Invest in Girls’ Rights: Our Leadership, Our Well-being

BREADS agrees completely.

Experience teaches us that the empowerment of women needs to start when they are girls.  For that matter, empowerment of women needs to start when men are boys too.

Since 2011, the International Day of the Girl Child has been observed on 11 October to highlight and address the challenges that girls face, to promote their empowerment, and the fulfilment of their human rights. It’s an important day for BREADS and its partners, to reiterate our commitment to the girl and her empowerment.

Arpitha K from Chitradurga, aged 20 years, was once a student member of her school Child Rights Club. She later became the President of the Nisarga Child Rights Clubs Federation, Chitradurga district. Arpitha participated in the Inclusive National Children’s Parliament in New Delhi, in 2019. She is now in college and is still actively involved in identifying and preventing child labour, training children on child rights, and supporting the education of children in her community. Arpitha’s contributions were recently appreciated by the Don Bosco National Forum for the Young at Risk (DB YaR Forum).

Encouraging girls, especially in marginalised and underprivileged communities; and creating opportunities for them has immense impact on their self-esteem and well-being. However, teaching girls and boys about their rights as children and equal persons, has an electrifying impact on girls becoming leaders. This has been evident through the Child Rights Education and Action Movement of BREADS in 20 districts of Karnataka. With the goal of making children activists and ambassadors of their own rights, lakhs of children have been trained over the years.

In the last year, 73302 children were trained and facilitated to form Child Rights Clubs; of whom, 37087 were girls. Children (37864 last year) were trained to use the Makkala Grama Sabhas (children’s village meetings) to raise their voices, express their views and get redressal from the State. In addition, BREADS supports the education of around 2000 girls either fully or partially, every year.

“Women and girls can lead us to a fairer future…let us amplify girls’ voices, and recommit to working together to build a world where every girl can lead and thrive.” – UN Secretary-General António Guterres

Last year, children like Arpitha were instrumental in stopping 89 child marriages, rescuing 268 child labourers and bringing 279 school dropouts back to school.  And they continue to stay committed to the rights of the child.

They lead the way. We must support them.