National Girl Child Day: History and celebration

Mixi January 24, 2021 | 21:44

National Girl Child Day is celebrated in India on January 24 to protect the rights of girl children and provide maximum support and facilities to the girls of the country in every respect. For more information, check out below!

Photo: Jagran Josh

Every year January 24 is marked as the time when National Girl Child Day is celebrated.

It is believed that girls have been facing discrimination and violence in every aspect of life since ancient times. Now, it is time to give them their due rights. The government of India has brought several acts and made several amendments in the constitution to bring equality in society.

Histoy of National Girld Child Day

National Girl Child Day was first initiated in 2008 by the Ministry of Women and Child Development. The main objective behind is to highlight the inequalities faced by girls, to promote awareness including the rights of a girl child, the importance of education, health, and nutrition. Nowadays also gender discrimination is a major problem that girls or women face throughout their life, according to Jagranjosh.

Significance of National Girl Child Day

✺ Due to the growing female foeticide and infanticide in Indian society, the National Girl Child Day initiative was launched.

✺ Ban on sex determination of foetus was also imposed to control the female foeticide.

✺ The government started to give financial aid to couples who were blessed with a baby girl and also provided free primary education to the girls.

✺ One of the major aims of observing this day is to raise awareness about the rights of girl children and their education.

✺ The day aims to highlight the injustice against the girl child in Indian society and to promote their health and education.

✺ As a result of this, girls are offered scholarships for their outstanding performance during their school and college life.

✺ Universities and colleges now hold reservations for women to bridge the gender gap and eradicate the lack of quality education among girls and women across the country.

✺ Since the girl children often go through a dearth of exploitation such as foeticide, infanticide or sexual abuse, the day focuses on protecting girl children and improving their condition.

✺ Due to the several initiatives in favour of the girl child, the country has seen a good increment in the female education and health condition.

National Girl Child Day Objectives

Be it ancient practices of Sati Pratha, gender inequality, child marriage, dowry, pay parity, sexual abuse, rape, acid attack victimization, female foeticide, discrimination at home, child delivery issues, mental traumas, illiteracy, this society tends to predominate women while giving them hell. Crimes against women in today’s so-called modern society are on upsurge with no holds barred which is why the objective behind the initiative of National Girl Child Day is to spread awareness on the importance of girls’ education, health status, nutrition and fair treatment among the mass and central government schemes like ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao, Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana, CBSE Udaan scheme to prevent gender-biased abortions, advance the education of girl child, stabilize the financial position of girls, and to enrich the learning experience of girl students from economically backward sections and other state govt. schemes prove to be a knight in shining armour and things are looking up. Such campaigns help change the mindset of people and thereby of society, according to Sscadda.

National Girl Child Day Celebration

The government takes a lot of initiatives to discuss these main objectives with the help of various annual themes presented to educate the cause of girl empowerment. The theme of National Girl Child Day last year was ‘Empowering girls for a better tomorrow.’

This day is generally marked by organizing different awareness campaigns on saving the girl child, their rights, nutrition, health, and other issues. Govt has taken major productive steps like Banning ultrasound for gender discrimination and making child marriages illegal.

As per the 2011 Census, the literacy rate among females is as low as 65.46% as against 82.14% of males. This data shows the discrimination and inequalities that women face in today’s time. To make the situation better, the government have launched some social scheme including the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao social scheme. In the International sphere, this day is usually treated as an International Girl Child Day, as reported by Newsd.

Rights of Girl Child in India

Various schemes are mentioned by the Government of India to make the living status of the girl child better. Some of the schemes are as follows:

- The determination of sex in clinics during pregnancy has been blocked by the government.

- Child marriages of the girls are restricted now.

- To save a girl child a scheme namely "Save the Girl Child" has been introduced by the government.

- Free and compulsory education for both boys and girls till 14 years of age has improved the education of girl child.

- To fight with malnutrition, high illiteracy, poverty and infant mortality in the society, antenatal care has been made necessary for all pregnant women.

- Many Laws are made by the Government like Anti-Sati, Anti-MTP to make women get employment and status to the Women.

*For more interesting information about festivals and holidays in India, please click here!

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