One day the world will celebrate Kanyashree Divas as International Girl Child Day: Mamata

Kolkata: Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Monday that she believes that the ‘Kanyashree’ scheme will one day be celebrated across the globe as International Girl Child Day.

“I believe that this day will be celebrated as the International Girl Child’s Day in future,’’ Banerjee said addressing a programme to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Kanyashree Divas at Dhono Dhanya auditorium in Alipore. Kanyashree’ is now a brand and it is written in ‘golden words’ across the globe,” she added.

She recollected the ‘’proud moment’’ when she received the United Nations Public Services Award (UNPSA) in 2017 for the scheme beating several other countries from around the globe who had participated in the competition.

“Bengal’s culture and merit must keep moving forward. Nobody can stop or threaten Bengal. We will surprise others through the development of Bengal. Bengal will not bow down to any sort of intimidation or threats. Bengal is a place where people of all caste, creed and religion live together in harmony. Bengal is an epitome of unity in diversity,” Banerjee said.

She maintained that Bengal had played a leading role in the freedom struggle. “It was from here that the renaissance and struggle for the country’s freedom had started. If you visit the Cellular Jail in Andaman and Nicobar Island you will see that 90 per cent of the names of freedom fighters are from Bengal and the rest are from Punjab. So it is needless to say that Bengal has played a leading role in the freedom struggle movement,” she added.

Banerjee asked the educational institutions to take their students on a visit to Alipore Jail Museum which had inmates such as Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhas Chandra Bose and other freedom fighters during British rule.

A commemorative volume titled, “The Kanyashree Story, 2013-2023’ which documents the journey of the scheme and its beneficiaries over the decade and the Kanyashree Annual Report for the year 2022-23 was launched on Monday. The Kanyashree chatbot to enable stakeholders to communicate with the Department of Women and Child Development that executes the scheme was also launched. As many as 39 Kanyashree girls, 3 schools and 3 colleges of Kolkata were felicitated at the event for their outstanding performance in connection with Kanyashree. Five best-performing districts namely — Hooghly, Howrah, East Midnapore, North 24-Parganas and Nadia were awarded at the programme.

Launched in October 2013, more than 81 lakh girls have been beneficiaries of the scheme.