Raising voice for the girl child

For a long time now, girls and women from all over the world have been struggling with various barriers imposed on them by the society. To acknowledge the efforts and the fight of girls against all the injustice, Sachhi Saheli in collaboration with the Delhi Government, is celebrating the International Girl Child Day on October 11 from 5 pm onwards at the Amphitheater, Rajiv Chowk.

Declared as an international observance day in 2012 by the United Nations, it marks an annual celebration of girls across the globe. With 'Nigraani Nahi Jaankari Chahiye' and 'Tu Bolegi Muh Kholegi Tabhi Zamana Badlega' as the main theme at this event, Sachhi Saheli will bring forth all the issues surrounding the girl child and the challenges that she faces in our society and provide the audience with a platform to get involved and ask questions they are usually reluctant to ask.

In our country, the girl child fights many internal battles just because she is a girl. She carries the heavy weight of pride of her family on her shoulders and has to be extremely cautious so as to keep it intact. We live in troubled times where children are sometimes subjected to violence or harassment and they don't know how to deal with it.

According to the latest statistics from Delhi Police, every day six rapes are reported in Delhi out of which two are that of young girls below the age of 18. Between the month of January and August approximately 1446 rape cases were registered.

This event will provide children and their parents with plausible solutions when faced with any harassment so that they don't have to keep suffering in silence and appropriate action can be taken against the perpetrator.

The event will be based around the theme, "Life of a girl child: Hurdles and roadblocks from Conception to College" and the same will be elucidated at the programme. Asmita theatre group will perform a street play in order to throw light on the life of a girl child especially focusing on sexual harassment in the early stages of life and how it affects the self-worth of a girl.

This will then be followed by an intriguing performance by a sand artist through which a story with a message about the roadblocks and hurdles in a girl's life will be conveyed.

The last leg of the event will culminate into an insightful panel discussion wherein the audience will interact with panelists and representatives from Delhi State Legal Services Authority, Delhi police, Delhi commission for women, Ministry of India and a representative from an NGO working around issues of sexual harassment. This session will be instrumental in bringing forth questions that audience may have regarding issues of sexual harassment or girl safety.