Context
Recently, the Union Government Launched ‘Kanya Shikhsa Pravesh Utsav’ campaign to bring back out of school girls to the formal education and/or skilling system.
Key-highlights
- The campaign was launched on the eve of International Women’s Day (8th March 2022) by the Ministry of Women and Child Development in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
- The campaign was launched with the objective of increasing the enrolment and retention of girls between 11-14 years of age in school.
- At the end of the event all dignitaries signed the wall of pledge ‘Sankalp ki Deewar’ to mark the occasion as a promise that no girl is deprived of formal education.
About the campaign
- The campaign aims to increase the enrolment and retention of the number of adolescent girls (girls aged 11 to 14) in school.
- The campaign builds on existing schemes for girls such as BetiBachaoBetiPadhao (BBBP), National Education Policy (NEP), Scheme For Adolescent Girls (SAG), etc.
- The campaign will be implemented as part of the Ministry of Women and Child Development’s BetiBachaoBetiPadhao (BBBP) project. Government aims to fund 400 districts across all states under the BBBP Scheme to sensitize families to enroll adolescent girls in schools.
- Funds under Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan will also be utilized for the campaign.
- Also, Anganwadi workers (AWWs) will be incentivized for referring to out-of-school girls.
- Due to the COVID crisis, many girls were pushed out of formal education.
- It is crucial to bring back such girls into the formal education system to meet the sustainable development goals (SDG).
Significance
- The campaign will target more than 400,000 out of school adolescent girls as primary beneficiaries.
- It will create awareness and also increase investment in health, education, protection, skill building including financial literacy.
- It will empower young women and girls, and promote gender-equality among India’s children and youth.
- It aims to create an inclusive environment and infrastructure for education.
