Celebration of National Girl Child’s Day 2021 at UCOST, Dehradun
India celebrates National Girl Child day each year on January 24. The day is an initiative of the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Govt. of India and focuses on the need to address the challenges that girls face in Indian society due to gender biases. The purpose of the day is also to change the attitude of society towards girls. National Girl Child day 2021 is being celebrated across the country with the objective of raising awareness on the issue of declining Child Sex Ratio (CSR). The celebrations will also mark the anniversary of Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao (BBBP) scheme.
Due to Holiday on 24th Jan, The Council Celebrated National Girl Child’s Day 2021 on 25th Jan, 2021 at UCOST, Vigyan Dham, Jhajra through a Webinar. The Chief Guest of the webinar was eminent scientist & former secretary, Deptt. Of Biotechnology, Govt. of India, Padma Bhushan, Dr Manju Sharma. Dr Rajendra Dobhal, Director General, UCOST, Dehradun was the special guest on the occasion. In the opening remark, Dr Aparna Sharma, Sr. Scientific Officer, UCOST, Dehradun & Coordinator of the Program welcomed the dignitaries and all participants. The theme of the event was highlighted through a small video clip of conversation between the then Prime Minister of India and astronaut Kalpana Chawla in space onboard Columbia. Speaking about the development of Covaxin and Covishield vaccines, in the current COVID-19 scenario, Dr. Dobhal emphasized that these achievements were made possible by establishment of 9 prominent research institutions including National Institute of Immunology, Delhi. Dr. Manju Sharma emphasized various significant issues pertaining to educating and inspiring girls to take up STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) for building career as scientists, scientific administrators and entrepreneurs by citing various prominent figures like Prof. MGK Menon, Dr. M.S. Swaminathan, Dr. Priya Abrahim (Director, National Institute of Virology)and Dr. Kiran Majumdar Shaw. She highly appreciated and congratulated UCOST for the efforts in involving more than 500 women participants from schools, colleges and universities under activities of NASI- Dehradun Chapter. Detailed information on various types of programs for women with break-in-service and other fellowships was also shared with the participants. Dr. D.P. Uniyal, Joint Director, UCOST thanked Dr. Manju Sharma for sharing her vast experience, sparing valuable time and inspiring girls for taking up science subjects as career. He also thanked Dr Rajendra Dobhal, Director General, UCOST, Sh. G.S. Routela Former DG, NCSM and presently Advisor, Science City, Dehradun and all the staff of UCOST for organizing this webinar. The participants highly appreciated the webinar for valuable and useful information shared by the Chief Guest.
