‘Kuan Pujan’ to celebrate birth of girl child in Mahendragarh

Ravinder Saini

Mahendragarh, December 5

To improve sex ratio at birth (SRB), the district administration has taken an initiative to motivate people to conduct ‘Kuan Pujan’ ceremony (worshipping a well) on the birth of a female child as well.

Under the initiative, one of the administrative official will not only attend the ceremony, but also present a gift to the parents of the newborn female babies to spread a message that girls and boys are equal.

Deputy Commissioner (DC) Monika Gupta has participated in two such ceremonies.

‘Kuan Pujan’ is a ritual that is generally performed on the birth of a male child to seek blessings for the well-being of the newborn. The initiative namely, “Mhari Lado Mhari Shaan” was launched around a month ago and such ceremonies have so far been organised in over 10 villages.

Notably, Mahendragarh district is defamed for gender imbalance. The district registered the lowest SRB of 869 girls against 1,000 boys at the end of September. The SRB is, as per sources, less than 700 in 110 villages of the district.

“Poor gender ratio triggered me to do something effective to educate people about the ill-effects of gender imbalance as well as to curb female foeticide to improve the SRB. We have taken an initiative to motivate parents to hold ‘Kuan Pujan’ on the birth of female babies and also decided that one of the administrative officers will attend the ceremony to celebrate this occasion,” the DC said.

She claimed the ‘Mhari Lado Mhari Shaan’ campaign had borne fruits within a short span as they were getting invitations for ‘Kuan Pujan’ ceremony from different villages regularly to mark the birth of girl children.