Editorial
Girl Child Day
Ensure their fundamental rights
National Girl Child Day was observed on Sunday with the slogan to promote and protect the rights of girl children in the country. In a message to mark the occasion, chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed hoped that observance of the day would help remove negative attitude towards girl children and help increase awareness in society about them. We believe the issue is important for a number of reasons, the most important one being that a girl of today is a mother tomorrow; hence she needs to be given full attention and care. But when we look around the country the prevailing scenario does not make us too happy. Negative attributes like wide-scale illiteracy, poverty, malnutrition, child abuse, gender discrimination, child labour and child marriage are contributing to the woes of young girls in society. We feel, therefore, a lot has to be done to ensure their fundamental rights to education, health, shelter, security and work.
Research studies show that the situation of young girls in South Asian countries including Bangladesh is not something one can talk about with pride. A little girl is up to three times more likely than boys to suffer from acute malnutrition. In many societies parents prefer a boy child to a girl child. Girls are often kept out of school and put to work from dawn to dusk. Another report says that in many countries a large number of abortions are performed on female fetus every year. She is married without her consent and becomes pregnant long before her body is ready. The leading cause of death for girls of age 15 to 19 is complications from pregnancy.
Policy makers in Bangladesh will have to address the situation on the basis of baseline studies done by various government research organisations, NGOs and UN organisations. By all means, the relevant authorities will have to invest more time and resources to create enabling environment for the healthy growth of girl children.
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