Daughter's Day in India

As we celebrate Daughters’ day today i.e. 11 August central Women and Child Development minister Maneka Gandhi is in spotlight for launching the campaign “Selfie with Daughters” on social media. She recently shared a picture on twitter with her daughter-in-law and grand-daughter with  #BBBPDaughtersWeek. The emphasis is on the need to treat one’s daughter-in-law as one’s daughter only. She has also invited people to share their pictures with their daughters-in-law and grand-daughters with #BBBPDaughtersweek. Many have argued that ‘in-law’ should be dropped from the word ‘daughter-in-law’.

I wondered how Rajasthan, my home state is going to observe this day as it has a sex ratio of 928 female for every 1000 males much below the national average of 940 female (2011 census), especially when Rajasthan boasts to have in office a woman chief minister Smt. Vasundhara Raje.

My attention was caught by a newspaper article where it praised the district collector Ms. Archana Singh for initiating a unique scheme in Rajsamand district. She directed the Gram panchayats in this particular district to reserve lands as Kanya Upvan/ Girl Parks. The panchayats will ensure that a family will plant eleven saplings in the reserved Kanya Upvan upon the birth of a girl child in order to welcome her. The girl will enjoy the rights over the income earned from selling the fruits and flowers of these plants. Already nine gram panchayats have adopted this scheme namely Binol, Banodiya, Bhanuja, Lal Madri, Taal, Tasol, Bhana, Mohi, Kuraj. The aim is to cover all the villages in Rajsamand district under this scheme.

This initiative serves as the perfect example of ecofeminism that emerged in mid 1970s alongside second wave feminism and the green revolution. Ecofeminist movement tries to connect the exploitation and degradation of nature with the subordination and oppression of women as a result of patriarchal system (‘Feminism and Ecology’ by Mary Mellor, New York University Press, 1997). So the Kanya Upvan scheme of Rajsamand district perfectly blends in the concerns of the nature and women. No doubt it is worth emulating in other states too where sex ratio is worrisome (top five states are Haryana,879; Jammu and Kashmir,889; Punjab,895; Uttar Pradesh,912; and Bihar, 918, census 2011). At the same time Rajasthan administration has to ensure that implementation of this scheme goes beyond just papers as it's a cumbersome process to ensure the maintenance and growth of plants for years to come.

Head cover across the Religions

Now-a-days our attention is attracted towards movement initiated by Iranian women against compulsory head covering. But whenever we talk about the prevalence of head cover why only Islamic women capture all the limelight. What about the conditions of women across the religions?

I belong to a North Indian state where I see Hindu women covering their heads with cotton cloth known as Odhni or Chunri. Often young women cover their heads infront of elder men in order to show their respect or may be because of their shy nature. But not only the young but septagenarians and octogenarian women cover their head. They do not need to show their respect for anyone.
At the young age I could not grasp the functional importance of this head cover. But now my anthropological training helps me to understand its suitability considering the local arid climatic conditions. Women working in the fields wipe off their sweat with this cotton odhni. These women also carry large heaps of grass, often tied with help of odhni on top of their heads, from fields to their houses to serve as the fodder for the cattle.
One of my friend's mother, a Rajput, is in Rajasthan administrative services (RAS) and currently posted in Alwar. She balances this act of head covering perfectly. She covers her head whenever she wears the traditional Rajputi Poshak and visits their village. But when she goes to office, she does not cover her head. This way she respects the traditional cultural values and simultaneously portrays the image of modern woman at her office.

Further if I look at Sikh women, they also cover their head with turban after they have tasted amrit known as amrit chakhna. Now comes the Christian women, very recently I observed while travelling in metro that the sisters sitting in front of me had covered their heads with scarfs.

So not just Muslim but Hindu, Sikh and Christian women are found to cover their heads. The reason cited by many is that long hair of women tend to attract or tempt men. So the head need to be covered or shaved off in case of Hindu Sadhvis or Buddhist nuns who gave up their hair after renunciation.

Again I probed further and analyzed the clothing pattern of men across the religions. To my amazement I found that men also cover their heads. In my home state Rajasthan,  Hindu men cover their heads with beautiful and colorful turbans known as Pagadi or Safa. This is considered as a symbol of their prestige. Islamic men wear the headgear known as taqiyah. Then Sikh men also wear turban just like their women counterpart. The traditional headgear of Christians is known as Mitre.

So not only the women but men cover their heads in accordance to their religious and cultural values. Rather than rejecting the practice of head cover as a fundamentalist aspect of religion we need to have a deeper and nuanced understanding of it.