Quote on International Day of the Girl Child

Human struggle for equality, development and welfare is incomplete unless we ensure rights for girls and women. Therefore observing International Day of the Girl Child is very important to recognize girls' rights and the challenges they face. We as a society should have a vision to engage adolescents and youth especially from the underprivileged communities and ensure accessibility of resources and opportunities for them to become resilient and lead a successful life. Through this process, we should recognise that female beneficiaries require additional support and aid to cope with structural inequalities in their environment.

We as an organisation believe in holding the values of gender equity and inclusivity in the core value system of the organisation. These conversations are spearheaded in the direction of establishing fundamental understanding around taking up gender sensitive practices and behaviour within the context of the work, we do.

Seeing the challenges that our girls face in their day to day lives, we should aim to build the capacity of adolescent girls through gender life skills and age appropriate curriculum understanding around gender and its influence on various aspects of their lives. Exclusive topics such as understanding safe and unsafe touch and consent, menstrual health and hygiene, sexual and reproductive health and rights, introduction to LGBTQIA+ community and identification of gender roles should be included extensively in the school curriculum.

In order to encourage more female leaders in all walks of life, sports can be used to mobilise girls from the communities and to support them to realize their dreams.

In my opinion gender is a crucial component of overall development so it is vital to incorporate an intersectionality lens into our culture and ethos in order to strengthen female members of our society.

- Ashok Rathod, Founder, OSCAR Foundation)