Ministry of HR celebrates International Girl Child Day

Islamabad: Ministry of Human Rights celebrated International Girls Child Day with the collaboration of Pakistan Boys Scout Association at PBSA headquarters on Monday.

Ministry of Human Rights celebrated the event by holding a speech, art and quiz competition on topics like education, child rights, prohibition of child labour, the importance of child nutrition etc., for girl scouts from Pakistan Boys Scout Association aged 8-17.

While addressing to the audience Director, Ministry of Human Rights Shahzad Ahmed highlighted that no society can progress unless the child rights are protected. Ministry of Human Rights took several initiatives to protect child’s rights especially girls which include Zaineb Alert App and National Commission for Child Rights. He further added that Ministry of Human Rights also sensitized the public awareness about child rights through truck art campaign in 2019.

The Secretary, Pakistan Boys Scout Association Iftikhar Ahmed also highlighted rights of girls given in religion Islam. The winners of speech competitions were Abeeha Chaudhary first, Habaiba Hurrain second and Imaan Sadaf stood third. The winner teams of quiz competition were Shaheen first, Markhor second and Parrot declared third.

The top three winners of art competition were Navera Sarfaraz first, Imaan Abbasi second and Ayesha Arshad third. The International Girl Child Day is celebrated/commemorated every year all around the world to eliminate gender-based challenges that girls face around the world including child marriages, poor learning opportunities, violence and discrimination.

Protecting every Girl Child and advancing their interests is the cornerstone of development in any society. As we celebrate International Day of the Girl Child, every girl child will be encouraged to dream big. The theme for this year’s International Day of the Girl Child is ‘Digital Generation, Our Generation.’ As the pandemic has made the world sit in front of laptop/mobile screens for learning and earning, around 2.2 billion people around the globe still do not have internet connections. This has made them being pushed off the margins, especially the girls. On a global level, the gender gap of internet users has jumped from 11 per cent in 2013 to 17 per cent in 2019.

For the least developed countries, the percentage marks around 43 per cent. In the age of the digital revolution where people are using technology in various ways to learn new skills and earn revenue, women and girls cannot be left behind.