National Girl Child Day on Tuesday

The National Girl Child Day-2021 will be observed on Tuesday with a view to developing girl children as worthy citizens so that they can play a role for building digital Bangladesh.

The theme of this year's day is "We are girl children - we would be enriched with technology, build digital Bangladesh."

President M Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in separate messages greeted the girl children on the occasion of the National Girl Child Day-2021 urging all including the private organizations to work together with the government for overall protection and development of girl children of the country.

In his message, the president said that the present government has been working relentlessly to turn Bangladesh into a developed country by 2041. The government is working sincerely to fulfil all international declarations and action plans especially the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), he added.

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He said that SDG's 5th goal is directly associated with prevention of all forms of violence against women-girls, including child marriage and political and economic empowerment of women. Bangladesh successfully achieved MDGs, he said and hoped that Bangladesh would also be able to achieve the SDG targets.

The president said that ensuring the rights and security of girl children is the responsibility of all.

The present government is sincere for the development of girl children, he said, adding that the government has made education free for girl children up to higher secondary and around 14 million girl children are given stipend.

As a result, enrollment of girls in schools, as well as their literacy rate, has increased, he added.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in her message said that Awami League government is women and girls friendly government and it thinks that if their proper development with knowledge and technology is ensured, they would be able to build themselves as worthy citizens and contribute to materializing the dream of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in building “Sonar Bangla.”

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For the welfare of girl children, the government has been implementing various programs, including free education up to graduation level, stipend, free books and appointment of more women teachers in educational institutes, she added.

"Our government has formulated National Child Policy-2011, National Woman Development Policy-2011 and Child Day Care Center Act-2021," the prime minister said, adding that capital punishment has been incorporated in the Women and Children Repression Prevention (Amendment) Act 2020 and child marriage and dowry prevention laws have enacted in the country.

 As a result, child marriage has declined significantly, said the premier.

Both the president and the prime minister wished overall success of all programs taken on the occasion of the National Girl Child Day 2021.