March 8th is regarded as the International Women’s day, then why do we need to celebrate another day dedicated to the girl child? We explore…
India is a country known for its designated share of respect for women. In religious scriptures, we take woman as the symbol of highest power, for example, ‘Shakti’ in Hindu mythology. We, in fact, ended up terming our country as ‘Bharat Mata’, where ‘mata’ stands for mom! Though, there are heavier discriminations against women in our nation. According to Census 2011, the male literacy rate is 82.14% and female literacy rate is 65.46%. We can see a significant difference right away! In rural areas, the destiny of a new born is decided by the gender. There are prominent incidents of female foeticide everywhere. If we take the world picture into account, then poverty and biased views against women creates a never ending cycle of discrimination that prevents a girl from living up to her full potential. In the end, it leads to severe physical and emotional abuses against women.
‘’Pre-Natal Diagnositic Techniques Act 1994 prevents female foeticide’’
The status of the girl child reflects the maturity level of a society. The survival factor of the girl child is extremely important for the prosperity of a nation. Along with dignity and quality, education is equally important for her overall development. Todays girls are to be the future mothers besides future policy makers and leaders. By keeping these views in priority, Indian government has declared January 24th as the official ‘National Girl Child Day’. The basic motivation behind this celebration is to increase the awareness among people about all the inequalities faced by the girl child in the society. Inequality exists in many areas, such as, education, nutrition, legal rights, medical care, protection, honor and child marriage, etc. The overall motive behind this mission is to increase awareness among people about these issues. And it definitely raises the awareness among people all over the country about the importance of a girl’s education and development.
Despite all the discriminations, there are considerable amount of women achieving tremendous success in their lives and careers in India. And all of them are equally inspirational as compared to their male counterparts. Apart from known figures like ‘Jhansi ki rani’ and ‘Indira Gandhi’, we would like to introduce a few of the most recent successful modern women in India.
- Bhakti Saharma: The first Asian woman and the youngest in the world to create a record in the Antarctic ocean.
- Mary Kom: This mother of two has conquered her opponents easily and made her way to the Bronze title at the London Olympics.
- Saina Nehwal: She is India’s first shuttler to win a medal at the Olympics!
- Tania Sachdev: This beauty with a brain has won titles like Women’s Grandmaster in 2005 and International Master in 2008. She has also managed to win the prestigious ‘Arjun award’.
- Puja Thakar: She wanted to join the Indian Air Force and ended up becoming the first officer to lead the Inter-Service Guard of Honour that was inspected by US President Barack Obama.
- Arunima Sinha: Despite losing a leg in a freak accident, she managed to climb Mt. Everest!
At Greenwood High, we never leave a stone unturned to give an equal amount of importance to both, guys and girls. We have examples of our students achieving success by following their passion from a very early age. Nikita Agarwal, Vidya Ramesh and Varsha to name a few. We understand the importance of educating a girl child and make her ready to face the hurdles in career and life with confidence and dignity.
Let’s celebrate this quintessential day with pride!
