Bringing The Change.
""I was four and a half years old when I witnessed my mother being pressured to go for an abortion because she was expecting her second daughter (Ananya). Certain relatives felt that she would be a liability and our father will have to become a bodyguard for us.
My mother resisted the pressures and delivered my younger sister, Ananya in 2003 but little did we know that her birth would give me a purpose in life. In 2004, my father initiated the 'Beti Bachao' campaign and this step ignited a spark in me as well. Since then, I never looked back.
My sister and I indulged in activism from a young age. Our parents got our TV disconnected when I was 3 and for 14 years, we never watched TV or went to the cinema.
Recently, Ananya and I founded a free mobile school called in rural Haryana. We taught children coming from underprivileged backgrounds. We taught them in fields, temples, Gurudwara, etc. My mother too set up a stitching centre to empower women to earn a livelihood.
We faced many challenges in pursuing our campaigns. We were dismissed for our age and gender, we battled conservative mindsets, financial crunch and faced the the pandemic but we didn't stop.
Ananya and I wanted to take responsibility of children's lives in their formative years. Therefore, we launched 'Project ' on menstrual hygiene awareness and distributed 7000 pads to adolescent girls across government and low-income private schools .
In 2015, Ananya and I wrote a letter to PM Modi outlining 14 realistic solutions to control female foeticide.
As I had seen my mother being pressured to go through abortion, we established our NGO 'Sarthi' through which we create awareness against *** selective abortions or neglect of girl babies.
This year, my work was recognised and I received the Young Global Changemakers Award from the Germany Secretariat becoming the only Indian to receive it this year.
After all these years- facing patriachy, fighting gender bias and surviving female foeticide, here we are, proudly known as the 'Fearless duo' or 'Activist sisters'."
Somebody has to start the change to bring the change.
Thanks.
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