Imagine advising your son eligible for marriage not to get married as there are not enough girls available to find a match for him.

Imagine a country. Call it India, if you will, where in some parts there is only one girl available for every group of 15 boys eligible for marriage.

Sounds outrageous? Yet in some parts of India the percentage difference of females over males is as high as 15.71%. National female to male ratio is a pathetic 933:1000. 1 out of every 6 girls does not live to see her 15th birthday. One third of these deaths take place at birth. Every sixth girl child's death is due to gender discrimination. Female mortality exceeds male mortality in 224 out of 402 districts in India. Condition of majority of those who survive is no good, as 22 million girls below the age of 18 years are forced into marriage against their wishes many a times to males twice their age. We as a nation seem quite content to accept and even promote violation of constitutional rights of girl child.

Smile Foundation organized a mass awareness drive on 23rd of February 2008 in the villages of Palwal in Faridabad district. More than hundred students from Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi and another hundred Swabhiman volunteers as well as more than two hundred village girls participated in the programme. ABLE Charitable Hospital and SOS Children's Village were the co-organisers.

Issues related to prevention of female foeticide, infanticide, early child marriage, restoring self respect, were taken up. The encouraging response to the rally raised hope that people are willing to change their attitude towards girl child.

Haryana is among the Indian states where girl child related issues like female foeticide, infanticide, early child marriage, dignity need to be addressed to with urgency.

Due to deliberate and constant neglect of girl child in all spheres of life, our nation has reached a stage where if immediate remedial measures are not taken, then, we may have an explosive situation leading to total imbalance and disorder in our society.

For bringing about a transformation in our society to check increasing atrocities on girl child, sensitization and awareness drives on issues related to girl child need to be taken up on a massive scale across the country.

Girl Child and Smile Foundation

Swabhiman is a national level programme from Smile Foundation focusing on welfare and empowerment of girl child and women. In Haryana, SMILE has started a pilot project under Swabhiman in the rural belt of Faridabad district. The intervention includes mobile healthcare, awareness generation, life skills development, empowerment and overall development of girl child. ABLE Charitable Hospital is the project partner of Smile Foundation in the state of Haryana.

To know more about SWABHIMAN intervention in Haryana, kindly click here