World daughter day

Daughter’s day, a day exclusively dedicated to the daughters in the family, is celebrated in India and worldwide on the fourth Sunday of September. Therefore, yesterday was this year’s daughter’s day. Just like we have Father’s Day and Mother’s Day to honour and celebrate our parents, Daughter’s Day is the day when we cherish having daughters and the wonderful bond and love that they share with us.

In India, there has always been a certain stigma attached to being a girl child. While we are seeing a change in big cities, in smaller cities and in some states in particular, this is still a problem.

Therefore, initially, Daughter’s day was celebrated to erase this stigma. The major aim was to remove the notion that a girl child is a burden, plus it is also celebrated to remove the cultural practices like dowry. It is not very clear as to when India started celebrating this day, the importance to save girl child cannot be overstated. If till today, our Govt has to run campaigns such as ” Beti padhao, beti bachao” and ” Mulgi shikli, pragati zhali” then it is amply clear that our fascination and obsession with male progeny is far from being over. I am a proud father of a single child, a daughter and have always respected a woman whether in mother’s, sister’s, wife’s or colleague’s role and for me this is not mere sloganeering or lip service, but a reality, I strongly feel that this society needs to collectively work towards abolishing this gender bias by ex-communicating such elements or sections.

Came across these beautiful lines comparing a daughter to an angel:

I have this little angel. For me she left her wings.

She has no idea how much happiness she truly brings.

She brightens up my days with her smiles and her laughs.

She helps me to remember all the blessings that I have.

Her face, it is so perfect, she’s sweet and soft and pure.

Sometimes she can be willful and sometimes she is demure.

She tries her very hardest to please and do what’s right.

She gives the greatest hugs from morning until night.

Every person that has known her sees this light within her soul

I know that in this whole great world, she has a special role.

She’s helpful and considerate to everyone she knows

This light in her shines brighter as my angel grows.

When she sees someone is sad, it opens up her heart.

She wants to do all that she can; she wants to do her part.

She’ll squeeze away the sorrow and make me forget about my pain.

She shows me where the sun is when we’re hiding from the rain.

I know that God must love me, He showed me with His Grace

I knew just how completely when I saw my angel’s face.

And in that very moment when she came into my world,

I knew that she was so much more than just my baby girl.

She would be my sunshine, with a sweetness that won’t end.

And when she grows up one day she would be my closest friend.

She would be the reason I would always try my best.

For my little angel baby girl would be my greatest test.

When God entrusts to you an angel, who has left her wings for you.

Encircle her with love with everything you do.

Let her know God made her, and that He trusts you with her care.

Be sure to make time for special moments with her to share.

And when at night she finally says her prayers and goes to sleep

I Thank Him for my angel, and ask for him to always keep

A watchful eye and hand to protect her from this world.

Protect my little angel; protect my baby girl.

Our daughters of today will be mothers and wives of tomorrow and that’s how human species will have their future progeny so that human race survives. It’s all the more painful because this gender bias happens in a country where –

(1) we treat mother as superior to God

(2) pray goddess in the form of Lakshmi. Durga, Kali

(3) call our nation our motherland and

(4) celebrate festivals like Bhai Duj and Rakshabandhan underlying the importance of equality or rather superiority of feminine gender!

Let’s celebrate birth of a daughter – whether first time or next time or every time! Daughters are God’s beautiful gift to mankind.