Dera Sacha Sauda: Restoring daughter’s dignity

It is a message that is set to change the course of times. Troubled by the gross discrimination to girl child right from the time when she is in the womb, Dera Sacha Sauda Sirsa, has initiated revolutionary and dramatic steps aimed at restoring the dignity due to her. The message has rung out true to millions of devotees who have now taken a pledge to not just protect the girl child but also nurture her.

Home for the Royal Daughters
With female foeticide rampant in a country which has shameful of gender ratios; And baby girls often found dumped in trash bins, Dera Sacha Sauda has chosen to call the abandoned child a ‘Shahi Beti’. A grand residential home, Shahi Betian Basera, was set up on January 23, 2007, to encourage people not to kill the child. The girls deserted by parents at birth or later are adopted and given a normal life. All these girls, adopted as foster daughters byGuruji are given the best of education facilities. As of now there are 23 girls, ranging from 1 year old to 18 year old in the Basera and all of them are currently studying in schools affiliated to the CBSE. Most of these girls are proving their mettle consistently by topping in studies and bagging international and national medals in sports as well.

Crowns of the Lineage
Acknowledging that the biggest reason of bias against the girl child is that a boy keeps the family together and supports parents in old age, Dera Sacha Sauda has bestowed a grand status of Kul-ka-crown to women who stay back with their parents along with their husbands and become the head of the lineage. Such boys have been bestowed the title of ‘Bhakt Mard Gaji’ or Devout Gallants for they choose to move in with their in laws ignoring social conventions This novel campaign is a boon to those parents who have no sons and are bereft of support in their old age once the daughters are married off. Parents who have two or more sons are being encouraged to wed their boys to girls who are the only child of their parents and the boys move in with the girl and her parents. 7 such marriages have been performed where parents who feared a lonely life in old age have found a son at home and are now playing with their grandchildren. As many as 103 boys have taken a pledge to be devout Gallants and 30 girls have pledged to be Kul-ka-Crown.

Reversing Traditions
In a dramatic diversion from rituals followed conventionally, Saint Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh ji chose to break the social norms and encouraged girls to perform the last rites of their parents, a right so far solely reserved for the male child. Calling the girls equal to boys, Guruji said that girls are as competent to give shoulder to their elder’s body as it is taken to cremation for last rites.

Shubh Devi: Concerned over the growing exploitation of women in flesh trade, especially of the underprivileged, Dera Sacha Sauda has started a campaign for prostitutes, encouraging them to turn over a new leaf and helping to be rehabilitated in mainstream society and lead a normal life. Saint Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Ji has not only adopted such women as foster daughters, but also bestowed the title of Shubh Devi or Pious Goddesses.On Guruji’s xhortation, over 1500 young men have pledged to marry these unfortunate women.Till now, 17 such marriages have been solemnized.