Safety of girl child is everyone’s responsibility

country girls ‘National Girl Child Day’ is celebrated every year on January 24 with the aim of making the girls aware of their rights and to make the girls as well as all the countrymen aware about the discrimination against the girls in the society. Efforts have been made since the independence of the country to make the society aware against the discrimination between son and daughter in families and the atrocities that often happen in the family with daughters. However, there was a time when in most of the families, the daughter was considered a burden on the family and that is why in many places, daughters were killed even before birth in the womb. This was the reason why the sex ratio was badly messed up for a very long time. Even if a daughter was born, the society thought of getting rid of her responsibility by getting her married as a child. After independence, many schemes were made and laws were implemented to change this thinking of the society towards daughters and to make daughters self-reliant and bring them to the first position of the country. The result of that is that now girls are also making important contribution in the development of the nation by joining shoulder to shoulder with sons in every field. Today, girls also have a share in almost every field and now they are showing their prowess even in the army. In order to spread awareness about the importance of girl child education, their health and nutrition and to make the society aware about the rights of the girl child, in the year 2008, the Ministry of Child Development decided to celebrate National Girl Child Day every year on 24 January and the first National Girl Child Day was celebrated in the country on January 24, 2009.

The main reason behind the beginning of celebrating this day on January 24 was that on this day in the year 1966, Indira Gandhi, who became world famous as Iron Lady, became the first Prime Minister of India. The purpose of celebrating this day is to make proper efforts for the empowerment of the girls of India by providing them help and opportunities. Governments have taken continuous steps since independence to improve the condition of the girl child. Many campaigns and programs like Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, free or subsidized education for girls, reservation for women in colleges and universities were started with the aim of ending the discrimination between boys and girls in the society. The result of such efforts is that today girls are given equal rights in almost every field, but still a lot remains to be done for their safety in the society. Even though many laws have been made against the crimes against the girl child and campaigns like ‘Save the Girl Child’ are being run, the number of crimes against the girl child in the society is increasing instead of decreasing. . The basic purpose of celebrating Girl’s Day is to create a society for girls, where only their welfare is concerned, but as the cases of molestation, misbehavior and rape of girls and adolescent girls are continuously increasing in the country, such A very worrying picture emerges. If you look at the figures, according to a report of the United Nations Population Fund, between 2013 and 2017, 14.2 crore were killed before birth in the world through sex selection, in which 4.6 crore such feticides were done in India despite strict laws. Hui. There has definitely been some improvement in the situation in terms of sex ratio, but still the situation is still not satisfactory in other states except Kerala.

Although it is not that there has been no improvement in the condition of girls since independence, rather they are seen playing strong participation in every field, but it is also true that they have to face more struggle than boys to prove themselves. have to do. According to NCRB, after starting Girl’s Day, atrocities against women increased by 4.05 percent in 2009, 4.79 percent in 2010, 7.05 percent in 2011, 6.83 percent in 2012 and even after that, instead of decreasing, this series of atrocities has increased continuously. . Various reports have also come to the fore that a rape takes place every 16 minutes in the country, an average of 77 cases of physical abuse are registered every day and nearly 70 per cent women are victims of domestic violence. In 2021 and 2022, there was a huge increase in crimes against women. The cases of trafficking of girls are also increasing rapidly. Perhaps not a day passes when we do not hear news like rape of innocent girls. In some cases, innocent girls are killed after being raped by the rapists.

However, the significance of celebrating Girl’s Day will be only when serious efforts are made to change the society’s attitude towards them, apart from discrimination against girls and serious steps are taken to provide them a fear-free environment in the society. Even today there is no dearth of problems related to girl child from female feticide to gender inequality and sexual exploitation. Gender discrimination is still a big problem in the society, which girls or women have to face throughout their life. Events like Girl’s Day will be meaningful only when not only girls get their rights but also every girl gets proper respect in the society. There is a need to develop this thinking in the society that these girls are not only our best today but also the golden future of the country.
Yogesh Kumar Goyal