The department of family welfare integrated two leading concerns by making the CBSE Class XII topper Aruna Kesavan its goodwill ambassador for its 'Save the girl child' and population control programmes.
The 97.4 per cent she got in her Senior Secondary Examination brought many other firsts with it - Aruna, who lives in Calicut, made her first visit to Delhi on her maiden flight for World Population Day on Sunday.
"I was a little nervous but it felt great to be chosen as an ambassador even though I'm not a celebrity," she says.
Seventeen-year-old Aruna, the younger of two sisters, has given her entrance exam for BITS Pilani and is waiting for the results. "I'm pretty confident I'll get through. I want to go for an M Sc in integrated physics and become a scientist," she says.
Her new title will make her a familiar face as the department of family welfare is planning to use her for advertisements, video spots, posters and other multimedia messages for its save the girl child, gender bias, right age of marriage and immunisation programmes.
The minister of health and family welfare gave her Rs 5 lakh on Sunday for her commitment.
{{/usCountry}}The minister of health and family welfare gave her Rs 5 lakh on Sunday for her commitment.
{{/usCountry}}"I still haven't decided what to do with the money. I guess I'll decide when I see the money," she says.
"About 15.5 million people are added to our over one billion population each year, so population stabilisation is naturally a major concern. But we cannot achieve it at the expense of the girl child," says family welfare secretary Prasanna Hota.
"We chose Aruna as a mascot to show that girls can achieve as much as boys if they get the same opportunities," he adds.
A desire for small families and a boy child have made many people resort to sex selection techniques and female foeticide, which has led to an adverse sex ratio of 927 girls to 1,000 men.
"Despite our total commitment to population stabilisation, protecting the girl child is the department's number one priority," says Hota. India's population is expected to touch 170 crore by 2050.