The document discusses several issues facing girl children in India, including female infanticide and foeticide, child marriage, inadequate nutrition, disparities in education, trafficking, sexual harassment, and lack of safety. It notes that the practice of eliminating female fetuses has led to millions of missing girls. Child marriage violates girls' rights and can lead to health risks. Girls often receive inferior nutrition compared to boys. Fewer girls receive education due to factors like early marriage and household responsibilities. Trafficking disproportionately affects girls for exploitation and crimes against women are very common in India. The government has implemented various policies and programs to promote girls' welfare and development.

1. GIRL CHILD

2. INTRODUCTION
■ Achieving gender equality and empowering women
is one of the important targets of the Millennium
Development Goals (MDG).
■ Many efforts are being made at the international and
the national level.
■ The United NationsOrganisation has declared
“October 11” as the International Day for the Girl
Child since 2012.
■ It is going to serve an important purpose of fetching
the spotlight on the girl child and their problems.This
activity aims to promote girl’s rights and highlight
gender inequalities that exist between girls and boys.

3. ISSUES OF A GIRL CHILD

4. Female Infanticide and Foeticide
■ This practice was first discovered way-back in 1789. It was found to
exist in various parts of the North and theWest India.
■ While the practice of female infanticide is killing daughters after
birth, the current practice of female foeticide is eliminating her in
her mother’s womb.
■ The census of 2011 has recorded the lowest ever sex ratio of 914 in
the age group 0-6 years with 3 million missing girls; from 78.8
million in 2001 to 75.8 million in 2011.
■ Foetal sex determination and sex selective abortion by medical
professionals has today grown into a Rs. 1,000 crore industry.This is
covered under the Pre-Conception & Pre-Natal Diagnostic
Techniques Act, 2002.
■ The cultural legacy of strong son preference, the practice of dowry,
the perception of girls’ being a paraaya-dhan, problems related to
the safety and marriage of a girl child, moksha, the patrilineal
necessity of heir etc. are some of the reasons of female foeticide.

5. Child Marriage
■ In India, the legal age of marriage for a girl is 18 years. However,
36.8 percent of girls marry before attaining 18 years of age.
■ According to NFHS-III, 47.3 percent of the women surveyed within
the age group of 20-24 were married before they attained the age
of 18 years. Of these, 2.6 percent were married before they turned
13, 22.6 percent were married before the age of 16 and 44.5
percent were married between the age of 16-17 years.
■ Child marriage not only violates the human rights of the girl
children but it also leads to several harmful consequences for them
such as lack of opportunity to education, sexual exploitation,
violence and early pregnancy.
■ The Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929 prohibits marriages of
children.Again, the Prohibition of the Child marriageAct, 2006
requires states/UTs to formulate rules to prevent child marriages in
India.

6. Inadequate Nutrition
■ Globally, one third of the deaths of children under five years of
age are attributed to malnutrition.
■ For the girls, the nutritional intake is relatively inferior both in
terms of the quality and the quantity. Boys are given relatively
more nutritious food, especially if the family is poor and is not in
a position to provide nutritious food to all the children.
■ For addressing the problem of the health and nutrition among
the adolescent girls, Kishori ShaktiYojana was launched in 2000
as part of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS).
Later in the year 2002-03, it was reinforced with the Nutritional
Programme for the Adolescent Girls.
■ Various surveys indicate that women's caloric content is about
100 calories (per women per day) less than they spend, whereas
men show an 800 caloric surplus intake.Women expend a great
deal of energy working inside and outside the house, whereas
they often have insufficient food. It has also lead to many cases
of Maternal Death.

7. Disparity In Education
■ A study by the MHRD states that 3.7 percent children in the age
group of 6-10 years and 5.2 percent in the age-group of 11- 13 years
had either dropped out of the school or had never attended any
school in 2008.
■ The enrolment ratio for girls in 2001 was 77 percent which went up
to 93.6 percent in the year 2007. In that 24.4 percent dropped out in
2007-08.At the middle school level, the dropout rate amongst the
girls was 41.3 percent while it was 57.3 percent at the secondary
level. (Source : MHRD)
■ The Right to Education Act, 2010 provides for the free and
compulsory education to children below 14 years of age.ThisAct
also incentivises girls for completing elementary education.
■ There are several factors responsible for the dropping out of the
girls such as early marriage, household works, assisting the family
members, looking after siblings, distant schools, lack of female
teacher, lack of toilet facilities etc.

8. Trafficking
■ Human trafficking is the third largest crime of the world. 79 percent
of all global trafficking is for sexual exploitation.
■ In India, the volume of human trafficking increased tremendously. In
2007, the number of cases registered in India was 3991 which
decreased to 3029 in 2008 and 2848 in 2009.
■ The number of children trafficked worldwide for sexual exploitation
or cheap labour on an annual basis is 1.2 million.
■ Approximately 150,000 women and children are trafficked from
South Asia.
■ At the international level, the problem is dealt with under the UN
Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and PunishTrafficking in Persons
EspeciallyWomen and Children, 2000 also known as theTrafficking
Protocol which was adopted at the UNConvention against
TransnationalOrganised Crime.
■ In India, girls have also been found to be trafficked for the purpose
of marriage in Punjab and Haryana.

