National Girl Child Day

Context:

India celebrates National Girl Child Day on 25^th Jan 2022

About National Girl Child Day:

• The National Girl Child Day is celebrated in India every year on January 24th.
• It was initiated in 2008 by the Ministry of Women and Child Development and the government of India, in order to spread public awareness about inequities that girls face in Indian society
• The day is celebrated with organized programs including awareness campaigns about Save the Girl Child, child sex ratios, and the creation of a healthy and safe environment for girls.
• In 2019, the day was celebrated with the theme, ‘Empowering Girls for a Brighter Tomorrow

Objectives

The objective of celebrating National Girl Child Day are as follows.

• Highlight the inequalities faced by girls in the country
• Promote awareness about the rights of a girl child
• Generate awareness on importance of girl education, health and nutrition

NGCD 2022

The NGCD 2022 is being celebrated across the nation with objectives of generating awareness on the issue of declining Child Sex Ratio (CSR) and create a positive environment around valuing the girl child.

The celebrations also marks the anniversary of Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) Scheme.

This year, the Ministry of Women and Child Development celebrates the National Girl Child Day in the backdrop of 75 years of Indian Independence – Azadi Ka Amirt Mahotsav”. The event highlights the following.

• Acheivements of Ministries in empowering Girl Child
• Felicitates young female achievers under 20 years of age
• Launch of new schemes aimed at the Girl Child 
• Selife with daughter – 75 lakhs 

All the States/UTs s and 405 multi – sectoral districts under BBBP to organize online programmes such as Gram Sabha/Mahila Sabha on CSR, programme with schools on value of girl child, Posters/Slogan-writing/ Drawing/ Painting competition among school on STEM related topics, and run stories in local media about BBBP local champions etc.

Issues Related to Girl Child

• Female Infanticide and Foeticide:
  • India has one of the highest rates of female foeticide in the world.
  • Female foeticide is due to strong son preference, the practice of dowry and the patrilineal necessity of heir.
  • The census of 2011 has recorded the lowest ever sex ratio of 914 in the age group 0-6 years with 3 million missing girls; from 78.8 million in 2001 to 75.8 million in 2011.
• Child Marriage:
  • Each year, at least 1.5 million girls under 18 get married in India, which makes it home to the largest number of child brides in the world – accounting for a third of the global total. Nearly 16% of adolescent girls aged 15-19 are currently married.
  • While child marriage has declined, it has been marginal: from 27% in 2015-16 to 23% in 2019-20, according to National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 5.
• Education:
  • Girls are encouraged and also engaged more in household work and drop out of school at an early age.
    • A study by the International Centre for Research on Women has found that girls out of school are 3.4 times more likely to be married or have their marriage already fixed than girls who are still in school.
• Health and Mortality:
  • Girls in India face discrimination both inside their homes and outside in their communities. Inequality in India means unequal opportunities for girls.
  • Under-five mortality for girls in India remains 8.3% higher than for boys. Globally this is 14% higher for boys.

Schemes for the girl child welfare

Various ministries of the government of India like Ministries of Education, Sports, Skill Development and Department of Science and Technologyhave undertaken various initiatives and programmes for progress and empowerment of the girls.

National Education Policy (NEP)-2020

National Education Policy (NEP)-2020 has introduced “Gender Inclusion Fund for targeting the development of girl child. The GOI will constitute a “Gender Inclusion Fund” to provide quality and equitable education for all girls. The fund will focus on ensuring 100% enrollment of girls in schooling and a record participation rate in higher education, decrease gender gaps at all levels, practice gender equity and inclusion in society, and improve the leadership capacity of girls through positive civil dialogues.Funds will also enable States to support and scale effective community-based interventions that address local context-specific barriers to girls and  transgender students.

NEP 2020 will focus on the safety and security of school-going girls both inside and outside of the campus. The schools have to ensure harassment, discrimination, and domineer free campus before enlisting for yearly accreditation. This will increase the attendance number of girl children in the class. The policy will identify social mores and gender stereotypes that prevent girls from accessing education and causing regular dropouts.

Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education (MoE) is implementing Samagra Shiksha – an Integrated Scheme for School Education (ISSE) under which various interventions have been targeted for Girls’ Education. Bridging gender and social category gaps at all levels of school education is one of the major objectives of the Samagra Shiksha.

In order to ensure greater participation of girls in education, various interventions under Samagra Shiksha have been targeted.  These interventions include:

• Opening of schools in the neighbourhood as defined by the State
• Provision of free text-books to girls up to Class VIII
• Uniforms to all girls, SC,  ST  children  and Below  Poverty  Line  (BPL)  children up to class VIII,
• Provision of gender segregated toilets in all schools,
• Teachers’ sensitization programmes to promote girls’ participation,
• Provision for Self-Defence training for the girls from classes VI to XII,
• Stipend to CWSN girls from class I to Class XII
• Residential Schools/Hostels
• Construction of residential quarters for  teachers  in  remote/hilly  areas/in areas with difficult terrain.
• In addition to this, to reduce gender gaps at all levels of school education and for providing quality education to girls from disadvantaged groups, Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBVs) have been sanctioned in Educationally Backward Blocks (EBBs) under Samagra Shiksha.

CBSE Udaan Scheme, Free or subsidized education for girl child, Reservation for women in colleges and universities and National Scheme of Incentive to Girls for Secondary Education are some of the schemes for promotion of education for women.

Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports

An exclusive component of the Khelo India Scheme focuses on barriers faced by girls & women to take part in sporting activities, and creating mechanisms to overcome these andincrease participation. There is 161% increase in women participation at the Khelo India Games from 2018 to 2020. From 657 identified female athletes being supported under the Khelo India scheme in 2018, the number has now gone up to 1471 (223% increase). 86 women athletes were a part of the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) program in September 2018 and today we have 190 of them (220% jump).

Department of Science and Technology (DST)

The Department of Science and Technology (DST) has launched ‘Knowledge Involvement in Research Advancement through Nurturing (KIRAN)’ Scheme to provide various career opportunities to women scientists and technologists. It is primarily aimed to bring gender parity in Science & Technology sector by inducting more women talent in the research & development domain through various programmes. The programmes include

• Women Scientists Scheme including WOS-A, WOS-B and WOS-C
• Indo-US Fellowship for Women in STEMM (started in 2017)
• Consolidation of University Research for Innovation & Excellence in Women Universities (CURIE)
• CURIE-Artificial Intelligence facility (started in 2019)
• Vigyan Jyoti (started in 2019)
• National Training Programme for Women Scientists & Technologists (started in 2012-13)
• S&T for Women
• Women Technology Parks (WTPs)
• SERB Women Excellence Award

Program for Gender Advancement in S&T Institutions which started in 2020, aims to develop a Charter for Gender Equality in STEM with a focus on bringing about transformational changes at institutional level. The project aims to create a new ecosystem based on building competencies of institutions and provide them with ongoing mentoring support to achieve transformation. 

Ministry of Skill Development

Ministry of Skill Development is making efforts for building conducive ecosystem for skilling women in India.Out of 33 National Skill Training Institutes (NSTIs), 19 NSTIs are providing skill training exclusively for women. In NSTIs 3,400 seats have been sanctioned under Craftsman Training Scheme and 2,225 seats have been sanctioned under Crafts Instructor Training Scheme (CITS). 

Way Forward

• The answer to delaying child marriages lies in ensuring access to education since the practice is a social and economic issue.
  • Skill & business training and sex education in schools, will also help..
• An awareness campaign is required on a massive scale on the increase in age of marriage, and to encourage social acceptance of this new legislation (Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill), which would be far more effective than coercive measures.
• The NFHS findings are also a reminder of the urgent need to close gaps in girls’ education and address the pathetic nutritional status of women and children.

Source: PIB

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