The ‘International day of the girl child’ was celebrated at DPS R.K.Puram on 14 October 2014. The chief guest was Mr.John Baird, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada. Also present was Dr.Ashok Dyalchand,founder of AGRT-Institute of Health Management and Ms.Pakzoon Dastoor, Manager of Advisory Research at Dasra. The Principal, Dr. D. R. Saini along with the Vice Principal, Mrs Shobha Mehta; and the Vice Principal of DPS Shiksha Kendra, Mrs Pushpa Agarwal, welcomed all the guests. The event commenced with the lighting of the lamp. A clip on the child marriage was shown to the students.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Honourable John Baird was presented with a shawl as a token of appreciation. The students of DPS Shiksha Kendra performed a scintillating dance depicting the reality of a girl child. The principal addressed the gathering about the significance of cultural exchange and stated that both the countries, India and Canada should be closer in this era of technology. Mr. John Baird spoke about the importance of encouraging girls so as to empower them and help them achieve their full potential.
Dr. Ashok Dyalchand addressed the gathering with his words of wisdom and highlighted the life skills which need to be provided to the villages and slums, especially to empower girls through knowledge and learning. Another delegate, Ms. Dastoor spoke about NGO’s working with their organisation, ‘Dasra’ and the statistics of girl child marriages.
There was an interesting interactive session in which Dr. Dyalchand and Ms. Dastoor answered the various queries of the students.