As part of a corporate social responsibility initiative,Madame,a leading brand in women's western wear, has joined hands with Child Rights and You-CRY with the primary objective of upholding the rights of the girl child.
The initiative called 'Action for Women's Awareness & Rural Development'(AWARD) aims to fight social ills such as child marriages and safeguard fundamental rights of the girl child as enshrined in the Constitution of India. Madame and CRY said they chose Rajasthan as discrimination against the girl child is widely prevalent in the State.As part of the project, Madame and CRY will jointly work in Thanagazi (Siriska), Mewat and Dang in Rajasthan to uphold the four basic child rights -- Right to Health, Right to Development, Right to Protection and Right to Participation.
Says Madame,“Every child has the right to life, development,play, education and nutrition. The girl child has rights equal to that of boys. These have been consistently denied to her.Our endeavor is to ensure that the basic rights of a girl child are protected and she should get all that she deserves”.Further, he said, “The girl child often faces discrimination from the earliest stages of life, through childhood and into adulthood.”
Explaining about the reason for choosing smaller towns in Rajasthan as their intervention area, Mr. Indrajit Bose, Manager, Development Support, CRY said, “The overall literacy rate in Rajasthan is 62.48% while for women it is 43.95%.The sex ratio is low at 882 as against the national average of 933. Child marriages are highly prevalent in this part of the country.These are some of the reasons why we are working in Rajasthan.”
Appreciating Madame for supporting CRY in protecting gender equity and equality, he said, “We welcome every support to make sure all children have all rights. Madame's support comes across as a very encouraging instance of socially responsible businesses standing up for what is right.”
Since its inception in 2008, AWARD has taken up birth registrations for 19.35% new born girl children across the intervention areas as part of their 'Right to Survival.' As part of 'Right to Education', nearly 2,000 children of which 940 girl children have been brought into the mainstream formal schools. Through the School Chalo Abhiyan, 21 girls who had dropped out of school were readmitted. Similarly, as part of 'Right to protection', 16 women groups were formed with close to 300 members to take up cudgels against gender discrimination and violence against women. These women's groups have been holding meetings to create awareness about issues such as child marriages and caste inequalities and discrimination.
Mr. R.K.Bhatt, President, Madame said, “The state has one of the lowest female literacy rates in the country at 20.84%., second only to Bihar. The Human Development Index in the state is low at 53 as compared to the national figure at 57. The infant mortality rate in the State is 35.51%. Girls in Rajasthan are usually deprived of education compared to boys. Girls are required to look after the younger siblings, perform domestic works and thus denied the right to education.It is important to sensitize people on the rights of girl child”.
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