Government 'stole' campaign title from my poem: Rajasthan cop

 

A woman police officer in Udaipur has claimed the phrase 'Beti Bachao Beti Padhao' was "stolen" from a poem she had written in 1999.

The phrase became popular when Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a campaign in Panipat in January 2015 that addressed the problems of skewed child sex ratio, girl education and other issues of women empowerment.

Mahila Thana Station House Officer Chetna Bhati claimed that she had coined the phrase in 1999 as part of a poem. She later sent the poem to the then chief minister Ashok Gehlot in August 2012, in the hope that it would be used for public campaigns.

But the CM did not respond and now the slogan has appeared in the national campaign, she claimed.

She filed an RTI query in December 2015 to the PMO asking the source of the phrase, which is used by the central government as a slogan.

She claims to have received a reply from the Women and Child Development Ministry in February 2016 but the response was "unsatisfactory".

Bhati has now written to the PM seeking recognition for her creativity.

"I even recited the poem at a function held in 2005. My parents took special care of us and made us study. I very well understand the value of a girl child and wrote poetry against female foeticide," she said.

Hailing from Jaisalmer district, infamous for cases of female foeticide, Bhati, who is in the police service for the past 20 years, claimed she wrote a poem against the menace in 1999 and coined the phrase 'Beti Bachao Beti Padhao'.

"I only want recognition, no money no publicity. Since I created this, I have ample evidence in support my claim which the government should take into consideration. The government should disclose from where they took the phrase," she said.