On the special occasion when National Girl Child Day (NGCD) is celebrated in India on January 24, we bring into the picture this question: how important it is to create equal entrepreneurial opportunities for the girl child?
The befitting theme for the day this year is – “Empowering Girls for a Brighter Tomorrow”. So, let us take a look at what has taken place of late, to support this initiative.
The day outlines the objective of raising awareness about Child Sex Ratio (CSR) levels and how to promote the empowerment of girls. In fact, the day is celebrated to increase the awareness among people about all the inequalities faced by the girl child in society. Inequality about girl child is a vast problem which includes many areas like – inequality in education, nutrition, honour, legal rights, medical care, protection, child marriage and so on.
Interestingly, a lot has happened in favour of girls in the country,
in the recent past. The state of Haryana was awarded for its good performance
for the ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’
initiative of the government. The award was presented on 24th January at an event in New Delhi organised on the
occasion of National Girl Child Day. Another northern state – Rajasthan was
also included in the award for its improved performance in this area. In the
south, Andhra Pradesh organized and celebrated a weeklong event on this
occasion, and the event included a host of awareness programs like self-defence
training, drawing and painting competitions for children, child literacy etc.
National Girl Child day also marks the anniversary of ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ initiative of the government. The Ministry of Women and Child Development facilitated many secretaries, commissioners and other government officials for their improved performance and support towards the initiative.
Today, it is indeed very necessary for the girls to get the opportunity to realize their full potential, and they need to enjoy a safe and enabling environment too. They should be aware of all their legal rights and the hard facts of life. They should be aware that they have the good education, nutrition and health care rights. In our country, female literacy rate is still 53.87% and one third of the young girls are malnourished.
One positive note is that various steps have been taken both at the 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 “Dhanalakshmi” – a scheme to make cash transfer to the girl child family – to fulfill the basic needs such as immunization, birth registration, school enrollment and maintenance upto Class VIII. Most importantly, the right to education Act also has provided for free and necessary education for the girl child.
So, the Government of India has undertaken several initiatives and instituted policy measures to foster a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in the country. Job creation is a foremost challenge facing India. With a significant and unique demographic advantage, India, however, has immense potential to innovate, raise entrepreneurs and create jobs for the benefit of the nation and in turn, the international scene.
Thus, creating equal entrepreneurial opportunities for the girl child today should be taken up as top priority. So, it seems an opportune time for women entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs-to-be to rejoice and welcome a new phase in their lives!
Avtar Madan
Himanshu
Shree Lahiri
Poonam Sinha
