Current Affairs Brain Booster for UPSC & State PCS Examination

Topic: National Girl Child Day 2021

Why in News?

• Recently, India celebrated National Girl Child Day (NGCD)on January 24, an initiative of the Ministry of Women and Child Development.

Girl Child Day: Significance

• The day was an initiative of the Ministry of Women and Child Development in 2008.
• The objective of celebrating National Girl Child Day are:
• Highlight the inequalities faced by girls in the country;
• Promote awareness about the rights of a girl child; and
• Generate awareness on importance of girl education, health and nutrition.
• To mark the day, the government organised awareness campaigns under Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao (Save the girl child, Educate the girl child) schemes.
• NGCD 2021 is celebrated across the nation with objectives of generating awareness on the issue of declining Child Sex Ratio (CSR) and creates a positive environment around valuing the girl child.

Celebration in States

• The state of Punjab has announced January 2021 to be the ‘month of Girl Child’. The scheme ‘Dheeiyan Di Lohri’ has also been launched.
• The Odisha state government honours the individuals and organisations who have worked towards the cause of child marriage free villages on January 24 - the National Girl Child Day.
• Odisha has a child marriage prevalence of 21.3 % as against the national average of 26.8 %.

Forming New Values

• The Government issues simple directives for citizens which include:

• celebrate the birth of girl child in the family and community,
• take pride in daughters and oppose the mentality of ‘Bojh’ and ‘ParayaDhan’,
• find ways to promote equality between boys and girls,
• secure admission to & retention of girl child in schools,
• engage men and boys to challenge gender stereotypes and roles and
• educate and sensitize our sons to respect women and girls as equal members of society.

Schemes for the Girl Child Welfare

National Education Policy (NEP)-2020

• NEP-2020 has introduced “Gender Inclusion Fund” for targeting the development of girl child.
• 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 an 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.

Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports

• An exclusive component of the Khelo India Scheme focuses on barriers faced by girls and women to take part in sporting activities, and creating mechanisms to overcome these and increase participation. There is 161% increase in women participation at the Khelo India Games from 2018 to 2020.

Department of Science and Technology (DST)

• 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.

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.