Sakshi's main focus in its Health, Education & Community Development Projects is on Girl Child Upliftment & Women's Empowerment because we believe a girl empowered is a family empowered and a family empowered is a nation empowered. Sakshi Girls Education Project Pupils Celebrated National Girl Child Day with great gusto performing Song and Dance Recitals and Role Plays on Importance of Educating the Girl Child. Sakshi President Dr. Mridula Tandon, Chief Guest Ms. Alka Lamba and Special Guest Councillor Ms. Neetu Singh cheered them on enthusiastically and gave inspiring speeches using personal life experiences motivating the girls to study hard and make something of their lives. Click here for more photos.

All Sakshi's projects in Health, Education and Community Development have a special focus on girls and women because we believe that Girl Child Upliftment and Women's Empowerment are the keys to sustainable Poverty Alleviation. A girl empowered is a family empowered and a family empowered is a nation empowered.

Therefore, to mark the importance of the Girl Child Day and celebrate the achievements of our own girl child pupils who have persevered through much adversity to set their feet on the path to success, Sakshi celebrated National Girl Child Day with great enthusiasm and festivity.

Key personalities present included:

• Sakshi President, Dr. Mridula Tandon who has helmed Sakshi's special focus on girls and women over the past two decades, as Co-Founder since 1993 and as President since 2009 and who is herself an eminent social worker in Women's Empowerment and Gender Sensitization.
• Chief Guest Ms. Alka Lamba who has a long record of working for women's welfare as the former General Secretary of the All India Mahila Congress, National Commission of Women member and Vice Chairperson of NIPCCD, an autonomous body of the Ministry of Child and Women Development.
• Special Guest Ms. Neetu Singh, the area's Councillor and another inspirational female figure for our girls.

Dr. Mridula Tandon, Sakshi President, opens with Personal Message of Empowerment to Girls and their Families

Dr. Mridula Tandon opened the festivities with a short introduction about Sakshi and how the cause of development and especially Girl Child Upliftment is close to her heart. She gave the inspiring example of her grandfather, Rai Bahadur Dr. Khazanchand Bhalla.

Dr. Bhalla was a decorated scientist, the discoverer of Plasmodium khazanii and head of an eminent medical institute in pre-independence British India and raised his five daughters to be doctors and teachers at a time when the education of girls, not only in India but worldwide, was considered optional at best. Dr. Tandon's mother, Dr. Prakash Anand studied at the prestigious Lady Hardinge Medical College, went for higher studies in Public Health to the University of California, Berkeley, and returning to India to serve her country became an eminent professional in the Ministry of Family Planning, Government of India. 

Dr. Tandon motivated the girls to study hard and similarly make something of themselves and asked their parents who were also in attendance to support their daughters. That Dr. Tandon's speech struck a chord with the 300+ girls present and their families who were also in attendance could be seen by the absorbed look on all their faces and the nodding heads.     

Sakshi Girl Pupils Present Dance, Song, Role Plays and Speeches Displaying their Talents and Sending Social Message

Dr. Tandon's heartwarming speech was followed by a colourful and instructive program by the girls at Sakshi's education centres comprising: 

• Group Dance recitals set to the popular tunes of the day and choreographed by Sakshi teachers.
• Group song recitals for which the girls had been trained by Ustaad Shakeel of the Dilli Gharana.
• A fun and interesting Qawalli
• A Role Play on the Importance of Educating the Girl Child where girls enacted parts of people who consider girls don't need to study and as themselves, provided reasons why they should and want to study.
• A Role Play on How to Tackle Eve-Teasers
• Speech by the Block Development Co-ordinator and Girls' Self Help Group Leader

The dance, song, theatre presented were both a testament to the artistic talents of Sakshi's girl child pupils and also sent an emphatic social message to the community about the abilities of their daughters and the need to support them.

Chief Guest, Ms. Alka Lamba, gives Rousing Speech asking for Gender Equality

Ms. Alka Lamba gave a rousing speech motivating the girls to be confident of their abilities and exhorting the families present to treat their children equally, regardless of gender, whether it be a matter of nutrition or education. Ms. Lamba gave examples from her own life experience about obstacles she had faced as a woman and how she had overcome them. Her speech was heard attentively by all the 300+ girls present and their families and was met at the end with a deafening chorus of claps.   

Special Guest Local Councillor Ms. Neetu Singh motivates Girls to Study Hard

Refreshments and Wrap-Up

The event wrapped with refreshments served to all girls and guests and time given for everyone to mingle and discuss the day's events, after which hundreds of young girls streamed towards their homes, exhausted with the day's excitement but with happy memories to store for the future and renewed motivation to pursue the path to success.  

Learn more about Sakshi's Girls Education Project.