The Pink Ladoo Project, a Brampton initiative launched by a group of young volunteers to promote the idea of gender equality among South Asians in the region, has gone global.

This past year, the endeavour made its debut in the United Kingdom as well as Australia. The plan is for it to become a global one.

In Brampton, the Pink Ladoo Project will host a five-day awareness/advocacy campaign at the Brampton Civic Hospital (BCH) Oct. 11 to 15. On Oct. 11 which is the International Day of Girl Child, the event will run from 4 to 8 p.m. and on other days from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

As part of the initiative, volunteers will be at the lobby of the hospital talking and sharing stories of gender equality. Volunteers will visit new mothers at the hospital and celebrate the birth of a girl child with them, explained Baljot Grewal, campaign manager, GTA and Toronto, Pink Ladoo Project.

“This idea was borne in Brampton and now has spread across three continents,” she said. “It’s not just women, but men who are reaching out to us and telling us their stories. By distributing sweets to celebrate the birth of daughters, we want to tell people that they are creating a new and more gender-balanced culture; one Pink Ladoo at a time.”

In 2013, Sumeet Gill, an engineer and trained commercial pilot, founded Nach Baliye (Dance, girl). Gill and a few volunteers educated and empowered parents of the girl child through the medium of dance and music. Armed with pink Ladoos (a sweet made with flour, butter and sugar), the women visited homes of families that had recently welcomed a baby girl and celebrated the occasion with them. The Pink Ladoo Project was launched as part of that.

Certain South Asian groups prefer the birth of a male child to that of a female and the custom is to distribute the sweets that are typically golden-yellow coloured to neighbours and families on the birth of the male child.

Through advocacy and education, the Pink Ladoo Project hopes to encourage families to rejoice the birth of daughters and give away pink Ladoos, Grewal said.

“The United Nations Populations Fund studied the issue to find out if low economic-socio status has something to do with the mindset of people that prefer a male child,” Grewal explained. “There was no relevant proof. We believe the issue is rooted in our culture, traditions and everyday thought process. So, if we start talking about it, then maybe we can change the way we think about it. It’s not about changing old traditions, but adopting new ones.”

New this year: some restaurants and stores in Brampton will accept custom orders for pink Ladoos. Until now, volunteers made the pink sweets at their homes.