Justice BV Nagarathna expressed serious concern over declining sex ratios in some states, citing female infanticide and foeticide. She emphasized that girls should not merely survive but actively thrive, highlighting the urgent need for gender equality.
Supreme Court Justice BV Nagarathna expressed grave concern over the declining sex ratios attributed to potential female infanticide and foeticide in certain states, emphasizing that girls should not only survive but thrive.
She made these remarks during the national annual stakeholders consultation on “Safeguarding the Girl Child: Towards a Safer and Enabling Environment for Her in India,” organized by the Supreme Court’s Juvenile Justice Committee in partnership with UNICEF India.
Justice Nagarathna spoke in the presence of Chief Justice of India BR Gavai, Union Minister for Women and Child Development Annapurna Devi, other apex court judges, and members of the Juvenile Justice Committee.
She asserted that a young girl in India can only be regarded as a truly equal citizen when she has the freedom to aspire to achieve anything her male counterpart can, and when she receives the same level of support and resources without encountering gender-specific obstacles.
She stated,
“Put differently, the odds of her being born at all, having access to the right nutrition, care, education and material resources, a secure and safe environment, developing a distinct sense of self and being able to achieve whatever she sets her mind to have to be equivalent to that of a boy child born in this country. She should not merely survive but actively thrive,”
She highlighted that the initial challenge a girl child in India faces is simply being born, noting that many families may react with disappointment upon learning that their child is a girl rather than a boy.
She added, while acknowledging improvements in other regions,
“The child sex ratio (0-6 years) in India has only seen marginal improvement, going from 914 girls per 1000 boys in the 2011 census to 929 girls per 1000 boys in the National Family Health Survey-5. There are also recent concerning reports of worsening sex ratios caused by likely female infanticide/foeticide in certain states,”
As the head of the Juvenile Justice Committee, Justice Nagarathna highlighted the significance of nutritional care, warning that without proper nourishment, efforts to uplift the girl child may prove ineffective.
She noted,
“It is often the case that girl children are deliberately fed lesser or lower quality food than their brothers. While schemes such as the midday meal scheme, the ‘anaemia mukt Bharat’ programme and the POSHAN abhiyan have made large strides in ensuring access to quality nutrition for young girl children, it is important that the cascading and deleterious effects of early years’ malnutrition on the girl child’s ability to be physically active, think and problem-solve be sufficiently publicised,”
Addressing the issue of child marriage, she recognized the positive trends indicated by successive National Family Health Surveys, which show a consistent decline in child marriage rates. Over the last fifteen years, collaborative policy efforts and community engagement have halved the prevalence of child marriage in India.
She explained,
“Through the enactment of laws such as the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 and in accordance with India’s international obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, both state and Union Governments, occasionally in collaboration with UNICEF, have undertaken several positive steps. The need of the hour is to adopt holistic solutions that are adequately tailored to regional peculiarities, to ensure that interventions undertaken are most effective,”
On the topic of education for girls, Justice Nagarathna stressed that quality education is vital not just for empowering girls but also for the overall prosperity of the nation. She added that for India to achieve its aspiration of becoming a global superpower, it must ensure that today’s young girls are well-supported to become the women of the future, shaping the country’s trajectory.
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Justice Nagarathna found it encouraging that, according to NFHS data, school attendance among girls aged 15-17 has significantly improved.
She remarked,
“However, the pursuit of education after the secondary level by young women and girls is still frustrated by high dropout rates. What are the reasons why young girls drop out of school? The girl child may be expected to sacrifice her education in its entirety or study a course that she is not very interested in so as to ensure that her brother is able to pursue his dreams. It is crucial that such virulent factors are adequately addressed. Education thus being provided must be free of stereotypes, of bias and ideology and must be able to mould the individual who undergoes it to become an upstanding member of society,”
She also emphasized the need for trauma-informed and child-sensitive procedures in courts and police stations, noting that between 2018 and 2022, only about 4.8 percent of individuals arrested for human trafficking were convicted, despite a significant number of charge sheets being filed during that timeframe.
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