Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday appealed to parents to share a selfie with their daughters and tag it as #SelfieWithDaughter in order to "save girl child" in the country.
"I urge all of you, share a #SelfieWithDaughter," Modi said in his monthly radio show "Mann Ki Baat." "Also share a tagline that will encourage 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' (Save the Girl Child, Educate Her)," he said, according to a government press release.
"Some days ago, a sarpanch in Haryana's Biwipur village, Sunil Jaglan, had come up with an interesting idea. He started the #SelfieWithDaughter initiative, under which all fathers had to click selfies with their daughters and post it on social media," Modi said while speaking on the idea, which was started by a village head in Haryana state. The northern Indian state of Harayan is notorious for the declining sex ratio of girls to boys.
The hashtag #SelfieWithDaughter began trending worldwide hours after Modi's appeal. The idea took social media by storm with proud Indian parents posting pictures taken with their daughters.
Many popular Indian personalities, including Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, actor Rajpal Yadav and U.S. State Department Assistant Secretary Nisha Biswal, responded by posting pictures on Twitter, according to Times of India.
"#SelfieWithDaughter becomes number 1 Twitter trend in India and also listed in worldwide trend," Modi said on Sunday afternoon, according to NDTV.
A New Delhi-based woman rights activist Kavita Krishnan criticized the initiative and accused Modi of stalking daughters. "Careful before sharing #SelfieWithDaughter with #LameDuckPM. He has a record of stalking daughters," Krishnan said, according to IBN Live.
Modi was accused in 2013 of having a woman spied on, according to NDTV.
