The International Day of the Girl Child is celebrated every year on October 11. The UN General Assembly adopted resolution 66/170 on 19 December 2011, to declare October 11 the International Day of the Girl Child.
The idea behind this step was to direct the world’s attention towards the challenges a girl child faces and to address them. Although it has helped in directing the world’s attention towards the issues of a girl child, a lot of work still needs to be done.
To start with, very few girls know that their day exists and is celebrated globally. Very few schools, colleges, and higher education institutes celebrate this day. Even fewer people know that there exists a day for a girl child. So, how can it yield good results in the favor of the girl child?
Along with the theoretical framework for the empowerment of the girl child, a multidimensional practical approach is needed to address the issue. Family, society, institutions, and the state all should play a part by collaborating to resolve the issue.
The basic and most important role in this regard is of the family. Parents have to play the most vital role. It is a family which nurtures a girl child and prepares her for the outside world. Parents need to adopt multidimensional strategies to empower their girl child by removing the obstacles in her journey.
In a society where a girl child suffers in most cases because of ingrained prejudices, the weak status of women, deprivation of basic human rights, and gender discrimination, a family can be the most important tool to empower a girl child. It is a family that can determine and create a bright future for a girl child.
Parents should make a girl child and others realize that her rights cannot be snatched. No one has the right to snatch her rights. She should be given rights with dignity and respect. It leads to a better future. This realization will help in making life easier for a girl child when she grows up. And, she will not be at the receiving end.
However, it cannot do it all alone. It needs to be backed by the state with adequate health, education, and economic opportunities, better laws for the protection of the girl child, and progressive policies for uplifting the status of women in society. It is a state that needs to make parents aware of their obligations concerning a girl child and realize their role. It will result in a better future for the country as investing in a girl child today will lead to a better future tomorrow.
Along with the state, society, social, religious, and educational institutions should help a family realize its role and duty and take actions that empower a girl child. They should help parents by giving them wisdom through their platform. Educational institutions should celebrate this day. It should not be left to primary level institutions as the higher educational institutions even have a greater role to play.
Girl Child Day celebrated at a university will mean that both members of a family (father, and mother) are being educated and made aware of their role when they become parents. It should be celebrated at the basic level so that the girls get to know about the day that is for them. Along with educational institutions, religious and other social institutions should also play their part by adopting strategies that result in girl child empowerment. They should also sensitize parents about their obligations towards the girl child.
Coming back to the role of parents in a family, it is their role that can empower a girl child and address the issues a girl child faces.
Parents need to take four actions simultaneously to empower a girl child. These four actions are; attention, value, avoidance, and realisation. These actions should be taken simultaneously from adolescence to her age as a girl child and beyond that.
The first action parents need to take is to give attention to certain aspects. The parents should pay attention to the personality development of the girl child by providing her with the emotional support and self-respect she deserves. Very little attention is given to the personality development of a girl child. She loses her self-respect in between and lacks emotional support from her parents. Parents need to pay attention to her dreams, thoughts, and ideas. They should back her and let her see the world through her eyes. She should be allowed to pursue her dreams without any resistance.
Similarly, parents should focus on the health and education of a girl child. Her desire for knowledge should not be curtailed, instead, it should be supported.
The next action is to value her life. The life and role of a girl child in a family, society, and state should be given utmost importance. Parents should not take her for granted and she should have a role to play in a family and society when she grows up instead of being a burden.
The rights of a girl child should be valued and parents should make an effort to provide those rights. Unfortunately, a girl child has a very minimum number of rights as her rights are compromised for her siblings in most cases. To empower a girl child to be an empowered woman, her life, role, and rights need to be valued first.
The next action in this regard is to avoid certain behaviors while nurturing a girl child.
Parents should avoid gender discrimination and treat a girl child in the same way they treat her brother. By facing gender discrimination in her own family, a girl child learns to compromise on the fact that she has to face it throughout her life. This needs to be avoided at all costs.
Similarly, parents should avoid shaping their minds to live in a toxic relationship to save it. It is one big reason women live in toxic marriages throughout their lives and end up empty-handed. Other than that, parents should avoid crushing her character by comparing her to others. They should let her be herself and support her.
The fourth action is realization. Parents should tell her importance to her brothers so that they cannot think of snatching away her rights. Parents need to make both the girl child and other family members realize that she is an integral part of a family not only till her marriage but throughout her life.
Parents should make her realize that their door is open for her no matter what the situation is. They should make a girl child and others realize that her rights cannot be snatched. No one has the right to snatch her rights. She should be given rights with dignity and respect. It leads to a better future. This realization will help in making life easier for a girl child when she grows up. And, she will not be at the receiving end.
In this way, one can hope that girl child empowerment stands a chance in an otherwise male-dominated society and world.
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