There are moments in public life when a leader doesn't just make policy — they change the mood of a nation. For Prime Minister Narendra Modi, one such moment came on a quiet Sunday morning in June 2015, when he mentioned a small campaign started by a village sarpanch in Haryana on his radio programme Mann Ki Baat. Nobody quite anticipated what would happen next.
Where It All Started
The story of Selfie With Daughter didn't begin in any ministry or government office. It began with a personal wound. The movement's roots go back to 2012, when Sunil Jaglan had his first daughter, Nandini, and the nurses at the hospital refused to accept a token amount to celebrate the birth of a girl. That quiet insult stayed with Jaglan. He was the sarpanch of Bibipur village in Jind district, Haryana — a state that had long been associated with one of the worst gender ratios in India.
Years of awareness work later, on June 9, 2015, Sunil took a selfie with Nandini and invited people to post a selfie with their daughters on social media platforms. Because of the uniqueness of this concept, he received 794 selfies in the very first 10 days. His tablet, he would later recall with a laugh, had crashed from all the photos flooding in.
Modi Picks Up the Baton — June 28, 2015
During his Mann Ki Baat programme on Sunday, June 28, the Prime Minister gave a clarion call to parents to share selfies with their daughters. He said that this was a concept originally mooted by a sarpanch in Haryana, which caught his eye.
The response was almost instant. Within hours, hashtag #SelfieWithDaughter was trending across the country. Politicians, celebrities, ordinary fathers — everyone was posting. What made Modi's push different was that it wasn't a government directive. It was a gentle nudge from a radio broadcast, asking people to simply celebrate the daughters they already had.
"A Silent Revolution" — September 20, 2015
By September, Modi was describing what had happened not just as a social media trend but as something deeper. In a broadcast on September 20, 2015, he described the campaign as a movement and a silent revolution, saying:
"I had just casually mentioned about selfie with daughter and what a movement it became. The whole world was amazed. Lakhs of people, perhaps from all the countries of the world posted a selfie with their daughters. What dignity did it lend to our daughters?"
Those were not the words of a politician claiming credit. They were words of someone genuinely moved by what ordinary people had done with a small idea.
Modi Takes It to the World Stage — November 2015
The campaign had by then crossed India's borders. During a gathering of the Indian diaspora at Wembley Stadium in London on November 14, 2015, Modi referred to the campaign as an "international movement," saying: "I was surprised that it had become interest of everybody's mobile in the entire world. It had become a 'jan andolan' (movement). They may be top politicians of the world, senior personalities of education sector or economic sector, everybody circulated selfie with their daughter on their mobile phones."
Two weeks later, on the other side of the world, during a meeting with Silicon Valley CEOs in San Jose, California on November 27, 2015, Modi described the initiative as "an initiative by a father in Haryana to draw attention to the girl child" that "became an international movement."
It was a remarkable arc — from a village in Jind to the stages of London and Silicon Valley, in under six months.
The Campaign Grows Roots — 2016 to 2019
The campaign didn't fade after the initial excitement. On June 9, 2016, the Selfie With Daughter Online Museum was launched. On June 9, 2017, an app about the campaign was launched by then-President Pranab Mukherjee to increase awareness about female foeticide in India. In 2018, a dedicated website providing information on women's rights was established. In 2019, an all-woman selfie campaign was launched that focused on single mothers.
The gram panchayat of Bibipur village itself saw a tangible impact — by December 31, 2015, the child sex ratio had risen to 1081 girls per 1000 boys, higher than 2014. It was also the first time in Haryana's history that the child sex ratio had shown an increase at the state level.
Modi, meanwhile, kept mentioning the campaign. In November 2018, he continued to talk about the campaign in his Mann Ki Baat programme, saying: "Who would have imagined that a small campaign 'Selfie with Daughter' starting from a small village in Haryana would spread not only throughout the country but also across other countries as well."
The 100th Episode of Mann Ki Baat — April 30, 2023
Perhaps the most emotional chapter in this long story came on April 30, 2023, when Modi recorded the 100th episode of Mann Ki Baat — this time broadcast live from the United Nations headquarters in New York. He chose to revisit some of the everyday heroes who had been featured in earlier episodes. Sunil Jaglan was one of them.
Modi said during the broadcast: "Sunil Jaglan had such an impact on my mind as there used to be a lot of discussion on gender ratio in Haryana. Meanwhile, when I got to know about Sunil ji's 'Selfie with Daughter' campaign, I liked it very much. I also learned from him and included it in 'Mann ki Baat'." He added that the campaign sheds light on "how big a daughter's place is in a person's life" and said the efforts have led to improvement in the gender ratio in Haryana.
For Jaglan, it was a full-circle moment. He responded to the Prime Minister saying: "Prime Minister, sir, the 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' that you started from our state of Haryana to bring smiles on the faces of daughters — that the whole country tried to win under your leadership — it is really a big thing for me and for the father of every daughter and for all those who love daughters."
📰 Source: OnManorama — Activist behind 'Selfie with Daughter' thanks PM Modi
📰 Source: ETV Bharat — Mann Ki Baat: PM Modi sings paeans to Sunil Jaglan
Still Evolving — 2024 and Beyond
The campaign continues to evolve. The 2023 Selfie With Daughter Day focused on handicapped girls, and the 2024 SWD Day was dedicated to first-time female voters, reinforcing the campaign's commitment to gender empowerment.
According to surveys on Mann Ki Baat, the campaigns mentioned by Modi that had the most impact on listeners included Selfie With Daughter, alongside Incredible India, Fit India and Sandesh to Soldiers. It was, by any measure, one of the most remembered things to come out of the programme.
What Made This Different
Looking back, the reason this campaign worked where so many government-pushed initiatives don't comes down to something simple: it didn't ask anything difficult of people. It asked them to take a photo with someone they loved and feel proud about it.
Modi understood that instinctively. As he pointed out during the 100th episode of Mann Ki Baat, the campaign's objective "was neither a selfie nor technology, but the importance given to the daughter."
The campaign has spread to more than 70 countries. During the last eight years of the campaign, selfies were received from 80 countries, many posted by prominent personalities from the world of cinema, sports and politics.
That is not a small thing for an idea that started with one father, one daughter, and one selfie taken on a morning in a Haryana village.