(openPR) - Considering the importance of the Girl Child in the larger interests of the nation building task, Government of India in the year 2009 had declared that January 24 be observed every year as National Girl Child Day. It was on this date in 1966 Smt Indira Gandhi became the first woman Prime Minister of India.

According to former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, “Gender equality is more than a goal in itself. It is a precondition for meeting the challenges of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance.” On December 19, 2011, a historic milestone for girls’ rights was achieved when the UN General Assembly formally declared October 11 as the International Day of the Girl Child.

A powerful indicator of social health of any society is CSR which is the number of girls per 1000 boys in the 0 - 6 Age group. According to the 2011 census, CSR for India today stands at 914 as compared to 927 in 2001, 945 in 1991 and 976 in 1961.

Among the States/Union Territories the top ranking CSR is reported by Mizoram (971), followed by Meghalaya (970), Andaman & Nicobar Islands (966), Puducherry (965) and Chhattisgarh (964).

On the contrary, states and union territories which have reported lowest CSR are Haryana (830) followed by Punjab (846), Jammu & Kashmir (859), National Capital Territory - NCT of Delhi (866) and Chandigarh (867).

In the eight Empowered Action Group – EAG states of India, CSR for 2001 and 2011 are Chhattisgarh (975, 964); Jharkhnd (965, 943); Orissa (953, 934); Bihar (942, 933); Madhya Pradesh (932, 912); Uttar Pradesh (916, 899); Uttarakhand (908, 886); and Rajasthan (909, 883). The extent of CSR decline for Rajasthan is indeed alarming.

Considering that the decline in CSR has spread to 22 states and 5 Union Territories with highest decline in the state of Jammu & Kashmir, Govt. of India on 30 Nov 2011 announced the setting up of a Sectoral Innovation Council on CSR to look at the entire gamut of issues in this context with a purpose of identifying interventions which have worked and those which did not and also to suggest innovative strategies, approaches and methods to tackle the problem in a time bound and effective manner and submit its recommendations within eight weeks.

Highlighting the above statistics, with emphasis on the decline in the CSR both in urban and rural areas of many states and union territories which speaks about the pathetic status and low desirability of girl child in Indian society, on 24 Jan 2012, Prof BR Natarajan Pro Vice Chancellor Shridhar University Pilani urged the faculty and students to carry the message of importance of girl child to the society at large and urged each one of them to play a responsible role in stopping gender discrimination.

For more details about Shridhar University Pilani, see www.shridharuniversity.ac.in

About Shridhar University: An initiative of the Sarvhit Trust, Shridhar University Pilani has been established under Section 2(f) of UGC Act 1956 incorporated by Government of Rajasthan vide Ordinance No. 3 of 2009 and the same ratified by the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly vide Act No. 4 of 2010 as The SHRIDHAR UNIVERSITY ACT BIGODNA, JHUNJHUNU. Further, Vide letter F.No 8-3/2010(CPP-I/PU) dated 31 May 2010, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has also notified Shridhar University under Section 2(f) of UGC Act 1956. ISO 9001:2008 certified Shridhar University has 11 Schools of Learning offering various Certificate, Diploma, Under Graduate, Post Graduate as well as Doctoral programmes. In order to prepare students for a global future, Shridhar University has actively taken up collaborations with various national & international institutions and already has signed MoU with top ranking Athens University of Economics and Business - AUEB, Greece. For more details see www.shridharuniversity.ac.in

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Shridhar University
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Website: www.shridharuniversity.ac.in