President Patil to Visit Amritsar to boost "Nanhi Chhaan" girl and tree campaign

 

President Pratibha Devisingh Patil will visit Amritsar on Wednesday (October 6) to give a boost to the "Nanhi Chhaan", a campaign that is aimed at protecting the girl child and trees. Eminent women leaders, including Sushma Swaraj, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, will attend a function related to the visit. The campaign was launched two years ago by Member of Parliament Harsimrat Kaur Badal from the Golden Temple. Under the campaign, small saplings such as 'Buta Parshad' are distributed to newly weds, expecting women and parents of a newly born daughter with the objective of spreading awareness among people about the twin issues of protecting the girl child and the environment. Confirming the President's visit to Amritsar, Archana Dutta, Officer on Special Duty (Public Relations) at Rashtrapati Bhawan, informed that President Patil is keen to visit Amritsar and the Golden Temple. She said the president is deeply committed to the cause of education and would like to see every person, man and woman, boy and girl, to be touched by the light of modern education. She added that empowerment of women is particularly a cause dear to her as she believed this leads to the empowerment of the nation. During her two-day visit, Patil will first visit Chandigarh on October 5, where she will stay for the night at the Governor's house. On October 6, she will pay obeisance at The Golden Temple and tribute to martyrs at the Jallianwala Bagh memorial. Patil will also address students at Khalsa College, where women from all walks of life would gather to attend a seminar on "'Empowering Women and Save Girl Child". She will visit the Durgiyana Mandir before returning to New Delhi on the same day. An enthusiastic Harsimrat Badal said she is determined to transform social attitudes of the region by actively campaigning against female feticide as well as against the mindless destruction of trees. (ANI)
 

Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Nanhi Chhaan: Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Girl Child & Nanhi Chhaan

Harsimrat Kaur Badal speaks on Nanhi Chhaan project to save girl child & the environment. Harsimrat Kaur Badal gives a vote of thanks to President of India -- Pratibha Patil, and talks about the plight of the girl child and the vision for improvement.

 

DO YOU KNOW PUNJAB IS THE BEST

 

DO YOU KNOW PUNJAB IS THE BEST

Educational institutes should start courses in food says Harsimrat Kaur Badal

PUNJAB’S SAVE THE DAUGHTERS CAMPAIGN UNDER NANHI CHHAAN HAS FOUND RESONANCE IN CENTER’S BETI BACHAO, BETI PADHAO CAMPAIGN

NDA GOVT AGGRESSIVELY PROMOTING WORKING ON BETI BACHAO, BETI PADHAO, UNION MINISTER BADAL

THERE SHOULD BE UNIFORM POLICY ON DRUGS IN COUNTRY, UNION MINISTER BADAL

The Union Minister for Food Processing Industry Mrs Harsimrat Kaur Badal today called upon the educational institutes to introduce courses in food processing in sync with the burgeoning demand and opportunities in this industry. While inaugurating third international fest of Baba Farid Group of Institutes, Mrs Badal said that her ministry is setting up food processing training-cum-business incubation center at PAU Regional Center in Bathinda, which would train farmers to add value to their food products. “There is a wide horizon of opportunities in this sector and educational institutes can immensely contribute by offering courses in this context,” she said.

 

Addressing gathering at the institute she said that the Punjab government’s Save the Daughters Campaign has found resonance in center government’s Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao campaign. “The Punjab government’s campaign in saving the girl child has one a long way in improving state’s sex ratio and today the center government too has followed it in the form of Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao campaign,” she said.

Commending the efforts of Punjab government in improving education in state, she added that Punjab has leaped from 14^th position in India to third in the last seven years. The state government recruited 65000 teachers and invested crores in creating infrastructure to raise the standard of education. She added that the initiative of opening six meritorious schools in state for the needy and intelligent students has given a new lease of life to the children from poor families. The state now boasts of nine new universities, 17 new colleges, IIT, proposed IIM and an education city coming up in 1000 acres of land in Chandigarh.

Answering a media query on the issue of drugs in state, the Union Minister said that need of hour was to formulate a uniform drug policy which was equally applicable in state. She said that the narcotics were neither grown nor manufactured in Punjab and instead the state had become innocent victim of wrong allegations.

Speaking against the social evil of female feticide she said that the daughters have every right to take birth, have the right nutrition, study and progress ahead in society. She advocated providing the best of opportunities to our daughters so that they could move ahead in life. She said like the womb, the mother earth too needs to be protected and all of us should take onus of taking care of at least one tree every year.

