Thousands of people across India (and several from various corners of the globe) flooded social media Sunday with selfies taken with their daughters in response to a call from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Modi appealed to his country during his monthly radio address to share photos with the tag #SelfieWithDaughter — an attempt to recognize and celebrate the girl child as part of his Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao (Save the Daughter, Educate the Daughter) campaign.
Modi mentioned the head of a small village in the state of Haryana (which has one of the most skewed sex ratios in the country) as the source of the idea, the Indian Express newspaper reported.
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India’s netizens responded enthusiastically.
Many women, young and old, used the opportunity to take selfies with their doting dads as well.
Gender inequality has long been a major problem in India’s highly patriarchal society, where female children are being perceived as inferior and even killed in the womb or as infants — a phenomenon Modi has fought to reverse since he took office about a year ago.
