Children are precious and they also have potential for multiple roles besides the future gender assignments. Being a patriarchal society, India has given men the role of head in the family. Traditionally, man has been the bread earner/protector of the family. It is an obvious fact that a girl child is the future brain of a progressive society because it is the basic unit of a family as the mother or sister or aunt or in any other roles; therefore, giving a girl, the opportunity to get educated and be a decision maker, cultural revolution may be achieved.

Unfortunately, girls and women have been subjected to sexual offenses and violent behaviour, at times to just display authority; Due to engrained multiple prejudices, a girl child faces discrimination resulting in female feticide, and infanticide, has been a shameful social evil that led to altered sex ratios. Ironically, the ultrasound a pivotal handy diagnostic modality of the modern era has been strangulated by the PC-PNDT act and its benefits have been curtailed drastically by portability restriction. In a well-designed study from India, women's literacy was positively associated with a decrease in stillbirths and infant mortality.1

Lately, the role of girls in national building is perceived broadly, and multiple schemes to foster an environment that enables them to contribute meaningfully to the nation’s development have been launched by, both the central and state Governments (of India). Women empowerment was also accelerated by the Women Reservation bill-2023 and by opening up job opportunities in the traditionally male-ruled fields like Air Force, Army, and Navy. Now girl/sports representation in the Olympics and on various other platforms has been positively promoted. In the Tokyo Olympics 2020, 8 women athletes claimed medals in individual events.

A few of the government schemes meant to benefit girls are- Balika Samridhi Yojna (1997), Sukanya Samridhi Yojna, Beti bachao-Beti padhao (2015);2 Beti Bachao Beti Padhao is well popularised, all-inclusive initiative that emphasizes the government’s pledge to eradicate gender disparity through the empowerment of girls. BBBP aims to create an equitable environment for girls so that they grow up to their full potential.

In a nutshell, for years, gender discrimination against the girl child has been misconstrued social misunderstanding arising from a patriarchal mindset and lack of protection for girls and women. Also, the services of women in society have been under-evaluated so far and also created low self-esteem from early childhood. All of these facts have been proven in studies, statistically. In the future, a better society can be expected to evolve when a girl child is protected and gets its desired place in society.

1. Shivappriya, S.N., Palanisamy, S., Mohammed Shareef, A., Ali Zearah, S. (2023). Significance of Literacy in Minimizing Infant Mortality and Maternal Anemia in India: A State-Wise Analysis. In: Swaroop, A., Kansal, V., Fortino, G., Hassanien, A.E. (eds) Proceedings of Fourth Doctoral Symposium on Computational Intelligence . DoSCI 2023.

2. List of Government Schemes for Girl Child in India https://parenting.firstcry.com/articles/list-of-government-schemes-for-girl-child-in-india/