Department of Home Science (Human Development), University of Jammu organized a talk on the topic “Celebrating Girlhood” to mark the National Girl Child Day.

Prof. Manoj K. Dhar, Vice-Chancellor, University of Jammu Jammu was the chief guest on the occasion. In his address, he stated that girl children are constrained by the socio-cultural and financial barriers in achieving educational goals especially in Science and technology in India though in Jammu University the ratio of female students is higher than the male students both in academics and research. He highlighted the importance of gender sensitization and awareness at the university level.

Dr. Manju Dhoundiyal, Deputy Director (Retired), NIPCCD, Ministry of Women and Child Development, GoI was the chief resource person for the session. She delivered a very informative and thought-provoking talk on “Celebrating girlhood”. She highlighted the importance and history of celebrating the National Girl Child Day and also focused on the situational analysis of girl child in India with a special focus on J&K UT. She was of the opinion that every girl child should have the right to live with dignity and the youth can act as a catalyst in bringing the girl child to the forefront. She also opined that females and their families should have a strong knowledge of the various laws and programmes that have been implemented by the Govt. of India from time to time as this will help in gender empowerment in real sense.

Dr. Dhoundiyal introduced Himaani who was a multi-faceted personality. She interacted with the audience and shared her own life experiences focusing on four empowering strategies i.e., education, hobby, travelling and learning languages. She enthralled the audience with her mesmerizing song on women empowerment written by her.

Earlier, Prof. Samridhi Arora, Head of the Department in her welcome address emphasized that National Girl Child Day is celebrated every year on January 24 to highlight inequalities and challenges faced by girls in our country and to spread awareness regarding gender discrimination.

Prof. Rajni Dhingra, Dean Research Studies, Prof. Neeru Sharma, Convener, NSS Campus unit and Dr. Sarika Manhas, Associate Professor shared their views on the occasion and motivated the students to sensitize the society on issues related to girl child.

A formal vote of thanks was given by  Pooja Sharma, student of IIIrd semester. Neha Kumari, research scholar conducted the proceedings of the programme.