Empower, Educate, Protect and Celebrate Your Daughter
Gender discrimination and abuses, injustice against girls is a serious stigma in India and is a serious problem in India that is deep-rooted. A multi-fold approach is needed to ensure that the state has those laws to bring justice in society, it also requires adequate budgetary allocation for girls’ education, health, well-being, and collective responsibility of social organisations to speak out that girls are not less than boys.
Kailash Satyarthi, Nobel Laureate
National Girl Child Day is observed every year in India on January 24 to promote awareness about the rights of a girl child. Promoting the importance of their education, health, and nutrition and enhancing awareness is the main aim of such observation. It was first started in 2008 by the Ministry of Women and Child Development and observed every year. Gender discrimination is a significant problem that girls face throughout their life.
The problems faced by girl children are universal in nature. There are many challenges: inequality caused by lack of access to education, nutrition, legal rights, medical care, protection from discrimination, violence against women and forced child marriage. There is discrimination in daughters’ rights to inherit property in many countries, in either law or practice.
Nearly 1 in 4 girls is neither employed nor in education, 1 in 3 women worldwide has experienced physical or sexual violence. India has 930 females per 1000 males. In absolute terms, India has a 48.2% female population compared to a 51.8% male population. India is home to millions of ‘out-of-school’ children, with girls being most of them. UN data indicates that India is home to more than 220 million child brides and accounts for about a third of the global incidence of child marriage. Forcing them to get married at such young age amounts to infringing on the rights and capabilities of adolescent girls. Then, early pregnancies also result in poor maternal and child health.
Girls have the right to safety, education, and healthy life, not only during the formative years but in their journey to achieving womanhood. If adequately supported, girls have the potential to change the world. Sustainable Development Goals seek to achieve gender equality and empower women and girls. There is a lot of work yet to be done
Hindu scriptures highlight the importance of women in society: their ability, intelligence, and patience. Reverence to women has always been professed. Despite all these, discrimination is rampant in our society. Preference for boy child leading to female foeticide, discrimination by family members, sexual exploitation is all there to see. The government has taken several initiatives like Beti Bachao Beti Padhao and Save the Girl Child, but it is long before discrimination vanishes. A lot to be done. At best, we can say it is a work in progress.
Women empowerment leads to increased productivity and resultant growth. Efforts must be made to end the multiple forms of gender violence and ensure equal opportunities and access to employment and leadership positions and decision-making at all levels.
Empower, Educate, Protect, and, more importantly, Celebrate the girl child. She could be your daughter, share the joys of being your sister, grow and become a mother to some, become a spouse to someone, raise a family and take care of them. Everyone must ensure that she is allowed to grow, sustain, and prosper. As Margaret Thatcher said, ask a woman if you want something to be done. Societies prosper with people who gets thing done. The girl child is one such, and the societies need to ensure that the situations are created to ensure their sustained growth.
If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman.
Margaret Thatcher
Toons: Anusha
Logs: Sai Baba