9. Sexual Harassment
■ Among the worst countries in crime, India has an abhorrent track
record in all forms of sexual exploitation.The most terrible fall out of
this is the lack of self worth and feeling of degradation following the
emotional and physical trauma that constant harassment creates.
■ Such is the recurrence of these incidents that Delhi has earned the
ignoble nickname of the ‘Rape Capital’.While most cases go
unreported as it is considered an act that puts one to shame, only 20%
of the registered cases for sexual harassment reach actual conviction.
In every 10 rape cases,6 are of minor girls.
Every 7 minutes, a crime is committed against women.
Every 26 minutes, a women is molested.
Every 34 minutes, a rape takes place.
Every 42 minutes, a sexual harassment incident occurs.
Every 43 minutes, a women is kidnapped.
Every 93 minutes, a women is burnt to death over dowry.
A shameful plight!!!

10. SOME INCREDIBLE FACTS

11. ■ UNICEF states that in 1984 in Bombay out of the 8,000 abortions that took place, 7,999 of
them were girls.
■ In 1993 inTamil Nadu 196 girls died in suspicious circumstances.
■ According to a special report on the girl child and labour by International Labour
Organisation (ILO) more than 100 million girl children between the ages of 5 and 17 are
engaged in child labour, out of which over 50% of them are in hazardous industries, and 20%
of those are below twelve years old.
■ According to United Nations Cyberschoolbus Paper on the girl child at least one in three
girls and women worldwide has been physically harmed or sexually abused in her lifetime.
Female genital mutilation though not common in India affects millions of girls and women
every year.
■ Sakshi a Delhi based NGO conducted a survey of 357 school girl children: 63% have
experienced serious sexual abuse or rape; 29% had forced oral sex, squeezing of breast, and
genitals. In 30% of all cases, the person behind the act was a family member.There is also a
rise of sexual abuse in schools, where teachers molest their students sometimes in the
presence of other children.

12. The issues surrounding a girl child have been discussed in national child
policies and laws and addressed in a few programmes such as –
■ The National Policy forChildren, 1974
■ The National Plan of Action for Children, 2005
■ The Pre-natal DiagnosticTechniques (Regulation and
Prevention of Misuse) Act, 1994
■ The ImmoralTraffic (Prevention) Act 1986
■ The Juvenile Justice Act of 2000
■ Indian Penal Code
■ Balika SamriddhiYojana
■ Kishori ShaktiYojana

13. ■ The Government of India has initiated a "save the girl child" campaign with the slogan
"A happy girl is the future of our country“.
■ The UN has many initiatives that aim at the welfare of the girl child.The most
significant one is the UN Girls' Education Initiative launched in April 2000, at theWorld
Education Forum in Dakar, by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
■ Plan U.K has launched a campaign called "Because I am a Girl".The two major
objectives of their campaign is to create a forum in the UN for complaints against
governments of countries and to ensure that the British governments aids for
education to developing countries and given equally to boys and girls.
■ In 2004 the Nike Foundation was founded with the aim of addressing developmental
issues of the adolescent girl.They released a series of videos and created a sub web
page for their campaign : "The Girl Effect”.The Nike Foundation works with other
organisations such as CARE and the UN Foundation to create opportunities for
adolescent girls.

14. Beti Padhao, Beti Bachao Scheme
■ Literally meaning ‘Educate the Girl Child, Save the Girl Child’ the
BPBB Scheme is an ambitious scheme of the Government of India
which is intended to generate massive awareness,
improvement of quality of welfare services for females and
helping them (girls and women) access these services better.
■ Introduced in October of 2014, the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao
Scheme goes on to address the declining Child Sex Ratio in the
country.
■ The scheme is being rolled out through pan-India campaigns with
focus on 100 worst-performing districts in terms of CSR. It is a
joint initiative of three important Central Government ministries –
the Ministry ofWomen and Child Development, Ministry of Health
and FamilyWelfare and Ministry of Human Resource
Development.

16. REFERENCE
■ Swetha Prasad, (2012), Girl Child In India : Issues Concerning
Children, Yojana Publication
■ Child Protection and Child Rights, www.childline.org
■ Importance of Girl Child in Indian Society, (2012) Save the
Girl Child Society.
■ Rukmini Shrinivasani, India : deadliest place in world for girl
child, (Feb, 2012), Times of India

17. A huge salute to all the
mothers who have
saved and protected
their girl children…
Thank
You All..
Presented By – Shanmukha Priya
Chadarada