she is She-- Girl Child in India

[Prologue: On Oct 22, Kumari or Kanya Puja will be performed in various parts of the country, including West Bengal. It is a practice of worshipping young girls as living incarnations of Ma Durga or the Divine Feminine. In fact, there are several Hindu ceremonies which require the presence of young girls like Sumangali Puja amongst South Indians.

And yet ironically, Bengal that performs this puja in an endearing  way is also a region where female foeticide is high—947 females per 1000 males as compared to 995 in Tamil Nadu and 991 in Chattisgarh (Census 2011).

Bengal also celebrates Saraswati Puja on Vasant Panchami like nowhere else. Large images of Mother seated on a white swan is made and installed in schools, at least in Kolkata. There she sits, gracefully and elegantly holding the veena while we as schoolchildren made merry and bowed with full sincerity hoping for grace through our academic life. And yet, she ranks way below Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh (Census 2011). [For more stats on literacy levels in our country, visit here]

What is worse is that Bengal has a very high rate of child marriage. According to some figures, every second child in certain districts in Bengal is a child bride!  

These statistics have wrung my heart for long. I have pondered on the split between the Goddess-woman and Human-woman in our world today. Stats can create cynicism and settle in deep pessimism at times. In my travels across India, as I mentioned in my post “Lovesong forIndia”, one of my efforts has been to seek hope—to see everything new, to see what others may have missed and to hold on to hope as a way for cultural optimism, a cultural sunshine that may uplift us (at the risk of sounding naive) by being just that.

So let me move away from these figures and show you my country through my eyes. ]

I saw her in village Jarkhi, Jharkhand—a thin wiry girl with an elegant neck. Maybe 10, maybe 11 or who knows older. Nutrition is a problem in our country, so kids who look age of 10, may in reality be 14 or more. I noticed her because I loved the way she got the class together, how she sat chirpily in the front row, and how she sang and recited and danced. Of the many kids, smiling or not smiling, she was special. She seemed every bit a leader. She never hesitated to give me eye contact. She never hesitated to smile back at me as an equal, like she would have smiled at any other older woman in the village. And her eyes tinkled when I nodded and laughed at her unabashed folk dance routine (she danced to a phrase that went something like this—how do women walk when they are carrying pots of water? Look how their hips sway!). No boy in the class matched her in spirit.

I saw her in an inter-village competition in Chattisgarh. There was something about the way she walked or how she had rolled up her pants that told me that she was an athlete. I could see she was psyching herself for the race. Her friends obviously admired her—she walked in the centre of group almost like a star. I waited and watched her run and smiled at her speed. Something just in that act of a girl in my country running publicly makes me emotional. I sought her out later to get a photograph. But she didn’t want to be photographed with her pants rolled up!

Photograph taken in poor light conditions. The girl in red is subject of the para below.

I saw her in village Lachimanpur in Uttar Pradesh. A slightly older girl compared to others, she also seemed more nurturing, like a little mother to other kids. Her smile was gentle and her gestures graceful. And then she recited multiplication tables—first seven, then eleven, then thirteen, and it went on and on till she recited times tables for twenty four with the same ease that she had for seven. I stood there quivering. I can’t even recite nineteen times table. She smiled shyly and went back to her place.

I saw this child on Independence day in village Kustana in Odisha. She was standing outside her home with her grandmother. Unlike many other kids, she was clean and dressed well although her home was only marginally better than other houses in the area. I loved the little bindi on her forehead and how she stared back at me. I loved those plump cheeks, the clear eyes, the intelligent frown. In a country, where malnutrition rates amongst children is high, how sweet to see a little girl healthy and awake!

I saw this young girl in school assembly in village Karanjo, Jharkhand. While many other kids sitting near her goofed, opening one eye to check what is happening, and specially to check what I, the guest-of-honour, was doing, this girl sang her prayers with devotion and sincerity. She never once turned to look at me, not even when I made an effort to catch her eye. 

I saw this girl in Pratapgarh. Her parents told me that the mother was severely anaemic during pregnancy and doctor had advised abortion. But the father refused and, instead, dietary changes were made to help the mother. The girl was born hale and hearty and had since brought luck to the family. I do not know how much of this story was made up to impress me, but the girl was definitely chirpier than her brother and talked incessantly. She seemed as restless as a young butterfly, newly emerged from the pupa and excited about the colourful world of flowers.

Across the 9 states and 60+ villages I have visited in this year, what I have noticed is that girls tend to be less shy in public speaking and other forms of communication than boys. I found them more confident, with sharper memory, and more assertive compared to the boys I met. Of course, this is based on non-representative field observation and hence not reliable data.

And then I shudder thinking about post-puberty and the onset of culture...when will we realize that she is indeed She!

For posts in this series:

Sa Ham -I am She 

 1.       Mother Manager

2.       Solo Woman Travelling—some do’sand don’ts 

For photographs on schools in rural India, please click here