Girl child is the future of every nation and India is no exception. A little amount of care, a handful of warmth and a heart full of love for a girl child can make a big difference. Close your eyes, free your thoughts and hear the voice of God, She is saying something to all of us, “Save Me”. India is a country where social disadvantage outweighs natural biological advantage of being a girl. A whole range of discriminatory practices including female feticide, female infanticide, female genital mutilation, son idolization, early marriage and dowry have buried the future of the nation. In India, discriminatory practices have greatly influenced the health and well-being of a girl child, resulting in a higher mortality rate. It is said that God created mothers because He could not be present everywhere. It’s unbelievable to realize that a God’s representative is continuously killing someone beautiful even before she can come out and see the beauty of nature. The status of the girl child is the key to achieving women’s equality and dignity which is, in many ways, a litmus test of the maturity of a society. Girls are to be the future mothers, besides future policy makers and leaders. Jawaharlal Nehru once said “To awake the people it is the women who should be awakened first. Once she is on the move the family moves …the nation moves”.

1. Status, Problems and
Empowerment of Girl Children in
India–An Over View
By
Dr. S. Vijay Kumar
Associate Professor & Head (Retd.),
Kakatiya Government
(UG & PG) College,
Hanamkonda, Warangal District,
Telangana State.

2. Introduction
• Girl child is the future of every nation and India is
no exception. The status of the girl child is the key
to achieving women’s equality and dignity which
is, in many ways, a litmus test of the maturity of a
society. Girls are to be the future mothers,
besides future policy makers and leaders.
Jawaharlal Nehru once said “To awake the people
it is the women who should be awakened first.
Once she is on the move the family moves …the
nation moves”.

3. Status of the Girl Child:
• Sex ratio in the 0-6 Years age group has fallen to
an all time low of 914 girls to 1000 boys
• One in three girls die in the first year of life and
one in four do not live to celebrate their fifteenth
birthday
• Two out of five girls are malnourished and every
second adolescent girl is anemic
• Six out of ten girls are child brides and four out
of ten have their first child before they are 18
years old

4. • India ranks 113 out of 135 countries as per World
Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2011
• With more than one-third of its population below 18 years,
India has the largest young population in the world.
• Only 35% of births are registered, impacting name and
nationality.
• One out of 16 children die before they attain the age of 1,
and one out of 11 die before they are 5 years old.
• 35% of the developing world’s low-birth-weight babies are
born in India.
• 40% of child malnutrition in the developing world is in
India.
• Out of every 100 children, 19 continue to be out of school.

5. • Of every 100 children who enroll, 70 drop out by
the time they reach the secondary level.
• Of every 100 children who drop out of school, 66
are girls.
• 65% of girls in India are married by the age of 18
and become mothers soon after.
• India is home to the highest number of child
labourers in the world. India has the world’s
largest number of sexually abused children, with a
child below 16 raped every 155th minute, a child
below 10 every 13th hour, and at least one in every
10 children sexually abused at any point in time.

6. • According to UNDP Human Development Report (2014),
on educational indicators - a measure of how many
years of schooling a child is expected to receive, if
prevailing enrollment patterns continue. India’s average
is 11.7. The world average is 12.2 years, while the
developed countries average 16.3 years. Among the
BRICS countries, India's average is the least. Currently,
Indians of 25 years or more have received just 4.4 years
of schooling on average, compared to a global average
of 7.7 years.
• HDR 2014 introduces a gender development index (GDI)
for the first time, which measures gender development
gaps among 148 countries. While the overall gender gap
is an 8% deficit for women, the income gap is shockingly
high — per capita income for men is more than double
that of women.

7. 2011 Census:
• The Census indicated a continuing preference for male
children over female children. A matter of
overwhelming concern lies in the fact that the child sex
ratio has slipped to its lowest since India's
independence. The sex ratio (the number of females per
1,000 males) for the 0-6 age group has dramatically
dropped to 914 in 2011, from 927 in 2001.
Population of children (0-6 years):
• The total number of children in the country in the age
group of 0-6 years is 158.8 million, about five million
less than the 2001 census figures and marks a negative
growth of 3.08 percent. While the decline in male
population (0-6 years) is 2.42 percent, it is higher at
3.80 percent in females.

