National Girl Child Day being observed today

National Girl Child Day is being observed today. The theme this year is 'Empowering Girls for a Brighter Tomorrow'. The Women and Child Development Ministry has organised an event in Delhi to observe the anniversary of 'Beti Bachao Beti Padhao' scheme. Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi will be the Chief Guest. 

The Minister will felicitate Principal Secretaries and Commissioners of five states for their overall support, guidance and monitoring of the scheme. District Magistrates and Deputy Commissioners of 25 districts covering 21 states and Union Territories will also be felicitated for their exemplary



works. 

"Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi  in January  2015 at Panipat in Haryana. Seeing the good progress and improving trend of sex ratio at birth in 161 implementing districts, Mr Modi launched the all India expansion of Beti Bachao Beti Padhao covering all 640 districts last year. 

It is a central sector scheme with 100 per cent financial assistance for district-level component and the funds are directly released to the DC and DM's account. The scheme is a comprehensive programme to address the declining child sex ratio and related issues of empowerment of women.