Dear Editor,
Baba Ramdev is desperately, but unsuccessfully trying to defend his-so called fertility medicine ‘puttar jeewak beej’, putting up shrewdly that as per ancient Sanskrit and Ayurveda, the word “puttar” includes both son and daughter. Why couldn’t he name his medicine as ‘santaan jeewak beej’? As it is, anybody would take his ‘aushadhi’ as a son-conceiving concoction. Baba Ramdev, being a national yoga icon, should have gracefully accepted his fault line and withdrawn his company’s product. Likewise you would come across some homeopaths luring people with son-bearing globules. One can see trucks displaying on their back slogans like ‘puttar mithrei mewei, rabb sab noo devei’ (sons are sweet cakes, may God bless everybody with sons), as if daughters are bitter pills. How can ‘beti bachao beti parhao’ be successful in such a dismal scenario? Our son-obsessed society is so much biased against the girl child that all these symbolic sloganeering and pro-girl NGOs do not hold any relevance. The BJP should take concrete measures to promote the cause of the girl child.
Richa Jain
Jammu