8. Why Caring For Girl Child Is Vital for
India’s Growth?
• Women have been at the forefront of shaping our
future, yet, we are still fighting the medieval menace
of gender inequality. A recent UN report terms India
as the most dangerous place in the world to be a baby
girl. What a sad distinction to have?
• United Nations Department of Economic and Social
Affairs data for 150 countries over 40 years shows that
India and China are the only two countries in the
world where female infant mortality is higher than
male infant mortality in the 2000s. It indicates that an
Indian girl child aged 1-5 years is 75% more likely to
die than an Indian boy, making this the worst gender
differential in child mortality for any country in the
world.

9. • “Investing in Women is smart economics. Investing in
girls-catching them upstream-is even smarter economics.”
An educated girl will use 90% of her future income
towards her family, while boys invest only 35%.
• Former UN Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, pointed
out that “short-changing girls is not only a matter of
gender discrimination, it is a bad economics and bad
societal policy. Experience has shown over and over again,
that investment in girls’ education translates directly and
quickly into better nutrition for the whole family, better
health care, declining fertility, poverty reduction and
better overall economic performance”.
• Sustainable and inclusive development in India will not be
possible, without a holistic approach to women’s
empowerment and livelihood and their involvement in all
spheres of development.

10. Measures to Empower Girl Children
and Women
• Education:
• If survival of girl child is necessary for the existence
of the world, their education is equally important for
her development. As such education, employment
opportunities and a supportive home and societal
environment are keys to their empowerment.
• When girls are educated, they have better career and
employment opportunities in life. They are better
able to avoid commercial sexual exploitation. They
gain self confidence, learn the life, technical and
practical skills to demonstrate their capabilities and
challenge stereotypes about women.

11. Beijing Platform for Action
Recommendations
• Eliminate all forms of discrimination against the girl - child;
• Eliminate negative cultural attitudes and practices against
girls;
• Promote and protect the right of girl - child and increase
awareness of her needs and potential;
• Eliminate discrimination against girls in health and nutrition;
• Eliminate the economic exploitation of girl labour and protect
girls at work;
• Eradicate violence against girl-child;
• Promote the girl-child’s awareness of and participation in
social, economic and political life.
• Strengthen the role of the family in improving the status of the
girl-child.

12. Strict enforcement of laws
• All forms of discrimination against the girl child and
violation of her rights must be eliminated by
undertaking strong measures both preventive and
punitive within and outside the family. These would
relate specifically to strict enforcement of laws
against parental sex selection and the practices of
female forticide, female infanticide, child marriage,
child abuse, child marriage, and child prostitution
etc.
Removal of discrimination in the treatment:
• Removal of discrimination in the treatment of the
girl child within the family and outside and
projection of a positive image of the girl child must
be actively fostered.

13. Special Focus on Girl Children:
• In implementing programmes for eliminating child-labour,
there should be a special focus on girl children. Added to these,
special care should be taken to reduce gender disparities, infant
mortality and malnutrition, to prevent female foeticide and
infanticide to increase enrolment and retention of girls in
schools besides elimination of child labour.
Mass Campaigns:
• Discrimination against girl child is a curse for the society. Mass
campaigns in favour of survival of girl child and giving her
human right including education must be initiated to bring a
positive change. Such campaigns need to be organized
particularly in the villages highlighting the threat to the life of
the girl child and creating awareness in the villages about the
dangerous consequences which the society as a whole will have
to face without the girl children. The issue has to be discussed
on religious, cultural, economic, political and social level.

14. Computer Literacy, Technical skills
and Self-defence
• Computer literacy and enhancement of technical
skills among girls must be ensured. Added to this,
self-defence trainings, as KARATE, must be
introduced and made compulsory for girl children to
make them self reliant and cope with unforeseen
circumstances.
Save the Girl Child for the Future of the World:
• Even to-day in the 21st Century the position remains
unchanged even after education and financial
independence. Hence, people and Governments must
be committed to protect the girl child – future hope
of all nations.

15. Reduction in Gender Imbalance
• Already some of the developing countries like India are
experiencing the deficit of women and children. As this leads
gender imbalance and which in turn leads to several social
problems like finding the life partner difficult. For example -
Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.
Conclusion:
• If the society has to grow into a civilized social fabric, the
enlightened mass has the responsibility to shoulder and sharing
the responsibility of maintaining the balance in sex-ratio. This is
possible not only through discussions in seminars, but also by
mobilizing and empowering the woman and children by
organizing the society for equality in all spheres of social and
national activities where any discrimination of gender basis is
entrenched.
•

16. Thank You