Nation celebrated the National Girl Child Day today. The day is celebrated every year on 24thJanuary. The day is an initiative of the Ministry of Women and Child Development. The objective behind celebrating the National Girl Child Day is to provide all support and opportunities to the girls of the country. It also aims towards promoting awareness about the rights of the girl child and to increase awareness on the importance of girl’s education, and their health and nutrition.

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has saluted the daughters of the nation on National Girl Child Day today. In a tweet, Shri Modi said “On National Girl Child Day, we salute our #DeshKiBeti and the accomplishments in various fields. The Central Government has undertaken many initiatives that focus on empowering the girl child, including access to education, better healthcare and improving gender sensitivity.”

Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani, Union Minister for Women and Child Development said in a tweet, “On National Girl Child Day, we reiterate our commitment towards ensuring equal rights for every girl child and empowering them with opportunities. Let us take pride in our daughters and spread awareness about the importance of girl child using #DeshKiBeti”.

Various ministries of the government of India like Ministries of Education,Sports, Skill Development and Department of Science and Technologyhave undertaken various initiatives and programmes for progress and empowerment of the girls.

National Education Policy (NEP)-2020 has introduced “Gender Inclusion Fund for targeting the development of girl child. The GOI will constitute a “Gender Inclusion Fund” to provide quality and equitable education for all girls. The fund will focus on ensuring 100% enrollment of girls in schooling and a record participation rate in higher education, decrease gender gaps at all levels, practice gender equity and inclusion in society, and improve the leadership capacity of girls through positive civil dialogues.Funds will also enable States to support and scale effective community-based interventions that address local context-specific barriers to girls and transgender students.

NEP 2020 will focus on the safety and security of school-going girls both inside and outside of the campus. The schools have to ensure harassment, discrimination, and domineer free campus before enlisting for yearly accreditation. This will increase the attendance number of girl children in the class. The policy will identify social mores and gender stereotypes that prevent girls from accessing education and causing regular dropouts.

Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education (MoE) is implementing Samagra Shiksha - an Integrated Scheme for School Education (ISSE) under which various interventions have been targeted for Girls’ Education. Bridging gender and social category gaps at all levels of school education is one of the major objectives of the Samagra Shiksha.

In order to ensure greater participation of girls in education, various interventions under Samagra Shiksha have been targeted. These interventions include:

Opening of schools in the neighbourhood as defined by the State, Provision of free text-books to girls up to Class VIII, Uniforms to all girls, SC, ST children and Below Poverty Line (BPL) children up to class VIII, Provision of gender segregated toilets in all schools,

Teachers’ sensitization programmes to promote girls’ participation, Provision for Self-Defence training for the girls from classes VI to XII, Stipend to CWSN girls from class I to Class XII, Residential Schools/Hostels, Construction of residential quarters for teachers in remote/hilly areas/in areas with difficult terrain.

In addition to this, to reduce gender gaps at all levels of school education and for providing quality education to girls from disadvantaged groups, Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBVs) have been sanctioned in Educationally Backward Blocks (EBBs) under Samagra Shiksha.

Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports in recent years have promoted inclusivity, created an ecosystem of awareness towards women in sports and inspired a generation of young girls to actively take part in sports. An exclusive component of the Khelo India Scheme focuses on barriers faced by girls & women to take part in sporting activities, and creating mechanisms to overcome these andincrease participation. There is 161% increase in women participation at the Khelo India Games from 2018 to 2020. From 657 identified female athletes being supported under the Khelo India scheme in 2018, the number has now gone up to 1471 (223% increase). 86 women athletes were a part of the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) program in September 2018 and today we have 190 of them (220% jump).

The Department of Science and Technology (DST) has launched ‘Knowledge Involvement in Research Advancement through Nurturing (KIRAN)’ Scheme to provide various career opportunities to women scientists and technologists. It is primarily aimed to bring gender parity in Science & Technology sector by inducting more women talent in the research & development domain through various programmes.

The Department is running various programs and schemes for empowering women in science and technology. Program for Gender Advancement in S&T Institutionswhichstarted in 2020, aims to develop a Charter for Gender Equality in STEM with a focus on bringing about transformational changes at institutional level. The project aims to create a new ecosystem based on building competencies of institutions and provide them with ongoing mentoring support to achieve transformation. A new portal for S & T for women will be developed in the current year where all information to scholarships, fellowship, career, related to women will be placed. It will be a one stop information point for women students, phd student, post doc fellows, early career academic with list of mentors.

