About 175 girls whose names mean "unwanted" in Marathi will be re-christened in a public ceremony in a novel initiative to fight female foeticide.
The Satara zilla parishad in west Maharashtra has found in a survey of the district that parents with many girl children often name them Nakusa, Nakoshi or Nakushi, all meaning "unwanted" or "unwelcome".
"On October 21, we will rename about 175 girls with Nakusa names and give them a new identity," said Bhagwan Pawar, the district health officer whose brainchild the initiative is.
"Before the ceremony, our officers will visit their homes and allow them to select names of their choice. Quite naturally, girls are selecting names of their favourite personalities like Aishwarya Rai, Kareena Kapoor and Sakshi Tanwar."
Mumbai, Oct 21 (PTI): Signalling an end to the practice in rural Maharashtra to name a girl child as 'Nakusha' (unwanted), especially if the family was expecting a boy to be born, the authorities will 'rename' 266 such girls as 'Aishwarya', tomorrow. "The government has identified 266 girls named 'Nakusha' in Satara district and organised a renaming ceremony tomorrow," Satara district collector Dr N Ramaswami told PTI over phone. The function has been organised by the zilla parishad, he said. "We have identified 266 such names (Nakusha) in school records in the district," Ramaswami added. "Zilla parishad officials had surveyed the district and decided on the renaming after speaking to the parents. The officials felt this was a small step towards changing the mindset in the rural areas," another official said. In some parts of rural Maharashtra, if a girl is born when the parents wanted a boy, she is named 'Nakusha'. The ZP undertook a survey and identified such girls, ranging from infants to 16 years of age. The zilla parishad is conducting the campaign in association with the 'Lek Vachva' (Save The Girl Child) project, which seeks to save the female foetus from illegal sex determination. "Typically, if a rural couple has one or two girls, they dislike it when their third child also turns out to be a girl.They then name her 'Nakusha'. Other derogatory names given to girls are 'Dagadi' and 'Dhondi' which means a stone," the official said.
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