DW BUREAU / PATIALA Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh today kickstarted the National Girl Child Day celebrations with a clarion call to the society to come forward to protect the life and liberty of girls. Underlining the need for creating grassroots-level awareness to further improve Punjab's girl child sex ratio, which had gone up from 890/1000 in 2013-14 to 920/1000 during 2019-20, the Chief Minister said his government's decision to dedicate the month of January as 'Dheeyan Di Lohri' was a step in this direction. The Chief Minister listed various measures taken by his government to nurture women power, including 30 percent reservation for women in Government jobs, 50 percent reservation in panchayat and local body elections, One Stop Centre Scheme in all districts to support women and girls who are victims of violence or conflict, among others. He pointed out that the recently announced 50 percent concession in bus fare for women scheme would be launched shortly. Further, Capt Amarinder cited the Mata Tripta Mahila Yojana, which has been launched with the aim to protect the rights and interests of women at every stage from birth till old age. It will empower 8 lakh Women Headed Households (WHH), he said. Another novel initiative in the form of Kasturba Gandhi Mahila Yojana has been launched with a view to ensure cent per cent coverage of women under all existing schemes through sustained outreach activities, he added. The Chief Minister also felicitated five beneficiaries - Suman, Savneet Kaur, Sumanpreet Kaur, Shaganpreet Kaur and Prabhsimran Kaur - of different social security schemes. Social Security, Women and Child Development Aruna Chaudhary expressed gratitude to the Chief Minister for taking these various initiatives for women empowerment, in addition to the Poshan Abhiyan aimed at providing nutritional diet to women. As many as 27314 Anganwadi centres did commendable job in Covid-19 peak time as frontline warriors, she added. