The 4th national conference ‘Plan For Every Child’ – Build Back Better with Girls’ started on Tuesday at The Park Hotel in New Delhi.
The two-day conference, from December 07 to 08, 2021 brings together a series of power-packed discussions that aim at formalising clear action points to mitigate the negative impact of Covid-19 on girls. Organised by Plan India, the conference would be attended by people from diverse backgrounds like jurists, government officials, media, civil society organisations, experts, and child rights practitioners from the national and international sphere to discuss the multifaceted agenda of inclusion, safety and equality for and with girls, in building a better India post the pandemic.
The inaugural session was attended by Sriram Haridass, Representative India and Country Director, Bhutan a.i., United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Dr Dnyaneshwar Manohar Mulay, Member, National Human Rights (NHRC), Major General Manoj Kumar Bindal, Executive Director, National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) and Rathi Vinay Jha, President, Plan India Governing Board and Former Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India. Hon’ble Justice Madan B. Lokur, Former Judge, Supreme Court of India will also join the conference to deliver the special address outlining the need for legal awareness and legal literacy for girls for building back better.
Commenting on Plan India’s commitment to girl-centered community development, Mohammed Asif, Executive Director, Plan India said, “The Covid-19 pandemic has created many challenges and slowed down the pace of development and change that was being achieved through the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao initiative. It is important that collaborative efforts for advancing education, nutrition, health, safety nets for all girls and women are undertaken with renewed vigour by government, civil society, and corporates. At the Plan for Every Child Conference, more than 30 eminent Speakers and experts would deliberate and resent the pathway to girl-centered community development in post-covid situation. They would focus on the solutions and safety nets for millions of girls, children and women with a vision to enable them to learn, lead, decide and thrive.” The two-day conference will facilitate multiple sessions, presentations, and discussions on addressing the barriers for girls and young women in getting access to; inclusive and quality education, health services, child development, and mental well-being, essential medicines, and vaccines, maternal and reproductive health care, food security and nutrition, especially in rural and marginalised communities.
The delegates would also deliberate on how communities, local NGOs, institutions, corporates, and the state could put girls first and develop integrated approaches towards eliminating gender-based violence in all its forms. Plan India would follow up on the recommendations from the conference with policymakers, corporates, and other stakeholders on enabling innovations and new approaches for scale and impact.
Plan India has been successfully organising ‘Plan for Every Child (P4EC) National Conference’ since 2016 with Ministry of Women and Child Development and Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Govt. of India. These national conferences brought in rich and varied perspectives on prevention, system strengthening, safeguarding children, equality for girls and provided recommendations on the priorities and opportunities for the advancement of girls’ rights. In its first year, deliberations from the conference founded the 2016 India Declaration – a commitment by 500 NGOs across 32 states and union territories along with key stakeholders in government, media, and subject matter experts, to protect and uphold the rights of the child. Following this we examined the interface of inclusion, access, and opportunities for girls in the 2017 conference by bringing to the platform, important deliberations regarding solutions and best practices for challenges faced by girls.
