Every year 11th of October is observed as World Girl Child Day. It is an international observance declared by the United Nations. Other than the name mentioned it is also called by different names which are ‘the Day of Girls’ and ‘International Day of the Girl Child’. This day was observed for the first time in the year 2012.
The day is celebrated in support of more opportunities for girls and increased awareness of gender inequality which is faced by girls worldwide. The areas in which the inequalities are mentioned can be many, such as access to education, nutrition, legal rights, medical care, protection from discrimination, violence against women, and forced child marriage.
In today’s modern India discrimination might have decreased but in earlier times it was quite predominant. Girl children were considered a curse for the family. When family members came to know that the child the mother is carrying in her womb is a girl, she was forced to go through an abortion. To decrease the frequency of female abortion, the Government of India has framed rules to prevent gender check tests so that the family members are not able to know which gender the child is and force an abortion.
Even now some things still exist in this modern world, if a girl child is born she might have to suffer from a deficiency of nutrition. The girl child might not be properly fed. Either she is given less amount of food or the food being eaten by her contains less nutrition content. To solve this, women should take care of their diets. The food provided to them should be standardised which means that it should not be of bad quality or carry less amount of required nutrition. Young women should follow a specific diet plan to support their bodies.
Some of the must-have items in a women’s diet are:
- Iron
- Calcium
- Magnesium
- Vitamin D
- Vitamin B9(for women of childbearing age).
Other than these, the parents also need to make efforts to ensure that the girl child receives all the necessities she needs to improve her nutrition:
- A healthy breakfast for a good day
- Emphasise the importance of water
- Introduce new foods with time
- Make sure that an ample amount of playtime is there
- Try to avoid junk food
- If needed, then look for supplements
Other than the nutrition factor, there’s another important aspect that the world needs to look at, which is the scarcity of education for girl children. Still, in many parts of India, it is seen that the girl child is not able to receive proper education because of lack of money or due to other reasons like the mindset or the distance between the teaching institution and home. This mostly happens because of the lack of finance for developing the right infrastructure required for the girl child to study. To facilitate the changes people should come forward and actively donate in whichever way possible whether it be in terms of money, clothes, books, etc.
Our whole life existence is because of her as she carries a baby in her womb for nine months and makes endless numbers of sacrifices for others. They have to pass through several problems in their complete lifetime, which others won’t be able to. So, every individual should put effort to help a girl child growing up to her full potential because without the development of girls nothing is possible in this world. This is the true essence of World Girl Child Day.