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10 facts you should know about status of a girl child in India

National Girl Child Day- It is shocking to know that child marriage, devdasi system & other disturbing practices are still prevalent in modern India.

Written by Debjani Arora | Updated : January 24, 2018 12:39 PM IST

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National Girl Child Day: 10 Facts You Should Know About Status Of A Girl Child In India

In a country like ours where we talk about women empowerment, women’s rights and gender equality, the crime rate against women (of all ages), discrimination at work place and domestic violence is rampant. And we aren’t unknown to these harsh realities. Where there are government schemes introduced to uplift a girl’s life, torture and torment is afflicted every day. Here are few facts about the status of girl child that you should be aware of.

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Female Foeticide

Even after Pre- Conception and Pre- Natal Diagonostic Technique (Prohibition of sex selection) Act came into force in 2003, which prohibits sex selection before or after conception, activists believe that around eight million female foetuses were destroyed between 2001 and 2011. According to Save The Girl Child organisation, one out of six girl child dies due to gender discrimination.

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6 Years Age Group

A Report by India’s registrar general and census commissioner, the Ministry of Health and family welfare and the United Nations Population Fund, points out, based on the 2001 census, that in the 0-6 age group, the most prosperous states of India like Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Gujarat have the lowest sex ratio.  Also Read - Tuberculosis in eyes: Early symptoms and when to seek help

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Malnourished

According to Save The Girl Child organisation, out of the 12 million girls born in India, 1 million die before the first year of life and one in every two girls in India is malnourished.

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Devadasi

It comes as a shock to know that in some rural pockets of India, a Devdasi system is still prevalent where girl child is offered or married to a deity or temple and later forced into prostitution, according to a report in National Commission for Women, 2006. The authority says there are 2.5 lakh ‘Devadasi’ girls who have been dedicated to Yellamma and Khandoba temples on Maharastra-Karnataka border.

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Education

The need of the hour is better education and health care facilities for the girl child. Female literacy rate is still 53.87% and one third of the young girls are malnourished. Women in reproductive age group are either anaemic because of restricted health care services or suffer from other communicable diseases.  Also Read - Sleep as an Escape: Why you sleep more when life feels overwhelming

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Child Sex Abuse

While child sex abuse happens to both male and female children, one out of 10 females in India suffer child sex abuse

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Government Schemes

The government has introduced a lot of cash initiative schemes for girls like Dhan Laxmi scheme and the Apni beti apna dhun programme, adolescents’ empowerment programmes Kishori Shakti Yojana to induce behaviour change towards how people perceive a girl child. Recently the Sukanya Samridhi Scheme was introduce to help people safe enough for a girl child’s education and marriage.