October 11th was named International Day of the Girl by the United Nations in 2012. The holiday was created to recognize the hardships of being a girl even in the 21st century.
Girls make up half the population of the world and without them, humans would be extinct. Girls deserve a better education, protection from child marriage and assault.
In India, only 65.46% of the female gender are educated, the remaining have been married off at a young age. This means more than one third of the women in India are stripped of the opportunity to educate themselves for various reasons from poverty to willful ignorance.
Now, the facts are known but what happens after that, a sympathy sigh and flip over to the next article. No! It’s time to make your contribution to all the girls in India. The best option would be for you to support a nonprofit organization like Commit2Change that focuses on not letting young girls quit school and finish their education. They are always looking for volunteers.
But if that is not your style be an independent helper, spread awareness in your locality. If you notice any girl that is not sent to school, question the family and help out as much as you can. You can go as far as becoming a part time teacher and educate the ones who can not afford to pay for an education.
Education is one of the many problems girls have to face, some of them don’t even get the opportunity to struggle. According to statistics, from 1991 to 2011, India lost 3 lakhs girls every year to infanticide thanks to gender determination tests.
Aborting baby girls in India is a regular affair and to be honest the quick remedy to this will be banning gender determination tests. But this is just a band aid solution, a permanent change is required. Education is the right direction to take. It is time parents understand that without girls there will be no boys.
Child marriage is another issue that prevails and most girls are victims to this early adulthood. In 2016, The Wire did a survey that showed there were 12 million children in India married before the age of 10. Women are forced into marriage at such a young age restricting their life to babies and cooking.
Take this chance to use #DayOfTheGirl to find activists looking to make the world a better place. Gather a group of people and set out on foot to educate the rural people of how wonderful the world can be with women and men living in harmony. Online revolutions don’t make the change, the ones holding girls back do not have the internet. Hence, a door to door revolution is the only option.
Let’s fight for an equal world so we can strive in a better world.
