What is National Girl Child Day?
National Girl Child Day was initiated in 2008 by the Ministry of Women and Child Development with the goal of “raising awareness about the importance of empowering girls and creating an environment where they can thrive without the barriers of gender discrimination.” On National Girl Child Day, it is common for individuals, schools, colleges, organizations and official bodies to take the opportunity to bring to attention the issues faced by the girl child in India and collaborate to tackle these issues through sustainable programs.
National Girl Child Day was started to:
- raise awareness
- highlight inequalities
- address and tackle issues
- change social attitudes
- and foster a more equal and inclusive environment for girls
Government of India schemes that advocate for children
There are various Government of India schemes to ensure a strong effort to meet the crucial needs of the girl child. These schemes include (in chronological order):
- National Scheme of Incentives to Girls for Secondary Education 2008
- Scheme for Promotion of Menstrual Hygiene among Adolescent Girls in Rural India 2011
- UDAAN 2014
- Beti Bachao Beti Padhao 2015
- Sukanya Samriddhi Scheme 2015
- POSHAN Abhiyaan 2018
- Scheme for Adolescent Girls
- Child Protection Services Scheme
But injustices and crimes against the girl child still continue across India and in some cases, worsen for the next generation of girls. Effective and sustainable work is being carried out by charitable NGOs that specialize in specific areas of concern such as menstrual health, education or sexual exploitation. These organizations conduct their programs amongst the most disadvantaged groups of people who have little or no access to the help needed to live healthier and safer lives. These NGOs are working in different parts of India to improve life for the girl child:
- Pinkishe Foundation was founded by Khyati Gupta when she was just 16. Her realization that underprivileged girls cannot afford menstrual products propelled her to start an NGO to provide free sanitary pads to girls from poor communities. But she also understood that this alone wouldn’t solve the problem. Khyati learned there was a deep-seated stigma against menstruation that caused girls to have no access to sanitary products to keep themselves in good health. Based in Delhi, Pinkishe Foundation also holds awareness sessions with men, women and children in local communities to educate them about menstruation and break the stigma. Since 2017, Pinkishe Foundation has distributed 3.4 lakh pads and held 2,000+ workshops.
- Bhartiye Netraheen Kalyan Parishad is a NGO that is based in Delhi which provides residential and academic support to girls who are visually-impaired. Started when the founder was just a teenager, Bhartiye Netraheen Kalyan Parishad supports the girls with the academic foundation to continue their higher studies and crush the stigma that blindness is a “curse” - a common belief that causes families to abandon their visually-impaired children. The founder Ramesh Prasad Singh lost his eyesight in an accident when he was just a teenager and understands the lack of opportunities for children with disabilities. He founded the organization to help others who, like himself, have the will to succeed in life but lack the resources to do so.
- Sant Ishwar Foundation is a Pune-based NGO that was founded by retired Indian Army Colonel Mickie Uberoi. Upon completing his service, he realized his decades-long dream of starting an NGO to help underprivileged and orphaned girls in India. He and other veterans founded Sant Ishwar Foundation in 2018 and through the NGO, Colonel Mickie Uberoi provides care and support to children who were orphaned, abandoned, neglected and who used to beg on the streets for food just to stay alive. These children are at extreme risk of exploitation but Sant Ishwar Foundation shelters them in their home named Ghar, provides nutritious food, enrols them in school and gives them a healthy environment fit for a child.
- Inchara Foundation is a Mangalore-based NGO that was founded when Preetham Rodriguez learned about a case of child sexual abuse that happened to someone he knew. Unable to comprehend how minor girls could be abused in such a manner without access to medical and psychological care, he founded Inchara Foundation in 2008 to address this alarming issue. Inchara Foundation provides safe shelter, nutritious food, medical care and perhaps most crucially, trauma counseling to help the girls overcome sexual abuse and exploitation. For the past 17 years, Inchara Foundation has held child sex abuse prevention sessions for more than 50,000 children and helped hundreds more with care and skills training.
- Children of India Foundation addresses an important but often overlooked issue: the exploitation of the ancient and banned Devadasi system which traps minor girls in prostitution. Since this is a traditional practice, it often has sanction from the girl’s families, which is an issue that Children of India Foundation has been working to reduce and eradicate since 2003. This Bangalore-based NGO was founded by P. Thangaperumal when he went undercover to rescue girls trapped in forced prostitution under the guise of the Devadasi system. Children of India Foundation has rescued tens of thousands of girls across Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in the past two decades.
NGOs that focus on different specializations such as education or trafficking work with multiple stakeholders including families, local communities, schools, officials and most importantly - the girl child - to address issues that harm and disadvantage girls across India. Give Discover highlights and examines the work of these NGOs and encourages you to join their initiatives this National Girl Child Day.
