National Girl Child Day: Reality check of status of India’s daughters

National Girl Child Day is being observed in India on Wednesday. This day marks the significance of the daughters of India, who may bring laurels to the country if given the right upbringing and education. However, the current situation is not all hunky-dory despite government’s slogans like Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, and a lot more needs to be done to ensure our daughters the rightful place in the country.

Here’s a look at the state of girls in our country on different parameters:

Sex ratio:

According to census of India 2011, there are 940 females in the country against every 1000 males. Among those with the lowest sex ratio are Haryana (830), Punjab (846), Jammu and Kashmir (859). What’s even more worrying is that the sex ratio for children between 0-6 years of age is 918, which was 927 as per census 2001.

Literacy:

Though the literacy rate has improved across country, but that among women is relatively low in comparison to that in men. As of now, the literacy rate of women is 68.4 per cent.

Malnutrition:

The rate of malnutrition in India is worrying and stands at 55 per cent. And if reports are to be believed, almost one third of females in the country are malnourished.

Child marriage:

Another menace facing a girl child in India is child marriage. According to reports, as many as 26.8 per cent of girls are forced into child marriage. Most of such cases are reported from West Bengal – 40%. This menace also leads to several health complications in girls as they are at times compelled to become mothers at a tender age.