Boondi (Rajasthan), Sep 15 (IANS) A petite, pretty bangle seller deftly slips on brightly coloured bangles on the slim wrist of her customer. As she chats with her about family matters, she tells her to say 'no' to female foeticide.
Bangle sellers, popularly called maniharins, are the latest recruits to advise women in rural India against killing their to-be-born female children, says Grassroots Features.
In the process, they risk confronting the rich and powerful. But these frail, impoverished women seem determined to stop female foeticide in rural India.
These maniharins enjoy the confidence of mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law. Specialising in door-to door marketing of bangles their cosmetics advice makes them intimate with customers.
At a meeting July 2-3 in Bhajneri village, maniharins from nine states decided to work towards preventing sex determination tests and female foeticide.
Female foeticide is big business for unscrupulous doctors and health workers, especially in Haryana, Punjab, western Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Gujarat.
"Women activists are now ranged against a powerful mafia of doctors and private nursing homes with an annual turnover of Rs.10 billion," community leader Rameshwar Dayal pointed out.
Manihars and maniharins are also called lakhera or lakshyakar.
Vishnu Prasad Bagadia, president of the All India Lakhera Samaj, demanded legal cover for the community to promote this campaign.
"I will approach the governments of Haryana, Rajasthan and Maharashtra, to officially involve the community. They should be allowed to report pregnancies and keep a vigil against female foeticide."
A major reason for the Lakhera Samaj to campaign against female foeticide is that the dwindling number of girls is now adversely affecting their business. They fear they may be forced to abandon their centuries-old bangles and cosmetics business if more daughters are not born.
At the Bhajneri meeting and their earlier all-India Mumbai session in January, community leaders cautioned campaigners to be careful as they could be implicated in false civil or criminal cases, or face personal violence. But none of them felt intimidated.
The bangle sellers, who number 1.2 million, are one of the most neglected social groups. They are educationally backward and ignorant about the advantages of modern banking facilities. Neither categorised as Scheduled Tribe nor Scheduled Caste, their demands for a better deal have gone largely ignored.
Senior Lakhera Samaj leader Radhey Shyam Bagadia told a Planning Commission meeting in New Delhi in March this year: "The entire healthcare system in the districts is pitted against the girl child. Even the anganwadi workers are involved in this crime."
Lakhera women are treated as equals by their men folk. They are independent, daring and travel hundreds of kilometres without male escorts. Some maniharins have even contested elections.
According to Kamla, a graduate from Jodhpur University, "Women volunteers should be permitted to approach the police. The government should also issue identity cards to activists."
She says scheduled castes and backward communities do not consider the birth of a daughter a burden.
"Female foeticide among them is rare. The problem is among the educated upper castes, who still consider daughters a huge financial liability."