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Otalana shows the way

Respect for girl child

Sarbjit Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Samrala, August 6

Otalana village, at a short distance from here, has a different and inspiring story about girl child. The girl child is held in high esteem in the village. Before starting a new work, blessings of the girl child or unmarried girl, are sought by all families in the village. “ Whenever we wear new clothes , we first touch feet of the girl with clothes”, says Darbara Singh, a village elder. “ It is a custom in our village”, he adds.

At the main entrance of the village, huge “ darwaja”( an arch- shaped gate) has been bult in the memory of a girl, who, it is said, had preferred ending life for her and village’s honour four centuries ago. “ Khera -dhee-dhiani( village of girl) has been inscribed in Punjabi on the front arch of the structure. “ Dhee-dhiani in Punjabi is used to give respect to a girl”, says Behari Lal Saddi, a retired teacher and writer of the village.

“Long back our elders constructed 12 such structures in the village. Six of them are intact and others are in a poor shape. We have decided to reconstruct all those again”, says Shamsher Singh, a retired police official of the village. “ The main entrance structure had also collapsed but its roof was recently replaced”, adds the police official.“ When the main entrance structure was partially rebuilt sometime back, first brick was laid by seven village girls and Prito, who is an old woman now called “ bhua” by the entire village”, says Dr Harbans Singh, sarpanch of the village.

All these structures are dedicated to girls. Centuries ago, it is said, Nawab of Sirhind had taken a village girl away with the intention to marry her. However, she refused. Before ending her life, she called her brothers and told them to give a message to all people in the village to hold girls in high esteem. Since them, it has become a tradition to seek blessings of a girl before starting a work. Each year, in the last week of August a festival is held in the village in the memory of that girl. On that day community kitchen of sweets is held.

No marriage party of the village boy leaves for bride’s place without paying obeisance at the memorial raised for the girl at the main entrance of the village.

On female foeticide in the village, Dr Harbans Singh said he had not heard about any case so far in this regard. “ Our village appears to be above board in this regard”, he adds. Every village can become Otalana provided an initiative is taken by wise men of the state in this regard.

Recently while travelling back from work, I was handed a brochure by an anti-abortion activist, on Union Station Toronto. It was a four page brochure with shocking pictures of aborted foetuses. It discussed various methods used to perform abortions and none of them was anything less than showing how to murder an unborn child. It was gross.

Only if people knew what they are doing when they abort the female foetuses, a vast majority would stop doing so. It does not matter whether the foetus is a male or a female, the bottomline is that it is nothing less than a murder. Its a murder of a innocent jeev.

If you look at the principle of Karma, what would be the most likely consequence of this kind of offense. One consequence could be that the person who aborts the jeev coming to this world will himself or herself get similar treatment in the next life. Another liklihood is that such people will have difficulty having children in the next life (or even this life). Third liklihood is that they will not have sukh of having children i.e. even if they have children they will not be able to have the sukh of having them. Their children will give them dukh.

What needs to be done is educate the masses in India against such inhuman, anti-Gurmat karma. India is the land of Ten Guru Sahibaan and at least people claiming to be Sikhs should never be involved in such sinful activity.

Kulbir Singh

ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕਾਖ਼ਾਲਸਾਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕੀਫ਼ਤਹਿ

veer chandra singh jee,

the above makes for interesting reading - thanks for posting.

what i don't understand though is that given dasmesh pita jee has said that His Gursikhs should not associate with daughter-killers, and this hukam was delivered way before British colonial rule, does this not mean that female infanticide must have been very wide-spread before British colonial rule?

what do you think the reasons for this were?

ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕਾਖ਼ਾਲਸਾਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕੀਫ਼ਤਹਿ

ਦਾਸ,
ਆਤਮਾ ਸਿੰਘ