Srinagar, May 17, KDC: Selfie with daughter Foundation officially launched its first campaign at Saadi Memorial Institute of Education, Payir area of south Kashmir’s Pulwama district on Wednesday.
This campaign was first started by gender activist Sunil Jaglan in 2015 who conceptualised the idea after he noticed her daughter clicking selfies while listening to a famous hindi song ‘selfie le le re’. He thought that youngsters are highly influenced to take selfies. “I added a selfie with the daughter and it became “Selfie with daughter campaign” and that’s how the campaign came into being.” Said Jaglan who works in the rural areas of India to uplift women.
In June, 2015 Jaglan’s organisation also started a “selfie with daughter” contest where people were requested to share selfies with their daughters on social media with particular hashtags and tag him. Later the three best selfies were awarded and the campaign became a hit.
Jaglan was inspired to work towards women’s upliftment after his first daughter was born in 2012. A nurse from the hospital gave him a weird look during the discharge as Jaglan offered her Rs 2000 for the distribution of sweets. She refused to take and mentioned how she is sad that jaglan’s wife gave birth to a daughter and not a son. This incident pushed him into serious thinking and motivated him to work for the awareness and welfare of women and girl children. The same year, he started “Beti Bachao campaign” which later became a yojana for the Indian government and campaign got the focus of hon’ble Prime Minister and the then president Pranab Mukherjee. Later the Prime Minister mentioned this campaign in his radio talk ‘Mann ki Baat’ inviting world attention to the campaign.
“Selfie with daughter” also has an online museum www.selfiewithdaughter.org where more than a lakh selfies have been uploaded with participation from 70 countries till today.
Recently Jaglan arrived in Kashmir for a 5 day visit to launch the campaign and actively work here for the empowerment of women. People from different districts, villages collaborated to motivate their girls to participate in this campaign. Jaglan also announced “The best selfie competition” where the 3 best selfies will be chosen and awarded. The winners will be announced on 9th June.
Among many young Women who participated in the campaign, entrepreneur Ruhab Mir, also was impressed by the work of Jaglan and joined the campaign. “This campaign is not only a campaign but a way for Kashmiri women to gain space in the public sphere of life. We need such campaigns in Kashmir which will benefit the women and help them to claim their space in the society.” She said
According to the OECD-Economic survey of India’s report it is a very positive, inspiring and confidence giving campaign for the girls. This campaign has support from all spheres of work including hollywood actors like- Win diesel, Madonna, Victoria etc. to Bollywood actors like- Ajay devgan, Akshay Kumar, Amitabh bacchana etc and sportsmen like- Sachin Tendulkar, Suresh Reina who also posted their Selfies with their daughters.
“It’s always pleasing to be part of such initiatives which give voice to the concerns of women. Campaigns like this break the shackles of patriarchy and pave the way to confidence building which directly will help women and young girls to build better careers and claim spaces in the society”. Said Adv Nadeem Yousuf who is part of the campaign from the Kashmir division.
