Teacher takes puppetry as tool to create awareness of child marriage, female foeticide

By Mehboob Inamdar

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: In the world, everybody is talking about change. Here is a woman who has taken an oath to bring change in society through education and awareness.

Sarla Shyamrao Kame, a teacher from Zilla Parishad School-Shivna, Sillod tehsil of the district has held over 500 puppet shows, 200 lectures and 10 poster exhibitions to create awareness against female foeticide and child marriage among young girls and their parents.

She said that there is a need to create awareness on a big level among parents as the ratio of child marriage is increasing in rural areas.

“The reason is that parents feel insecure about continuing their daughters' education because of weak social security and delay in the process of taking action against female harassment.

An incident of female foeticide inspired me to work towards it. I saw some dogs trying to take a bite of an abandoned female baby. Me and my husband along with some villagers handed over the baby to an orphanage. Today, that girl is studying in 1oth standard,” she asserted.

Kame said that this made her give back something to society to create awareness on issues like female foeticide and child marriage, however, she had no idea what means should be used to do it.

“I was in search of a medium which can be easily available, entertaining, simple and easy to understand people. After brainstorming, I realised that a puppet could be the best medium which can draw the attention of one and all and convey a message properly with entertainment. I used the language of areas in Khandesh and Vidarbha for creating awareness,” she said.

The ZP teacher said that the idea worked and the awareness programme received good responses from students and parents. She said she felt lucky that she could create awareness among about 10,000 girls in 800 schools and colleges across the State through puppets.

“Everyone is indebted to society. To pay back something, I decided to adopt 10 girls every year to continue their education. I adopt the girls who are in fifth standard and have poor financial condition, to continue their education up to 10th standard. Both the State and Central Governments honoured me with awards for my awareness work. It is said that if we educate a boy, we educate only one person. But when we educate a girl, we educate an entire family,” she added.