Rajasthan village with just 12 girls

DEVDA VILLAGE (JAISALMER): A wedding procession hardly makes headlines but in Devda, it certainly will. Ten years ago, a baraat arrived at the doors of a Rajput family in this sleepy village, the first time in 105 years that a Rajput kanya was getting married in Devda. A decade after that grand celebration, the villagers are still waiting to give away a daughter's hand in marriage. The Rajputs in the village, with a population of about 2,000, take pride in claiming that they form the majority here. But there are only 12 girls in the 70-odd Rajput houses and just one of them above the age of 10 and just one family with more than one daughter in the house - the consequence of years of the abominable practice of female infanticide. And with the arrival of technology in shape of sonography, even girl foetuses haven't been spared. It was Inder Singh Bhati and his wife who initiated a change 27 years ago, when they literally gifted life to their newborn baby-girl. While everybody else around them killed their daughters, the couple decided to let their child live, probably because they had already lost three sons before her birth. "I don't remember what we were thinking then but it was my wife who took this decision. I only supported her," admits Inder Singh. What he remembers is how difficult it was. "We were often taunted, people talked behind our backs and initially, my daughter, Jawan Kaur, was also frowned upon. Gradually, she was accepted," he says. And, when his children got married, he made it a point to tell them not to kill their daughters, Inder Singh says. "Things have changed and improved a bit. We do have girls around now," Inder Singh says, while admitting that baby girls are killed even today in the village. " Kya karein? A good match for a girl means lots of money for her dowry. As farmers from a drought-hit region, not all can afford it." It was six years after the birth of Jawan Kaur that another girl child, her younger sister, survived the practice. That girl, Sugandh Kaur, has grown up to be 21 and it's her wedding that villagers are now looking forward to. "I never liked going to the village after didi's wedding. There were no girls around and I always felt lonely," says Sugandh, who now lives in Jaisalmer with her family. She knows she's a lucky one. "My mother has often told me about how girls are killed. I am lucky my father is an educated man, who had moved to the city much before my birth," she says. Sugandh is engaged and is proud that her baraat would be warmly welcomed in Devda next year. Back in Devda, Chandra Kaur, 16, is the only girl who is above 10 years. "It's a relief to see the Rajput families finally respecting their girl children. No doubt they are few in number even today but at least, they are there. As children, we had never seen a girl child in any of the Rajput houses, forget baraats coming to their houses," says Chandraprakash Ojha, a schoolteacher from the village. The example set by Inder Singh Bhati and his wife appears to have caught on. Another woman, also named Sugandh Kaur, 52, has three daughters and two sons. Her elder son has two daughters aged seven and five - Evan Kaur and Pavan Kaur; the younger son has a one-month-old baby girl, Bhavan Kaur, who is the youngest girl in the village. "I believe that girls are born to their own fate. We can't kill them just because we don't have money. Their fate will find a way for their bright future. I don't want my daughters-in-law to sin the way I did," says Sugandh, admitting that she had killed one of her daughters years ago. Her decision to let her other daughters live has earned her special respect from the villagers, especially the non-Rajput communities. "Initially, eyebrows were raised but now everyone praises us. I have to admit it was my mother's decision," says Sangh Singh, the elder son, adding that they are even ready to welcome more girls in the family.