National Girl Child Day in India
National
girl child day is celebrated every year on 24th of January as a
national observance day for the girl child. This celebration was started
to offer more supports and new opportunities to the girls in the
country. It is celebrated to increase the awareness among people about
all the inequalities faced by the girl child in the society. Inequality
about girl child is a vast problem which includes many areas like
inequality in education, nutrition, legal rights, medical care,
protection, honour, child marriage and so many.
Why National Girl Child Day is Celebrated
It
is celebrated to promote the girls position in the society to make
their living better among society people. It is very necessary to remove
different types of social discrimination and exploitation that girls
generally face in their life. To increase the awareness about the
necessity of the girls right in the society, various political and
community leaders speech to the public about the girls right for the
equal education and fundamental freedoms.
It is very necessary for
the girls to get full potential, safe and enabling environment. They
should be aware of all their legal rights and the facts of life. They
should be aware that they have the good education, nutrition and health
care rights. They should be well aware about legislations including
Domestic Violence Act 2009, Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006 and
Dowry Prohibition Act 2006 in order to get their proper rights and face
all the challenges in life.
In our country, female literacy rate
is still 53.87% and one third of the youngster girls are malnourished.
Reproductive age group women are anemic and suffering from various other
diseases just because of the gender discrimination in the society and
limited access to the health services. Various steps have been taken at
national and state level by the Ministry of Women and Child Development
to improve the girl child status through a range of schemes.
The
Women and Child Development Ministry had implemented a scheme called
“Dhanalaksmi” to make cash transfer to the girl child family to fulfil
the basic needs such as immunization, birth registration, school
enrollment and maintenance up to the Class VIII. The Right to Education
Act has made available the free and necessary education to the girl
child.
How National Girl Child Day is Celebrated
Varieties
of events are organized all across the country to celebrate the girl
child day to promote girls position in the society. Government of India
organizes a big campaign to increase people consciousness towards the
girl children in the Indian society.
National Girl Child Day
celebration was started by the Women and Child Development Ministry
since 2008 to celebrate as the national observance. Through this
campaign, the Indian Government has highlighted the inequalities towards
the girl in the Indian society. At this day, various advertisements are
run by the government on the TV channels, local newspapers and radio
stations and through the message of “Save the Girl Child”. NGO
organizations and non government organizations also come together and
take part in the celebration to fight against the social stigma about
girl child.
Objectives of Celebrating National Girl Child Day
- It is celebrated as a national observance to increase the consciousness of the people and offer new opportunities to the girl child in the society.
- To remove all the inequalities faced by the girl children of the Indian society.
- To make certain that every girl child is getting proper respect and value in the Indian society.
- To ensure that the girl children are getting their all the human rights in the country.
- To work against diminishing the child sex ratio in the India and change the people mind about the girl child.
- To initiate couple towards the girl child by increasing awareness about the importance and role of the girl child.
- To address the girl children issues associated to their health, respect, education, nutrition and etc.
- To propagate the gender equality among people in India.
Girl Child Rights in India
Government of India has taken various steps by declaring variety of schemes to make the girl child status better. Some of are:
- Sex determination during pregnancy through the clinics has been blocked by the government.
- Child marriages of the girls have been restricted.
- Antenatal care has been made necessary for all the pregnant women to fight with the malnutrition, high illiteracy, poverty and infant mortality in the society.
- “Save the Girl Child” scheme has been introduced by the government to save the girl child.
- Girl child education status in India has been improved through the free and compulsory primary school education for both boys and girls till 14 years of age.
- To improve the status of the girl child in India, the government of India has reserved 1/3 seats in the local government for women.
- Anti-MTP, anti-sati laws, anti-dowry Act has also been introduced by the legislature to enhance the women status and employment opportunities.
- Five Year Plan has been implemented to pay attention towards the education status in the backward states of the country.
- School children are well availed with the uniforms, noon meal and educational materials and repayments to the SC and ST caste girl’s families.
- Balwadi-cum-creeches have been implemented for caring the girl babies and attend the primary school.
- “Operation Blackboard” including other programmes has been organized for the teacher’s education to make the school services advance.
- The Open Learning System has been established for easiness to the girls of backward areas.
- It has been declared for the girl child that “girls must be given equal treatments and opportunities from the very beginning” to expand the opportunities for them.
- The SHG means Self-Help Groups has been introduced by the government as the main policy in order to make better the livelihood of rural areas girls.
