Prime Minister Narendra Modi On National Girl Child Day: Focus Is On Ensuring Dignity, Opportunities To Girls

New Delhi: As India marks National Girl Child Day on January 24, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to his social media to extend greetings for the day. In a series of two tweets he said,

National Girl Child Day is an occasion to reiterate our commitment and further strengthen ongoing efforts to empower the girl child. It is also a day to celebrate the exemplary accomplishments of the girl child in different fields.

Further talking about the initiatives taken by the government to empower girl child in India, he added,

In every development initiative undertaken by our Government, we accord immense priority to empowering the girl child and strengthening our Nari Shakti. Our focus is on ensuring dignity as well as opportunities to the girl child.

Also Read: National Girl Child Day Special: Meet The Lawyer Who Is Helping Teach Girls Their Legal Rights

About National Girl Child Day

India has been celebrating the National Girl Child Day since 2008. It is an initiative of the Ministry of Women and Child Development that is marked in the country with the objective of highlighting the inequalities faced by girls and promoting awareness about the rights of a girl child and the importance of their education, health, and nutrition.

Also Read: National Girl Child Day 2022: Here’s Everything You Need To Know

Why The Day Holds So Much Importance?

According to UNICEF, India is the only large country in the world where more baby girls die than baby boys. It further states that the gender differential in child survival is currently 11 per cent. The statistics reflect community attitudes with fewer hospital admissions for girls than boys, showing that parents sometimes give less attention to newborn girls. In 2017 alone 1,50,000 fewer girls were admitted to Special Newborn Care Units (SNCUs) than boys.

Apart from this, the latest edition of the National Family Health Survey 5 highlights the gender disparity. According to data, 71.5 per cent of women (15-49 years) are literate whereas, in comparison of 84.4 per cent of men in the country, who are literate.

Also Read: National Girl Child Day: 10 Facts On The Status Of Girl Child And Women In India

NDTV – Dettol have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via Banega Swachh India initiative, which is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. The campaign aims to highlight the inter-dependency of humans and the environment, and of humans on one another with the focus on One Health, One Planet, One Future – Leaving No One Behind. It stresses on the need to take care of, and consider, everyone’s health in India – especially vulnerable communities – the LGBTQ population, indigenous people, India’s different tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically remote populations, gender and sexual minorities. In wake of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign will continue to raise awareness on the same along with focussing on the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children, fight malnutrition, mental wellbeing, self care, science and health, adolescent health & gender awareness. Along with the health of people, the campaign has realised the need to also take care of the health of the eco-system. Our environment is fragile due to human activity,  that is not only over-exploiting available resources, but also generating immense pollution as a result of using and extracting those resources. The imbalance has also led to immense biodiversity loss that has caused one of the biggest threats to human survival – climate change. It has now been described as a “code red for humanity.” The campaign will continue to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India where toilets are used and open defecation free (ODF) status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.