Daizy Maan, a student of Finance and Law at Deakin University, has turned to 'Laddoos', traditional Indian sweet, to generate awareness about gender equality.
Daizy is associated with an international campaign, Pink Laddoo, encourages people to celebrate the birth of girl child.
"Whenever a boy is born, people distribute sweets and celebrate, but we are telling people to celebrate the birth of girls as well because boys and girls are equal."
Source: Facebook
Ms Mann, the youngest among four siblings, was born in Australia. She says she was shocked to know the reaction of her relatives at the birth of the girls in the family.
"When my eldest sister was born, our relatives tried to console my mother as if something wrong had happened. And when my mother distributed sweets after the birth of the second daughter, she was told not to celebrate otherwise her next child would also be a girl," Ms Mann told SBS Punjabi.
She is now associated with a campaign that seeks to create awareness about gender equality by celebrating the birth of girls, and plans to bring 'Pink Laddoo' to Australia by launching it in Melbourne and Perth. The campaign was started in Birmingham in October this year and has received tremendous response from the South Asian communities.
“The aim is to encourage families to take pride in the birth of all children irrespective of gender and to celebrate the births of boys and girls equally," says Raj Khaira, the UK based founder of the campaign.
Miss Mann says the campaign would focus on the South Asian communities where bias against the female sex is more prevalent.
"We will be hosting an event at hospitals across capital cities in Australia alongside the global campaign where we hand out pink ladoos to mothers to celebrate their newborns."
Miss Mann is also Boroondara's young citizen of the year and hopes to use her achievement to promote the cause for girls.
