International Day of the Girl Child : “Girls’ Progress = Goals’ Progress: What Counts for Girls “

Ranchi, Jharkhand | October | 13, 2016 :: Jharkhand has 72 lakhs girl younger than 18 years. They are the future of a vibrant society and a stronger demographic dividend forthe state. Yet the ambition for gender equality in the Sustainable Development Goals highlights the existence of disadvantage and discrimination borne by girls everywhere on a daily basis. Only through explicit focus on collecting and analyzing girl-focused, girl-relevant and sex-disaggregated data, and using these data to inform key policy and program decisions, we can adequately measure and understand the opportunities and challenges girls face, and identify and track progress towards solutions to their most pressing problems.

 While we can commend the ambition and potential of the SDGs for girls, and recognize how girls’ progress is not good only for girls, but also for families, communities and society at large, we must also take this opportunity to consider how existing gaps in data on girls and young women, lack of systematic analysis, and limited use of existing data significantly limit our ability to monitor and communicate the wellbeing and progress of half of humanity.

Issues affecting girls younger than 18 years:

Jharkhand has a declining child sex ratio with 919 girls against per 1000 boys, one in every three girl is married before 18 years of age (census 2011), Age specific attendance ratio is lower for girl child (90:76, NSSO 2014), more than half of the girls are anaemic 56 % (NFHS 2006), Infant mortality rate for the girl child is 36 as against 32 for boys (SRS 2014), stunting is higher for girl child 49.9 as against 44.7 for boys (RSOC 2013-14).

As SDG implementation gets underway, including the development and rollout of indicators to track progress at global, regional and national levels, there is a critical unfinished agenda on ensuring availability and use of high-quality, timely and reliable data on girls’ progress, including for those living in poverty or with a disability.

Progress of girls, Progress for all

• An extra year of primary school for girls can increase their eventual adult wages by 10 to 20 per cent, and an extra year of secondary school increases them by 15 to 25 per cent.
• If all girls completed secondary education, under-five child mortality could be cut in half.
• Studies from India show that delaying adolescent pregnancies could have increased national economic productivity by US$7.7 billion dollars (51590 crores).

Action for advance progress of girls

• Narrow the gender gaps byenhancing effectiveness of girl child schemes like the MukhyaMantriLadliLaxmi Yojana;
• Ensuring participation of women in standing committees of Gram Sabha, incorporating women’s’ issues in Gram Panchayat Development plan thereby, improving access to education, health and nutrition sanitation and safe spaces for girls.

• Enhance capacity of governments departments and institutions to collect, analyze and disseminate gender data across the age spectrum to improve statistics on gender-based violence, adolescent pregnancy and reproductive health, informal employment, entrepreneurship, unpaid work, and other priorities for girls and young women.
• Disaggregate data on boys and girls and along other dimensions (e.g., ethnicity, age, income-level, disability, location, migration status, etc.) for better understanding that which children and adolescents are most disadvantaged and where.
• Create policy and development dialogue around the gender to build consensus for coherent and convergent action

Female

Total

14.7

17.1

15.0

NA

NA

41.8

RSOC,2013-14