Context:

The National Girl Child Day is celebrated every year on 24th January to highlight the rights, education and welfare of girls.

National Girl Child Day 

• The day aims to raise awareness about the importance of empowering girls and creating an environment where they can thrive without the barriers of gender discrimination. 
• The day also seeks to highlight the inequalities faced by girls, promote education for them and encourage society to value and respect girls as equals. 
• A key focus is on changing societal attitudes towards girls, addressing issues like female foeticide, raising awareness about the declining sex ratio, discouraging ‘son meta preference’, and fostering a more inclusive and equitable environment for the girl child.
• The day is celebrated annually and it was initiated by the Ministry of Women and Child Development in 2008.

Key Initiatives for Girl Child Development

• Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP): Launched on 22nd January 2015, it aims to address the declining Child Sex Ration (CSR) and issues women are facing for their empowerment.
• Udaan: It was launched in 2014 by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to address the low enrollment of girl students in engineering institutions.
• Scheme for Adolescent Girls (SAG): It was devised in 2010 as a special intervention for adolescent girls of the age group 11 – 14 years to break the intergenerational life-cycle of nutritional and gender disadvantage and offer a supportive environment for the self-development of adolescent girls.
• National Scheme of Incentives to Girls for Secondary Education: It was launched in 2008 to enhance educational opportunities for girls, particularly those from Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST).
• Sukanya Samriddhi Scheme: It was launched in January 2015 as part of the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao (BBBP) to encourage parents to build funds for the future education and marriage expenses of their female child.
• POSHAN Abhiyaan: It was introduced in 2018 to address malnutrition issues across the nation.