‘Kanya Pujan’ a day of glory and joy for have-not girls

Any other day she would be seen wandering with her family to eke out a living but on Monday, eight-year-old Bindiya, a labourer’s daughter, got up early, wore her

Any other day she would be seen wandering with her family to eke out a living but on Monday, eight-year-old Bindiya, a labourer’s daughter, got up early, wore her best clothes and eagerly left for a palatial two-storey residence in Gomti Nagar to participate in ‘Kanya Bhoj’.

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It was the last day of Navratri and Bindiya and other girls like her, all hailing from humble backgrounds, had been invited for the ritual performed on the eighth and ninth days of the festival, in which nine minor girls are worshipped as manifestations of Goddess Durga. They are offered delicacies and given gifts in cash or kind.

Passing through any locality where ‘Kanya Pujan’ is held, one can see small girls with radiant faces trotting home happily or on their way to another house where they are eagerly awaited, clutching the gifts they received.

While some invite these poor kids as they have no option, minor girls being few or scarce in their locality, many invite them as a philanthropic gesture. “We have girls in our neighbourhood but decided to invite those from slum areas. It was just a way to help them,” said Vineeta
Shrivastava, a resident of Ganeshganj.

For instance, Bindiya could barely take her eyes off the toy that she got on Monday. She got a pencil box too -- although she doesn’t go to school.

Since Kanya Pujan is a must for families which fast during Navratri , getting minor girls (who symbolise purity and feminine power or shakti) can be quite a job. So high is their demand during this time of the year that people in localities such as Gomti Nagar, Indira Nagar, Mahanagar, Jankipuram and other places, which house upper-middle-class and middle-class homes, ‘book’ these girls a day in advance. Sometimes each little girl visits several houses.

Everywhere, they are accorded reverence, their feet are washed, tilak applied on their forehead and delicacies placed before them, along with the gift.

“Some families tell their domestic helps a few days in advance to ask people living in the neighbourhood slums to send their children for the Pujan,” said Sharma.

“In some areas, daily wage workers are also asked to send their daughters for the ceremony,” she said.

Activists take this bridging of the rich-poor divide, even if for a single day, as a positive sign. Sarla Sharma, a volunteer working for the welfare of child beggars, said, “The sight of these children being given such privileged treatment is especially striking as for most part of the year, well-off residents don’t even like to see them playing near their houses. However, their socio-economic background is superficially ignored during Kanya Pujan.”

While the families of these children are also aware that it is ‘a one day show’, there are also those who feel that the real pleasure of the festivities lies in bringing joy to the deprived kids and so go out of their way to invite them for the ritual.