By Geeta Pandey
BBC News, Haryana
A caravan of 25 vehicles and 200 people has been criss-crossing five northern and western states of India for the past 10 days.
The travellers are on a mission. They are campaigning against female foeticide, which has resulted in a gender imbalance in some parts of the country.
The campaign is being led by well-known religious leader and social activist, Swami Agnivesh.
“There’s no other form of violence that’s more painful, more abhorrent, more shameful,” declares Swami Agnivesh.
The march started in Gujarat on 1 November, the Hindu festival of Diwali. It is due to conclude in Amritsar on 15 November, the birthday of the founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak.
The campaign covers some of the areas which have the worst gender ratio in India – Haryana, Punjab, Delhi, and Gujarat. All of these states have less than 800 girls for every 1,000 boys.
“The crime has come to acquire such dangerous proportions in our society that the government is feeling very helpless. They think that unless people from the world of religion come forward and join hands and march together, the problem cannot be solved,” says Swami Agnivesh.
He says religious leaders of various faiths, including Islam, Christianity, Hinduism and Jainism, are participating in the march.
Dressed in bright saffron robes and a saffron turban, Swami Agnivesh makes a striking picture.
And in the state of Haryana, his arrival is a cause of much excitement.
Clusters of people wait by the roadside for a glimpse of the man. “If you want to save your religion, you have to save your daughter first. God created the same sun and moon for both the sexes, so who are we to discriminate against the girl child?” he asks a gathering of rural folk.
Heads nod in understanding. Marigold garlands appear from nowhere, and young college girls pester him for his autograph.
A decorated elephant carries him around the narrow streets in Hisar town in Haryana in a procession that lasts two hours.
There are horses, hundreds of people holding saffron flags and anti-foeticide placards, and school girls carrying swords.
A wedding band plays popular Bollywood numbers.
The march concludes at a square in the centre of the town where Swami Agnivesh addresses a huge public rally.
Travelling in Haryana with Swami Agnivesh is a Delhi-based Christian leader, Father Valson Thampu.
“The attack on the foetus does not begin in the womb, it begins in the minds of the human beings. And that’s why we need to change the mindsets of the people. And only a spiritual revolution can bring about this change in mindsets,” says Father Thampu. Full Story
