VARANASI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today made a strong pitch for ending the wretched practice of female feticide as he adopted Jayapur village in his Lok Sabha constituency, urging villagers to give up dependence on governments for solving their problems.
Touching on a host of issues from potholed roads to female feticide and crumbling social structure, he regretted that condition of villages have not improved in the last 60 years and blamed policies formulated in Delhi and Lucknow for it.
He said “big people” in the last 60 years made such big talk that these could not be executed on ground. “I, a small man, will bring about big things by talking about small things.”
Taking note of the presence of large number of women among the crowd, Modi condemned the practice of female feticide and said” those who look upon the girl child as a liability should ponder as to how will mankind survive if we are left in a world with no women”.
“If we kill girl child in the mother’s womb, then what will happen to the world. If only 800 girls are born against 1000 boys, then 200 boys will remain unmarried. Will government do this job?,” he said addressing villagers as he asked them not to depend on government for everything.
“Our villagers need to give up the notion that it is the government that is the doer and they are only beneficiaries.
The Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana is an effort in that direction.
It aims to empower villagers and provide them with opportunities to exercise these choices”, he said adopting the village under the MPs Model Village scheme.
“I am confident that our villagers have the ability to shape their own destiny through their own entrepreneurial skills and hard work”, the PM said, evoking applause from residents of the village who had assembled at the ground several hours before Modi’s arrival.
The Prime Minister won many hearts when he got up from his seat to adjust the mike for the village head Durga Devi.
Referring to a recent report which found that 40 per cent of children died young in a neighboring country as they did not wash their hands before eating, Modi said villagers should pledge that they would not let their kids eat without washing hands.
Recalling his meeting over high tea with top bureaucrats after Diwali, he said he told them to spend a few days in the place of their first posting to see if conditions of these places have improved while they rose to such high positions.
“I want to bring about an awakening so that those moving ahead in life should see to it that those who have played a role in their rise should also progress,” he said.
The MPs’ Model Village Scheme will help MPs and government officials understand the needs of villages so that they could know whether policies needed to change and if yes what kind of changes should come about.
Dismissing various reports about the “reasons” behind his adoption of Jayapur village, Modi said the only reason was that this was the first village in Varanasi constituency whose name he heard of after BJP announced his candidature for the seat for Lok Sabah elections. Modi said, “Jayapur village is doing a favor to him by adopting him under the MP Model Village scheme and he feels proud of being adopted by them (village people).
“The MPs in our country are not doing any favor by adopting a village under this scheme rather the villages (and its village people) are doing a favor by adopting them, and its matter of pride for them.”
Describing the importance of villages, Modi said, “The things that we learn from villages and its people cannot be learnt anywhere else. If I have to learn good things then I have to reach the people of the villages. All those things cannot be learnt from government officials and bureaucrats.
“Whether they have a degree of school, college or not or they may have not even attended a school but they have so much of experience, which helps them in the time of trouble to come out with solutions which government can never imagine to do so.
“I wish to do a lot for the country. I want to change the mindsets of people, where they think that the government will do work for them. I want that the work be done by the people themselves and with their support,” he said.–PTI
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