entire day. The procession finally reached full circle once again before
dispersing off. At the end of the day, an astounding 52,300 people had signed pledges
committing never to indulge in sex selection themselves nor allowing it to happen.
This huge public commitment augurs well for the unborn girl child. Of course the realtest of this commitment will only be reflected four years later in the 2011 census.
However, for the present scenario to change, the community will have to pull its act
together urgently and effectively to stop sex selection as well as to enhance the value ofthe girl child.