National Girl Child Day of India - January 24

National girl child day is celebrated every year on 24th of January as a national observance day for the girl child. This celebration was started to offer more supports and new opportunities to the girls in the country. It is celebrated to increase the awareness among people about all the inequalities faced by the girl child in the society. Inequality about girl child is a vast problem which includes many areas like inequality in education, nutrition, legal rights, medical care, protection, honour, child marriage and so many.

National girl child day has been started as a national girls development mission by the Government of India. This mission raises the awareness among people all over the country about the importance of girl’s promotion. It enhances the meaningful contribution of the girls in decision making processes through the active support of the parents and other community members.

Why National Girl Child Day is Celebrated ?

It is celebrated to promote the girls position in the society to make their living better among society people. It is very necessary to remove different types of social discrimination and exploitation that girls generally face in their life. To increase the awareness about the necessity of the girls right in the society, various political and community leaders speech to the public about the girls right for the equal education and fundamental freedoms.

It is very necessary for the girls to get full potential, safe and enabling environment. They should be aware of all their legal rights and the facts of life. They should be aware that they have the good education, nutrition and health care rights. They should be well aware about legislations including Domestic Violence Act 2009, Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006 and Dowry Prohibition Act 2006 in order to get their proper rights and face all the challenges in life.

In our country, female literacy rate is still 53.87% and one third of the youngster girls are malnourished. Reproductive age group women are anemic and suffering from various other diseases just because of the gender discrimination in the society and limited access to the health services. Various steps have been taken at national and state level by the Ministry of Women and Child Development to improve the girl child status through a range of schemes.

The Women and Child Development Ministry had implemented a scheme called “Dhanalaksmi” to make cash transfer to the girl child family to fulfil the basic needs such as immunization, birth registration, school enrollment and maintenance up to the Class VIII. The Right to Education Act has made available the free and necessary education to the girl child.

How National Girl Child Day is Celebrated ?

Varieties of events are organized all across the country to celebrate the girl child day to promote girls position in the society. Government of India organizes a big campaign to increase people consciousness towards the girl children in the Indian society.

National Girl Child Day celebration was started by the Women and Child Development Ministry since 2008 to celebrate as the national observance. Through this campaign, the Indian Government has highlighted the inequalities towards the girl in the Indian society. At this day, various advertisements are run by the government on the TV channels, local newspapers and radio stations and through the message of “Save the Girl Child”. NGO organizations and non government organizations also come together and take part in the celebration to fight against the social stigma about girl child.