Who took it upon himself to turn around the lives of millions of women.
You all must have heard about the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao campaign, which was born to cater to the problem of the declining child sex ratio in India.
Our newest member of the Hall Of Gentlemen, an initiative that celebrates ordinary gentlemen for their extraordinary work, is responsible for the “Selfie With Daughter” wave, which played an enormous part in the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao campaign.
How did Sunil Jaglan come up with an idea like that, and what made him decide to launch an initiative specifically for daughters?
Before beginning, let’s take a look at Sunil Jaglan.
A native of a remote village Bibipur, he was a mathematics teacher before becoming the youngest Sarpanch. He contested for the Sarpanch post in 2010 as an independent candidate and won by 550 votes.
The day his daughter was born, things were never the same. And why was that? It all started when Sunil wanted to celebrate the birth of his daughter, but the reaction he received from the hospital staff somehow changed how he viewed the world.
After the birth of his daughter, he began researching the sex ratio situation. And what unfolded in front of him left him utterly shocked. Sexism in our has always been there, and Sunil understood this. He believed that tackling this situation was of utmost importance and prevalent. Being a Sarpanch, he knew his powers and began his work to improve the condition of the girl child.
As a first in the country, he started a Women-Oriented Gram Sabha and a community to keep an eye on pregnant women to reduce female foeticide in his village. He named this initiative Nigrani Rakhna. These initiatives got so much attention that the government allocated one crore rupees for his panchayat. He made sure to use the funds for women empowerment.
Because of his efforts, his village got awarded nationally in 2013 and 2014 for improving the sex ratio.
2015 was when the Prime Minister of our country launched the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao campaign, and then came the birth of the Selfie With Daughter initiative. Sunil uploaded a selfie with his daughter and asked the people of our country to join him in uploading the same. The main aim of this campaign was to make parents feel proud of having a girl child and hence improve the sex ratio in the country. It later escalated to the extent that Shri Narendra Modi Ji promoted it on a radio channel, and Shri Pranab Mukherjee, the then President, launched an app to increase awareness about female foeticide in the country.
Sunil did not stop at that; he later started another initiative, Name Plate With Daughter. He also launched Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao, and Selfie With Daughter initiatives in Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar. His belief is that bad words to mothers and sisters are the start of domestic violence. Thus, he started the campaign Gaali Bandh Ghar.
Recently he released the book Lado Rights: Mahila Adhikaron Ka Sankalan, which has the rights of women in our country.
Though belonging to a modest village in Haryana, he remarkably bought not-so-modest changes. Sunil is working towards women empowerment and girl child education across the entire nation. A perfect gentleman in every sense.
You can watch his video on our Instagram and YouTube channels to know him better.
And if you know more extraordinary gentlemen like him, you can always connect with us at hallofgentlemen@themancompany.com
