National Girl Child Day

India observes National Girl Child Day on January 24 each year.

About National Girl Child Day:

• The purpose of National Girl Child Day is to increase public awareness of the injustices, discrimination, and exploitation that girls suffer in society.
• The Ministry of Women and Child Development originally established National Girl Child Day in 2008.
• The major goals are to alter how society views females, reduce female feticide, and raise awareness of the declining sex ratio.

National Girl Child Day's goals:

• National Girl Child Day is intended to raise awareness of the rights that girls possess, to provide them with equal opportunity to everyone else, to support the nation's girl children, and to do away with gender-based prejudices.
• Additionally, it asks for raising awareness of the injustices that female children experience and educating people on the importance of educating girls.
• The primary goals are to alter society's perception of girls, reduce female feticide, and raise awareness of the declining sex ratio.
• In order to improve their standard of life in society, it also tries to elevate the girl's status.
• Girls and women struggle greatly with gender discrimination throughout their lives.
• It also strives to combat gender prejudices and support the nation's girl children.

Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar 2022:

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will virtually meet with recipients of Rashtriya Bal Puraskar on the occasion of National Girl Child Day and as part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav. The children's outstanding accomplishments will be recognised by the programme.
• The award winners would attend the occasion from their district headquarters along with their parents and any interested district magistrates.

Issues Related to Girl Child:

Education:

• Girls are urged to drop out of school early and are also increasingly involved in family chores.
• According to a research by the International Centre for Research on Women, girls who have dropped out of school are 3.4 times more likely than those who are still enrolled to be married or to have a stable marriage.

Health and Mortality:

• In India, discrimination against girls is a problem both inside the home and in the community. In India, inequality translates to uneven chances for women.
• In India, females continue to have an 8.3% higher under-five mortality rate than boys. For males, this is 14% higher globally.

Female infanticide and foeticide:

• Female foeticide is one of the most common crimes in India.
• Strong son preference, the dowry custom, and the patrilineal requirement of an heir are the causes of female foeticide.
• In the age range 0–6 years, the census of 2011 found the lowest sex ratio ever (914), with 3 million missing females, down from 78.8 million in 2001 to 75.8 million in 2011.

Government initiatives to carry out National Girl Child Day's goals:

The government has adopted a variety of measures in this regard, some of which were enumerated by the women and child development ministry.

• Save the Girl Child,
• Beti Bachao Beti Padhao,
• Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana
• CBSE's Udaan Program
• Free or reduced-cost education for girls,
• Reservation for women in colleges and universities