International Day of the Girl Child being celebrated; UNFPA says investing in girls yields huge returns

Kathmandu / October 11: The International Day of the Girl Child is being marked across the country today by organising various programmes.

By prominently featuring girls’ rights in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development last month, the international community has responded enthusiastically to the evidence that investing in girls yields huge returns.

Issuing a press statement on the International Day of the Girl Child, Executive Director of United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin said that the new agenda has acknowledged that increased attention to the health and well-being of the world’s adolescent girls, including their sexual and reproductive health, was a necessary condition for success, and called powerfully for a stronger focus on adolescent girls across sectors.

Nepal has an unprecedented opportunity to focus on the power of girls to drive progress and transform the country, states the press statement.

Saying that despite advances in recent years, girls continue to suffer severe disadvantages, discrimination and exclusion, merely for being young and being female, the UN body points out that for many girls, puberty marks an accelerating trajectory into inequality. “It also represents a critical window for preventive and protective investments that we must make if we are serious about achieving full gender equality.”

Ensuring that girls are able to exercise their rights, can pursue their education and have the skills and opportunity to join the workforce is essential for their own well-being, and a critical foundation for the health and prosperity of families, communities and nations. These rights include choosing when and whom to marry, when or whether to have children, and being free of violence, abuse and exploitation, said the UNFPA Executive Director.

“When girls are free to define their lives and enjoy their rights, they not only enjoy better health and healthier children; they are also better able to contribute to national development as economic actors and entrepreneurs, helping their countries reap a demographic dividend and driving economic growth,” said Osotimehin.

He also stressed the need to increase efforts to end child marriage, female genital mutilation and other harmful practices affecting girls and has urged one and all to give girls unfettered access to comprehensive sexuality education, remove laws that impede their access to information, services and choices, provide them with comprehensive health services, including contraceptive services, and most critically, keep them in school — whether they live in rural or urban areas, whether they are pregnant or not, whether they are married or single. RSS