Jalandhar: Rurka Kalan govt school promoting gender equality with 'Dhiyan Di Lohri'

Aakanksha N Bhardwaj

Jalandhar, January 4

Government Primary School at Rurka Kalan has been celebrating ‘Dhiyan Di Lohri’ for the past 13 years. The aim is to motivate, celebrate and encourage young girls to do better in life. Now, in a surprising and appreciable move, three girls were presented silver ornaments and two were given bicycles today to help better their lives and empower them. Twenty-one newborn girls were also given Lohri by the school staff.

School head Buta Ram had started the ritual 14 years ago and the intent was clear — to make people understand the importance of a girl child and promote gender equality. “When my daughter was born, I celebrated her Lohri and people were shocked. I was surprised at their reaction and this made me decide that I would celebrate Dhiyan Di Lohri every year to make people aware of it,” said Buta Ram.

Today, competitions were held in which students were asked to write essays on the topic of gender equality. Speech competitions were also organised.

Buta Ram had earlier shared that the school where he teaches is a girls’ school and he thought that it would be a great opportunity for him to encourage the girls studying in the school along with their parents. “Recently, a father came to me and informed that a daughter was born to him again. He was sad and his thinking upset me. Because of such people, I ensure that I celebrate Lohri for girls every day and every year,” he had said earlier.

Several activities are organised by the school authorities on Lohri, including sports and cultural events like dancing and singing.

Last year, a sub-junior youth parliament was also introduced in which every student had read out a paper on the life of Dr BR Ambedkar. The contents of the paper included the rights of women and what Dr Ambedkar’s thinking was on women’s empowerment.

The school sends out invitations to everyone in the village so that they can watch the event and benefit from the awareness sought to be created by it.