BHOPAL: Hundreds of ‘Badhai Geet’ welcoming the girl kid in distinct
languages and dialects had been received in response to a contest
organised by a regional NGO.
The contest “Bitiya ke janm ke badhai geet lekhan rashtra-stariya
pratiyogita” was organised by Sarokar, an NGO working for gender
equality. The objective was to transform the patriarchal mindset of
society and guard the girl kid. Traditionally, ‘Badhai Geet’ are
sung only on the birth of a male kid. Since the birth of a girl is not
regarded as a matter of rejoicing so there are no songs welcoming her
into this planet.
The thought was revolutionary and the response was enthusiastic. A total of
127 entries had been received from Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar,
Assam, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and even Haryana, recognized for
its higher price of female foeticide and infanticide. Of these, 17
winners had been chosen.
“I am overwhelmed by the response. It only shows that the mindset of
society is changing,” Kumud Singh from Sarokar mentioned. She mentioned that the
announcement of the awards would finish their association with the
participants. “We will keep in touch with them and we will try to
ensure that they work for gender equality in their respective areas,”
Singh mentioned. She mentioned Bollywood playback singer Meghan Sriram Dalton
has approached us saying that they want to sing some of these songs.
The award ceremony was organised by way of Zoom and Facebook Live on
Sunday. The winners of the contest had been: Saniara Khan (Raipur), Amit
Khare (Bhopal), Manju Ashok Rajabhoj (Jabalpur), Neeti Jain (Panipat,
Haryana), Maya Narayani (Kolkata), Anita Bharadwaj (Delhi), Chunni
Pandit (Korba, Chhattisgarh), Rajni Dave (Indore), Shiralee Runwal
(Gwalior), Pushpa Singh (Bhopal), Gayatri Soni (Khirkiya, MP), Urmila
Sidar (Chhattisgarh), Anubha Prasad (Patna), Govind Bharadwaj (Ajmer,
Rajasthan), Neelam Singh (Lucknow) and Smita Kumari (Bihar).
They wrote the ‘Badhai’ songs in Hindi, Bundeli, Asamiya, Malwi,
Haryanvi and other languages and dialects. The jury integrated theatre
artist Swastika Chakraborty, journalist Dayashankar Mishra, story
writer Anulata Raj Nair, lyricist Vimal Bhandari and Laila.
Mishra mentioned that it is not the words but the feelings behind such
songs that are crucial. He recalled that in a single of the songs, the
mother says that she will handle all the things else only an individual need to
make arrangements for her daughter’s education. Bhandari hoped that
such songs would grow to be well known and prevalent.
Swastika Chakraborty mentioned, “When I read the songs, I became so mesmerised that I kept on reading and re-reading them for over three days and even started humming some of them.”
Chief guest Pusphendra Pal Singh, chief editor at Madhya Pradesh Madhyam, mentioned that poverty and lack of education had been not behind low sex ratio in our nation. That, he mentioned, was evident by the reality that
guys outnumber girls in the urban places and amongst effectively-educated
communities. He mentioned that societal mindset requires decades to transform.
“But the fact that baby girls are being welcomed shows that the change
has begun,” he added.