Helal Uddin Ahmed: The World Conference on Women held in Beijing, China in 1995 had unanimously adopted the ‘Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action’ for advancing the rights of women as well as girls by identifying the latter separately. After that, the ‘International Day of Girls’ initiative was started as a project by the NGO Plan International, which emerged out of its ‘Because I Am a Girl’ campaign. As a follow-up to this initiative, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the ‘Resolution 66/170’ on 19 December 2011 declaring 11 October each year as the ‘International Day of the Girl Child’in order to recognize the rights of girls and the unique challenges they face across the globe. Since then, the day focuses on the need for addressing the challenges encountered by girls as well as for promoting their empowerment cum human rights.

The resolution of the UN General Assembly for introducing the day had stated: “The empowerment of and investment in girls, which are critical for economic growth, the achievement of all Millennium Development Goals, including the eradication of poverty and extreme poverty, as well as the meaningful participation of girls in decisions that affect them, are key in breaking the cycle of discrimination and violence and in promoting and protecting the full and effective enjoyment of their human rights, and recognizing also that empowering girls requires their effective enjoyment of their human rights, and recognizing also that empowering girls requires their active participation in decision-making processes and the active support and engagement of their parents, legal guardians, families and care providers, as well as boys and men and the wider community”.  

This year, the International Day of the Girl Child was celebrated all over the world with the theme of ‘Digital Generation, Our Generation’.It called for equal access to the internet and digital devices for girls, as well as for targeted investments to facilitate opportunities for themin using, leading and designingthe technologies safely and meaningfully. As the global agency UN Women had pointed out, digital inclusion and literacy have opened new avenues of learning, earning and leading for girls, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, but the pandemic has also deepened the gender divide in connectivity and online safety, with girls facing socio-economic barriers to internet and access to devices.

The International Day of the Girl Child was celebrated in Bangladesh as well this year through various programs as elsewhere in the world. A dialogue was held in Dhaka on the occasion titled ‘Role of technology in preventing child marriage and child labour’, which was participated by ministers, policy makers, academics, researchers and civil society members. The participants called for enhancement of technological applications alongside generation of awareness for preventing and resisting child marriage and child labour in the country. They opined that prevention of child marriage would be facilitated if there was scope for online verification of birth-registration certificate during marriages. Similarly, preparation of age-based database for children and its use for tallying with employed factory workers could aid in preventing child labour that violates the law.

The state minister for ICT revealed during the dialogue that the government was going to launch an online marriage registration system in the country, which would be linked to the National ID web-portal. Through this, it would be possible to minimise child marriage in the country to a great extent, he hoped. According to the figures provided by Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, 51 per cent girls in the country become victims of child marriage before attaining the age of 18 years. Besides, 1.30 million under-18 girls and 0.70 million under-14 girls are engaged in the country’s labour force, although girls recruited for domestic work have been excluded from the calculation. Therefore, verification of NID cards and school certificates should be made mandatory for registration of marriages as well as recruitment of workers.

Speakers in the dialogue also opined that the process and procedure followed while running mobile courts for preventing child marriages should be made simpler. At the upazila level, the UpazilaNirbahi Officers (UNO)are vested with the magisterial responsibility of conducting mobile courts, but the police often find it difficult to coordinate with then when complaints are filed via the National Emergency Service number 999. Besides, the Union Parishad chairmen and members often do not cooperate during child marriage prevention drives. As many as 11,668 related calls were received by 999 since 2018, of which 19 per cent were made by female callers.

The speakers in the dialogue held the view that the social security of child workers should be ensured alongside rigorous enforcement of law for preventing child labour among girls. Options like introduction of registration cards should also be considered for the purpose. About 95 per cent child workers could be kept out of the labour market if a linkage could be developed between compulsory primary education and the minimum age of workers. The country’s researchers could also contribute significantly towards reducing social maladies like child marriage and child labour through conducting in-depth research and surveys on related social issues. The challenges and problems should be identified first and then appropriate steps should be taken by the relevant government agencies for resolving those.

Following the 25th anniversary commemoration of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in 2020, the UN Women-backed Generation Equality Forum (GEF) has launched a five-year campaign in 2021 to elicit commitments from the civil society leaders, governments, corporations and change-makers around the world for bolder gender equality impacts. The Covid-19 pandemic has however highlighted the girls’ diverse digital realities despite proliferation of digital platforms for learning, earning and connecting. The gender digital divide in connectivity, devices and their use, as well as skills and jobs is quite real. The inequity and exclusionary gaps across geographies and generations have now emerged as a huge challenge to ensuring a digital revolution that is for all, with all, and by all. Therefore, occasions like the International Day of the Girl Child should be seized to inject momentum and drive action cum accountability in GEF commitments for and with girls to bridge the digital gender divide.

Author: Dr HelalUddin Ahmed is a retired Additional Secretary, former Editorial Consultant of The Financial Express, and ex-Editor of Bangladesh Quarterly. Email: hahmed1960@gmail.com