It seems that the government of India does not want to leave any stone unturned to ensure full awareness about welfare and empowerment of girl child.

Therefore, Minister for Women and Child Development, Renuka Chowdhury announced that the country would celebrate January 24th every year as ‘National Girl Child Day’.

The campaign, which will end on the International Women’s Day Mar 8, will tune a new slogan “my daughter - nation’s pride”, much different from the ministry’s usual slogan “save the girl child”. The campaign against female foeticide will include TV spots, advertisements and school lessons propagating gender equality.

The latest government statistics says that sex ratio in the country stands at 927 women to 1,000 men.

While speaking on this, Chowdhury said, “This is to celebrate the triumph of the girl child. Jan 24 will be the day to anchor and kick off an awareness campaign that will be on a sustainable basis.”

The minister also informed that the government in Haryana, under public-private partnership, would undertake various vocational training and skill upgradation programmes for adoloscents from vulnerable communities and self-help groups. Besides this, it would also take many steps to provide training in paramedical care to the economically weaker women.

Commenting over the recent controversy of working condition of the children in TV serials, Chowdhury said that the government has already authorised the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights to examine their condition. "I have also asked the NCPCR to look into the working condition of the children," she added.

Apart from announcing the new initiatives, she also unveiled T-shirts, stickers with embossed logo, a calender, four panels explaining the purpose of the day and a gender budgeting manual for government ministries and departments.