INTERNATIONAL DAY OF GIRL CHILD
Girl with dreams becomes woman with vision.
No country in the world has yet achieved the full gender equality and women across the world continue to suffer from discrimination and unequal rights and opportunities since their infancy. The societies across the world are still rigid and expects their girls to help at home with cleaning, cooking, taking care of siblings and family farms. To eradicate or counter this stone age regressive mindset, International Day for Girl Child is celebrated.International Day for Girl Child is celebrated on 11th October every year. This is to spread awareness about the issues faced by girls around the globe. It was started after a campaign run by Plan International called ‘ Because I am a girl’. This campaign was launched to raise awareness of the importance of nurturing a girl child across the countries. Later on Plan International approached United Nation to give its patronage. It was formally introduced by a Canadian minister Rona Ambrose at the UNO. On 19th December 2011, UNGA voted to pass a resolution adopting 11th October 2012 as the inaugural International Day of Girl (IDG).Every year UNICEF gives a theme to IDG. This year it is International Day of Girl 2022 ‘Our time is now- Our rights, Our future’. In 2022, it is to commemorate the 10th anniversary of IDG. Through these years, IDG has emphasized on the various stages of life of a woman. The life of women from infancy through adolescence to youth is riddled with myriad of challenges, prejudices and discriminations. The most important amongst them is quality education. The government, bureaucracy and general population have become more aware to these issues. Yet the required thrust in these areas remains limited. This has further worsened by climate change, COVID-19 and humanitarian conflicts. Differently abled girls face additional challenges in their life.
If you educate a man, you educate an individual.
If you educate a woman, you educate a family (nation).
If you educate a girl, you educate the future.
By Queen Rania of Jordan
Equal rights and bright future of a girl can only be ensured with proper education. It is the most potent tool to uplift the social status of a woman in the society. An educated girl will transform into a versatile, vibrant and bold leader of tomorrow. They will be better mothers, sincere employees and finally better citizens of the country. This can only happen if, the girl child is protected against early marriage and pregnancy. They should be given time to be mature in their own terms.India is taking a lead on all these issues. India celebrated its first National Girl Child day on 24 January 2008. This year the theme was ‘The Right of Girl Child, Their Education, Health and Nutrition’. Indian constitution not only grants equality to women, but it is also empowers the state to adopt various measures to neutralize the inequalities prevalent in society. Various government sponsored schemes such as Beti bachao, beti padhao,save the girl child, Sukanya Samriddhi yogna,udaan scheme, free education to all and reservations for girls in higher education institutions, to name a few have been initiated by the govt of India.This year National Girl Child Day, on 24 January, hon’ble Prime Minister gave digital certificates to the winners of Pradhan Mantri Bal Puruskar 2022. Smt Smriti Zubin Irani minister of MoWCD chaired the events naming it Kanya Mahotsav and launched campaigns like LadkiyanJahanKhusiyanWahan.India is working very hard to eliminate this inequality against the girl child. In the times when the world’s richest democracy is still struggling to get its first female head of the state, India as a shining star which has had both female head of the state as well as head of the government. In today’s India, hon’ble President of India Droupadi Murmu is the beacon of hope, with right education and environment a simple girl from Santhali tribe from Mayurbhanj, Odisha has become the head of the state of the largest democracy of the world.