Prominent among others present included Chief Parliamentary Secretary Mr Mantar Singh Brar, Manish Kumar OSD to the Union Minister, Deputy Commissioner Dr Basant Garg, SSP Mr Inder Mohan Singh Bhatti, media advisor to deputy CM Mr Harjinder Sidhu, managing director Baba Farid Group of Institutes Mr Gurmeet Singh Dhaliwal, BJP president Mr Gurvinder Singh Bhagta, SDM Bathinda Mr Damanjit Singh Maan, DDPO Mr Rajinder Batra, SAD press secretary Dr Om Prakash Sharma and others.

Nanhi Chhaan - Harsimrat kaur badal

 

Nanhi Chaan

Nanhi Chaan. A movement conceived by Harpal Singh, Chairman Ranbaxy Laboratories, and being spearheaded by Ms. Harsimrat Kaur in Punjab with support from SGPC.

Ms. Harsimrat Kaur Badal is the wife of Surjit Sukhbir Singh Badal, the Dy. Chief Minister of Punjab and president of SAD party. Sukhbir Singh Badal is the son of Prakash Singh Badal, the current Chief Minister of Punjab. So the movement receives support from the State machinery as well.

Nanhi Chaan has been started as a movement to tackle the twin issues of Environmental damage and Female Feticide in Punjab. Conceptually, the idea holds lot of merit. Two important issues for the society brought together functionally and symbolically. Equate a woman with a tree: nurturing, caring and providing shade. This equivalence leads to another one of girl as a sapling, which leads to the formula, plant both saplings and girls. (Of course, some may question whether the symbolism instead reinforces the traditional gender roles of woman in the caring role. I believe it does but – in this case – in a positive manner. Why? Because a main reason for people wanting to have a son is their belief that sons look after their parents when the latter turn old. Daughters are seen as ‘paraya dhan’, to be ‘given away’ to her in-laws where she is supposed to rightfully belong. But if daughters too are perceived as trees — strong independent and offering support to their parents — it might help in reducing the preference-differences for sons-daughters.)

Punjab is plagued by both the problems: 1) female feticide leading to low female to male sex ratio, and 2) the Green Revolution leading to environmental damage. Nanhi Chaan aims to bring both these issues on the same platform.

Unfortunately, the various controversies surrounding the Badal family seem to be clouding the Nanhi Chaan movement too: many see it as a political stunt to get coverage for Ms. Harsimrat Kaur who had earlier denied it flatly (“I am not in the fray” for the LS elections). But it turns out that she is after all contesting the LS seat as a SAD-BJP candidate from Bhatinda in the forthcoming general elections. [update: she won the election and is now the MP from Bhatinda.]

The question is, should the fact that she has jumped into politics be held against the Nanhi Chaan movement she helped start and is working for? Much as I do not support the Badal family’s policies (or lack thereof) on the development  of Punjab (or lack thereof), Nanhi Chaan however seems to be a project that makes lot of common sense.  Full power to it.

An organisation that empowers rural Punjabi women

 

Despite being one of the more developed states in the country, Punjab also has the infamous distinction of being the state with the highest rate of female foeticide.

Like any societal issue, rather than just trying to curtail the number of cases by authoritarian methods, addressing the root causes of the problem by means such as empowering women in the state tend to have more far reaching effects. It was with this in mind that the MP from Bathinda and wife of Punjab's Deputy Chief Minister, Harsimrat Kaur Badal commenced the initiative Nanhi Chhaan-to save the girl child, four years ago on 28 August 2008.

While the sex ratio of the state has seen an improvement from being 791/1000 in 2001 to 848/1000 in 2012, between females and males, there is still a long way to go. "Many families have started celebrating lohri (a traditional festival to celebrate the birth of a male child) for baby girls," says Harsimrat.

"A decade ago, studies showed that every ninth household in Punjab was involved in this cruel practice. Every fifth girl child born in the state was killed and there have been reports of women having to go through as many as 14 abortions."

Deciding to lead the charge against this, Harsimrat helped launch this initiative that now has an active presence in schools, colleges, gurudwaras, temples, churches, panchayats and various municipal centres. Nanhi Chhaan assists in setting up self-help groups (SHGs) for women across the state that in turn spread awareness not only about female foeticide but also about other issues such as dealing with cancer, agriculture, farmer's issues, environmental issues and the ever depleting forest cover. The SHGs also help the women collectively set up small businesses and manage their savings in a more efficient manner.

Girl Child Education

Centre government’s move to adopt land acquisition policy of Punjab is a matter of pride for the Chief Minister of state. The Parkash Singh Badal led Punjab government has always been well-wisher of the farmers.
During my recent visit to my constituency, so many people appreciated the positive role played by Sardar Badal for the welfare of farmers including his stand on the Land Acquisition Bill.