Government’s new ‘Utsav’ Launches: Girls Back to School

The government launched a nation-wide campaign on the eve of the International Women’s Day to bring out-of-school girls back into the education system by rolling out a convergence model that will begin by ensuring enrolment of an estimated four lakh out-of-school adolescent girls in the 11-14 years age group. The campaign, ‘Kanya Shiksha Pravesh Utsav’, is being steered by the ministry of women and child development in partnership with the ministry of education. Highlighting the government’s focus on convergence and coordination between ministries, departments and states, WCD minister Smriti Irani said that she was certain that by May all the four lakh out-of-school girls will be brought into the fold of education. Data on out-of-school girls are based on their visits to anganwadi centres for nutrition, nutrition education and skilling. At the launch, Unicef India also cited findings of a ‘U Report India’ based on inputs from a real-time data collection and communication platform for youth and communities. Drawing from responses of 50,000 children and adolescents in 28 states, the report highlights that nearly one-third of the respondents know a girl who has dropped out of school. The government launched a nation-wide campaign on the eve of the International Women’s Day to bring out-of-school girls back into the education system by rolling out a convegence model that will begin by ensuring enrolment of an estimated four lakh out-of-school adolescent girls in the 11-14 years age group.
The campaign, ‘Kanya Shiksha Pravesh Utsav’, is being steered by the ministry of women and child development in partnership with the ministry of education. Highlighting the government’s focus on convergence and coordination between ministries, departments and states, WCD minister Smriti Irani said that she was certain that by May all the four lakh out-of-school girls will be brought into the fold of education. Data on out-of-school girls are based on their visits to anganwadi centres for nutrition, nutrition education and skilling. At the launch, Unicef India also cited findings of a ‘U Report India’ based on inputs from a real-time data collection and communication platform for youth and communities. Drawing from responses of 50,000 children and adolescents in 28 states, the report highlights that nearly one-third of the respondents know a girl who has dropped out of school.