Maafi, Kafi, Anchahi: The unwanted daughters in Haryana’s voter rolls

The names of some women voters stood out while I was looking up my parents’ details in the 2002 voter list for the Special Intensive Revision exercise being conducted in Haryana.

“Bhateri” and “Bharpai” seemed to be common names that were repeated across voter lists. Bhateri comes from the Haryanvi word “bhatera”, which means enough, while the word “Bharpai” indicates something that is surplus or plentiful.

It was an unsettling realisation that these names for women were common up until a few decades ago.

They are a reflection of Haryana’s deep-seated preference for sons. The 1981 Census noted that Haryana had only 870 females per 1,000 males, far below the national average of 933 females per 1,000 males. Voters born around 1981 would have been at least 21 years old when the SIR was conducted in 2002.

Conversations with women in my family and neighbourhood revealed that these names were quite common in Haryana till some decades ago. For the women bearing such names, it was humiliating but also something they had come to live with.

I asked my neighbour, also named Bhateri, what she felt about her name. She sighed and said, “Bebe, bhunda to lagya ae kare.” Sister, it does feel deeply unpleasant.

She added: “It is humiliating to be labelled as...

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