Manavika Agarwal – The Upcoming Social Entrepreneur 2021
She has taken the lead to eliminate the female infanticide issue with her movement Save Girl, Educate Girl.
Women were always seen as a liability for the family and as a result the girl child was sacrificed soon after her birth. Female infanticide is killing of a girl child intentionally. After all these years it continues to be a serious issue in India. The time has come for us to change our mindset as we are in the 21st century where women are rightfully on the same footing as men, and have right to Education.
Despite all of these facts, there still isn’t enough action taken for this cause, which our young pioneer Manavika Agarwal aims to change. She is passionate to completely eliminate female foeticide from India and the world completely. “Crime against girls and women is an issue of national shame, however, gender selective abortions and infanticide are even more despicable.”
In order to bring her vision to reality, at the young age she has launched her movement Save Girl, Educate Girl which has the goal of eliminating female foeticide (killing of female child in prenatal stage) and ensure every woman in India has at least basic education by 2030 and thirdly reaching a Rape Free world where women don’t have to be afraid/cautious.
Manavika Agarwal says “Phenomenon of female infanticide is as old as many cultures, and has likely accounted for millions of genders elective deaths throughout history. Women who constitute half a human population have been discriminated, harassed and exploited irrespective of the country to which they belong, unmindful of the religion which they profess and oblivious of the time frame in which they live”.
The sex selection techniques and socioeconomic problems are providing opportunity of female infanticide. Female foeticide is perhaps one of the worst forms of violence against women and hence Manavika Agarwal wants to raise her voice against this violence caused and give a girl child her most basic right to live.
Girls from poverty-stricken families are even more vulnerable. Some Indians have stereotyped opinions that girls will eventually get married and go to another household and girls are considered a financial burden. Education of a son is preferred over a daughter. The need of the hour is to change such narrow mindsets of people. This will help in empowering females.
Save Girl, Educate Girl is taking efforts in creating awareness in the community to ensure that every girl child gets a happy, protected, and safe childhood and a bright future. Educated and empowered girls will eventually contribute towards our society and increase per capita GDP and improve our economy.
“We need to educate every girl, we need to create social awareness at our level and we should support girls so that they would be empowered and be independent,” says Manavika. Women are pride of our country. Our culture considers women as Shakti, and Laxmi and therefore the duty is on us to save the girl and prevent female foeticide. We should remember “Don’t kill a girl in the womb when she can bring glory to the country.”
Manavika Agarwal has previously conducted several events and campaigns for girl education, and female sanitation with Rotaract Club and her college. She is currently in process of launching her Start-ups namely Loyalty Points, which is India’s first loyalty and reward program based company. Manavika is a great example of what a young social entrepreneur ought to be.