“When my daughter was born, people did not congratulate me, but they pitied me. Some even asked me when I would try again for a son. I remember holding my baby and wondering why her arrival did not bring happiness to others, even though she meant everything to me,” recalls Malti Dixit, a mother from Treveni village in Banda district, Uttar Pradesh.

“In our village, when a girl was born, there was no celebration. There was worry about her future, her marriage, and the expenses. Even I had those fears once. It felt as though a daughter came with questions rather than joy,” adds Gomtiben Hardik Kumar Thakkar, a sarpanch (village head) from Karshanpur in Mehsana district, Gujarat.

For years, the birth of a girl child in many rural homes carried a silent weight. It appeared in cautious smiles, conversations about marriage and expenses, and the sense that a daughter’s arrival came with worries before joy.

Across hundreds of villages in Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, that response is beginning to change. At the heart of this shift is Dr Ebha Patel, a 38-year-old from Khadepur, whose initiative, ‘Ghar Ayee Nanhi Pari’, began in 2019 and was formally registered in July 2021. It has since celebrated the births of more than 9,000 girls, encouraging families to welcome daughters with pride.

‘She never waited for permission’

Growing up in Khadepur, Ebha noticed subtle inequalities between boys and girls. Certain freedoms were expected, choices limited, and restrictions rarely verbalised but deeply felt.

“There were things we simply understood without anyone telling us. Where we could go, what we could study, what we could become, all of it seemed to have limits for girls,” she tells The Better India.

As the second daughter, she felt these expectations keenly and saw how differently boys were treated. Her grandmother offered another vision, moving through the village with purpose and humility, listening, guiding and acting without seeking recognition.

“She never waited for permission to do something good. She simply did it, and people trusted her because they knew her intentions were genuine,” Ebha says. “That sense of service and integrity stayed with me and shaped the way I approach everything today.”

Becoming her village’s first woman engineer

While many girls in her village were guided towards predictable paths, Ebha chose computer science engineering, uncommon for women in her region. In 2010, she became the village’s first female engineer.

“There were always questions about why I chose this field and why I studied so much, but I felt that if I did not take that step, nothing would change for the girls who would come after me,” she says.

She went on to complete a PhD in artificial........

© The Better India