Digital Desk: Every year, on January 24th, India celebrates National Girl Child Day. This day has been celebrated yearly since 2008. The day's goal is to provide the best possible help and facilities to the country's women in all areas. Another purpose of National Girl Child Day is to promote awareness about the long history of gender-based discrimination against women in all aspects of life.
Even in the twenty-first century, girls are subjected to discrimination and abuse. On this day, everyone must recognise the obstacles that prevent girls from exercising their fundamental rights and find ways to contribute as much as they can to the solution. It's past time to pay them what they're owed. The Indian government has passed numerous statutes and changed the constitution to achieve social equality.
The Ministry of Women and Child Development and the Indian government launched it in 2008 to raise awareness about girls' experiences in Indian society. Another reason why January 24th was chosen as National Girl Child Day is because of Indira Gandhi. On this day in 1966, Indira Gandhi, India's first female Prime Minister, was sworn in as the country's leader.
Significance
The Indian government founded National Girl Child Day as a campaign to promote gender equality in society. This campaign aims to promote awareness about women's rights across the country. It also aims to create public awareness about girls' social inequity. Its goal is to demonstrate that women contribute equally to the development of society. People from all walks of life are encouraged to attend, and it is emphasised that girls should have the same decision-making privileges as males.
Women are still considered second-class citizens and inferior to men in India, a predominantly male-dominated country. As a result, despite years of education, economic progress, and globalisation, girls continue to face bias in various settings, including school and the workplace. Moreover, because it is considered that a woman's only role in society is that of a mother or wife whose primary task is to care for her family and children, girls are still often overlooked when it comes to education.
According to the survey, India has 1020 females per 1000 males. However, if there is cause for celebration, there is also cause for caution, as the sex ratio at birth continues to be lower than what is natural. The fifth National Family Health Survey (NFHS), from which this data is derived, also discovered that the sex ratio in rural areas is better than in urban areas.
According to the NFHS 2019-2021, India has progressed in the recent five years; in 2015-16, the sex ratio was only 991. However, according to the data, 13 states and union territories still have more males than females. In a comparison of rural and urban areas, 14 states had a sex ratio that favoured males in rural areas, while 22 states had a sex ratio that favoured men in urban areas.
"It has been observed that in backward states and districts, the female-male ratio is better as medical facilities are yet to become easily available," says Amitabh Kundu, research advisor, Oxfam, adding, "In districts where these are available, sex determination goes up and sex ratio declines."
The worst urban sex ratio was 775 women per 1,000 males in the union territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. And among all states, Delhi had the poorest rural sex ratio (859).
Kundu describes a catch-22 situation in which progress may empower women but reduces the number of girls in schools. "This is true in the majority of northern states. For the same reason, the sex ratio of children in cities is lower than in rural areas. Because of male selective migration from rural to urban regions, the overall urban sex ratio is low," he says.
In comparison to 2015-16, data shows that six states showed a decrease in the sex ratio.
According to experts, the fall in the sex ratio at birth necessitates strengthening pre-conception and prenatal diagnostic procedure regulations.
So, does a lower sex ratio at birth imply a poorer sex ratio in the future?
"Not necessarily," argues Suresh Sharma, director of the Institute of Economic Growth's population research centre. "By virtue of migratory streams, the sex ratio at birth and the total sex ratio diverge. So it's impossible to infer from a falling sex ratio at birth that the entire sex ratio will stay skewed in the future."
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