Written by : Jitendra Kumar Sinha
English Translation by Kumari Swati
Patna, 10 October :: The whole world celebrates ‘International Day of Girl Child’ on 11th every year. It was started by United Nations in 2012. The main purpose of celebrating International Girl Child Day is to give girls the right to equality and to create opportunities for their development. Girls have to be made aware of their education, their legal rights, nutrition, medical care.
The main objective of the International Day of the Girl Child is to protect the rights of the girls and identify the challenges and difficulties faced by them and bring them equal rights by bringing awareness in the society.
On 19 December 2011, resolution number 66/170 was passed by the United Nations General Assembly on International Girl Child Day. Which announced to celebrate October 11 as ‘International Girl’s Day’ with this approval each year. The theme of the first International Girl Child Day was ‘End of Child Marriage’
The Government of India started the ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ scheme in 2015 to protect and empower girls. The government has also implemented a variety of schemes to empower girls. ‘National Girl Child Day’ is celebrated in India every year on 24 January.
Nowadays girls are moving forward in every field, be it politics or sports, science, and various others. In such a situation, it is imperative to make the society aware of the rights of girls and pay attention to their education. Female foeticide is also a problem in India due to which the ratio of girls has come down considerably. Thus being a part of a society ,, it is our responsibility and a good opportunity to uplift our girls on the occasion of ‘National Girl Child Day’, we can provide new opportunities, to our girls , we can create awareness regarding the inequality that take place with girls in society such as discrimination and other social problems that are faced by them . We can provide them education, nutrition, legal rights, medical care .A Consciousness has to be made in terms of protection, child marriage, freedom, etc. This step of the Government of India behind celebrating National Girl Child Day is to promote the importance of girls in our country and give them the best opportunities to explore
National Girl Child Day’ was first started in 2008 by the Ministry of Women and Child Development. This was to highlight the inequalities faced by the girls and to promote awareness including rights of girls, importance of education, health and nutrition. Gender discrimination is also a major problem which girls or women have to face throughout their life to eradicate such practices also includes the objective of celebrating this day.
The main objective of celebrating National Girl Child Day in India is: –
* To raise consciousness among the people and provide new opportunities to the girls in the society.
* To remove all inequalities faced by girls.
To ensure that the girls get all their human rights, respect and values in the country.
* Working and educating people about gender discrimination.
* Working against the declining child sex ratio in India and changing people’s thinking about the girl as a girl.
* To raise awareness about the importance and role of girls.
* To provide opportunities to the girl and empower them for their betterment.
To educate people about the health and nutrition of the girl child.
Granting equal rights and allowing them to be transferred to any part of the country.
Government of India has many schemes for women empowerment
In which the following schemes have been implemented: –
Blocking of sex determination in clinics during pregnancy.
* Child marriage of girls to be banned.
* Government to introduce “Save the Girl Child” scheme for girls.
* Free and compulsory education for both boys and girls up to the age of 14 years.
Antenatal care for all pregnant women, to fight malnutrition, high illiteracy, poverty and infant mortality in the society.
* Many laws like anti-sati, anti-MTP to be enacted to provide employment to women and to give women status.
* Many rules to be made to give girls equal rights and opportunities for their better future.
Five-year plans to look at the education status of backward states in India.
* ‘Operation Blackboard’ to be made for girls.
* Opening of many Balwadi crèches for the care of children.
* To start Self Help Groups to improve the livelihood of rural girls.
* Open learning system to be established for girls from backward classes
