Union Human Resource Development Minister Shri Ramesh Pokhrial ‘Nishank’ has said that to take forward the momentum of empowerment of girls and women through education, the Ministry of HRD will celebrate the International Women’s Day (IWD) in schools and colleges across the country. He further said that the Government has launched a special theme-based focused campaign from 1st-7th March in the run up to the International Women’s Day on 8th March this year with Education being the theme on 1st March. Shri Pokhriyal further said that as a tribute to women, the celebration by HRD Ministry will continue throughout the year.
The HRD Minister has said that the Government has taken several game changing initiatives since 2014 for the education of the girl child. This is one of the reasons for the success of the scheme of Beti Bachao Padhao whereby the Gross Enrolment Ratio of girls across all levels of education is now higher than boys. At elementary level, GER is 94.32 % as against 89.28% for boys. At Secondary level, it is 81.32 % as compared to 78 %.
He has said that the HRD Ministry has decided to take further various activities to encourage female students to excel in their lives and establish that their gender is never a hindrance to excellence. UGC will conduct round table discussions and take up several other programmes on women empowerment on various themes in about 40 Central Universities around the country among several other activities to be taken up.
He exhorted the educational institutions to focus on women achievers during classroom instruction. Shri Nishank informed that to nurture the leadership qualities and confidence in girl students, the Ministry has decided to designate a girl student as class monitor “Main Hoon Monitor” for at least half of the academic school session of the year 2020-21 and beyond.
He further informed that a Self-Defence Olympiad will be organised for girls at school level on the lines of Yoga Olympiad. To ensure safety and security of girls, Self defence training is imparted to girls of class VI to XII belonging to Government Schools.