Ministry of Skill Development is making efforts for building conducive ecosystem for skilling women in India.Out of 33 National Skill Training Institutes (NSTIs), 19 NSTIs are providing skill training exclusively for women. In NSTIs 3,400seats have been sanctioned under Craftsman Training Scheme and 2,225 seats have been sanctioned under Crafts Instructor Training Scheme(CITS). 421 women have been trained in AdvancedDiploma in IT Networking and Cloud Computing.

In the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS), the percentage of female apprentices has increased from 4% in August, 2016 to 12% in December, 2020. The female enrollment percentage in STRIVE-assisted ITIs has increased from 15.5% to 19.1%. Out of 23 lakh RPL certifications awarded during FY 2019-20 under PMKVY, over 5 lakhs were women. 271 Jan Shikshan Sansthans (JSS) have been sanctioned out of which 227 JSSs are active in States/UTs. Out of 4 lakh beneficiaries (per annum) 85% are women.

Theme for this year’s NVD is ‘Making Our Voters Empowered, Vigilant, Safe and Informed’ Posted On: 24 JAN 2021 5:19AM by PIB Delhi

Election Commission of India is celebrating 11th National Voters Day on 25th January 2021.

Honourable President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind will be the Chief Guest at the national function being organized in New Delhi by the Election Commission of India. The event will be held at the Ashok Hotel, New Delhi and the Honourable President shall grace the occasion virtually from Rashtrapati Bhawan.

Union Minister for Law and Justice, Communications and Electronics and Information Technology Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad will grace the function as the Guest of Honour.

The theme for this year’s NVD, ‘Making Our Voters Empowered, Vigilant, Safe and Informed’, envisages active and participative voters during elections. It also focuses on ECI’s commitment towards conducting elections safely during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The National Voters’ Day has been celebrated on January 25 every year since 2011, all across the country to mark the foundation day of Election Commission of India, i.e. 25th January 1950. The main purpose of the NVD celebration is to encourage, facilitate and maximize enrolment, especially for the new voters. Dedicated to the voters of the country, the day is utilized to spread awareness among voters and for promoting informed participation in the electoral process. New voters are felicitated and handed over their Elector Photo Identity Card (EPIC) in the NVD functions.

During the event, the Honourable President of India will confer the National Awards for the year 2020-21 and launch ECI’s Web Radio:‘Hello Voters’. The National Awards for the Best Electoral Practices will be conferred on State and District level officers for their outstanding performance in the conduct of elections in different spheres such as IT initiatives, Security Management, Election Management during COVID-19, Accessible Election and contribution in the field of voter awareness and outreach. National Awards will also be given to important stakeholders like national icons, CSOs and media groups for their valuable contribution towards voters’ awareness.

ECI’s Web Radio:‘Hello Voters’: This online digital radio service will stream voter awareness programmes. It will be accessible through a link on the Election Commission of India website. The programming style of Radio Hello Voters has been envisaged to match that of popular FM radio services. It will provide information and education on electoral processes through songs, drama, discussions, spots, stories of elections etc. in Hindi, English and regional languages from all over the country.

Union Minister Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad will launch the e-EPIC programme and distribute e-EPICs and Elector Photo Identity Cards to five new voters. e-EPIC, a digital version of the Elector Photo Identity Card can be accessed through the Voter Helpline App and websites https://voterportal.eci.gov.in/ and https://www.nvsp.in/.

Shri Prasad will also release three publications of the Election Commission during the event. Copies of these documents will be presented to the Honourable President of India. Details of the publications are given below:

Conducting Election During Pandemic- A Photo Journey: This photo book encapsulates the challenging journey of conducting elections amidst a pandemic. The Commission successfully conducted several elections in the country, beginning with the Biennial Election to the Rajya Sabha. This was followed by Legislative Assembly Elections in Bihar, one of the biggest such exercises throughout the world during the pandemic. Bye-Elections were also conducted for 60 constituencies in various states of the country.

SVEEP Endeavours: Awareness initiatives during Lok Sabha Election, 2019: This book provides a detailed insight into voter awareness interventions, innovations and initiatives during the 17th General Election, conducted in 2019. It documents the spirit of ‘Desh Ka Mahatyohar’, the biggest festival of democracy celebrated across the nation cutting through the barriers of gender, caste, creed and religion. Chalo Karen Matdaan: It is a comic book which aims at voter education in a fun and thought-provoking way. Targeting young, new and future voters, this comic contains interesting and relatable characters to educate voters at large on electoral processes.