Following is the text of the speech of Union Minister of Communications and Information Technology Thiru A. Raja during the release of commemorative postage stamp on the occasion of National Girl Child Day in New Delhi, today:
“I am extremely delighted to be here today for the release of commemorative postage stamp on National Girl Child Day, a cause so relevant and important for the furtherance of dignity and conditions of living of a major segment of our population. Indian tradition has always accorded a very high place to woman in the society. However, some of the harsh realities on the treatment meted out to girl children have not only been shocking but despicable. Female foeticide mal-nutrition, lack of opportunities for education, child labour, child marriage, early motherhood have been some of the major concerns which need our continuous attention and focus. Mahatma Gandhi, the father of our nation laid the greatest emphasis on the education of woman. He contended that if we teach a man we teach an individual, but if we teach a woman we teach a family.
Independent India adopted an egalitarian constitution bestowing equal rights to man and woman in all human endeavour. Yet discrimination against girl children mitigates the vision of a modern India that our founding fathers conceptualized. Our society has time and again shown its resolve and resilience to fight against any social evil and has demonstrated in no uncertain terms to the world our commitments on the path of progress in this direction. Even when many a developed nations in the world are yet to have woman as heads of state, we are proud to have Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil jee as the President of the biggest democracy in the world. India can further boast of people like Smt. Indira Gandhi who became the Prime Minister of the country way back in the year 1966 and made the woman folk of India proud and confirmed our commitment to the upliftment of status of woman in our society. Sonia Ji as President of UPA is another shinning example. So is Renuka Ji. 24th January 1966 was the day when Smt. Indira Gandhi was sworn as the first woman Prime Minister of India. That day has been declared as National Girl Child Day.
India Post joins hands with Ministry of Women & Child Development in celebrating National Girl Child Day through the release of this commemorative postage stamp. Postage stamps as paper ambassador of the country promoting and celebrating major achievements and attributes of our country have no parallel. They travel far and wide across the country and in the world carrying the message they seek to disseminate. Though a small piece of paper, postage stamps are a miniature art in themselves and they have a very large following of philatelists and lovers of this hobby across the world. After football, philately is the second most popular pass time in the world. Philately is called the king of hobbies and hobby of kings. It has more than 3 crore lovers in India alone of varying interests and globally it is a huge business of more than 10 billion dollars. The innocuous looking stamp is really a powerful tool of promotion and a subject of intense study by scholars and philatelists.
I am sure the stamp that we release today will be extremely popular among the philatelists and the lovers of this hobby as also with other people who are associated with the noble cause of welfare of the girl child.
I wish all the very best to Ministry of Women & Child Development in their endeavour in creating an awareness and fostering welfare of the girl child in India.’
