Delhi

January 24 - 30 - National Girl Child Week
Decision for Life Campaign Event

“Decisions For Life ” Campaign team held an event on 17th November - International Student's Day at Sri Sri Centre of Media Studies, Bangalore.

India has a skewed sex ratio, with fewer than 925 females per 1000 males, due to the prevalent gender bias. Families of limited economic means see daughters as financial liability because of a religious tenet that requires the bride’s parents to provide a substantial dowry to the groom’s parents. Many couples opt for abortion when they learn their unborn child is female. Gender bias also drives evils like child labor, child marriage and child trafficking.

In a bid to raise public awareness on the deep bias against the female child in India, The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government planned in 2009 to observe January 24th as the National Girl Child Day. This date marks the day in 1966 when Mrs. Indira Gandhi took over as the first woman Prime Minister of India. With this initiative, the government hoped to raise awareness regarding sex-selection abortion and female infant abandonment.

In Delhi, the whole week starting from the 24th of January to the 30th of January was being celebrated as the ‘Girl Child Week’. Many women and kids centric organizations extended a week long celebration of the observance. The DFL team in Delhi too marked the relevance of the week by visiting and donating schooling essentials to children.

Event: National Girl Child Day
Venue: Dukh Nivaran Trust, Ramesh Nagar
Date: 25 January 2010
Timing: 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM

On the event of the National Girl Child Day, The DFL – Delhi team visited an NGO – Dukh Nivaran Trust and donated stationery and clothes for the children, especially girls associated with the organization.

The trust largely takes care of the homeless children and endows them with food, shelter, education, and medical help. It is spread across three regions in Delhi itself, ardently committed towards uprooting the causes hovering the younger, homeless generation of the country and to emancipate them out of their perpetual despair.

The DFL team in Delhi visited this NGO in order to contribute to this noble cause and to mark the importance of the much-celebrated Girl Child Day. Accordingly, understanding the importance of education and literacy in the lives of these destitute children, the organization was offered a donation of some stationery and clothes. The organization was given the Project’s details – the mission, the intentions, and the aspirations. Contacts were exchanged for further reference.

Event: National Girl Child Day
Venue: Dukh Nivaran Trust, Bahadurgarh
Date: 30 January 2010
Timing: 3:00 PM to 8:00 PM

While keeping the relevance of the National Girl Child Week in mind, a rural shelter home with destitute children was visited in order to distribute stationery and clothes, in collaboration with the NGO.

Once every week, the members of the Organization visit one of the shelter homes sponsored by the Trust and addresses many volatile concerns of the kids based there, in terms of food, shelter, clothing, education material, and medical aid. Thus, the DFL team thought of visiting one of such shelter homes and understanding its functioning at the grass root level.

After a brief introduction to the Project to the authorities, a light interaction was struck with the kids and other inmates. Their daily ritual of evening prayers followed this, after which the kids were handed over the stationery and some clothes.

Experience:

It was overwhelming to see how these kids lead their lives, amidst poverty and sublime ignorance regarding many pivotal issues concerning their lives. A lot was learnt about the efforts and initiatives taken by the trust authorities to efficiently run the home. The environment of the shelter home is such that the children feel free to express themselves and are encouraged to play and go to school to attain formal education. Seeing the joy on the face of the little children as they received the stationary items and clothes that were distributed gave immense sense of contentment, which goes beyond the purview of any explanations.

The DFL team was happy that they could make at least some contribution towards emancipating these kids out of a melancholy that seems to have overhauled almost every aspect of their childhood.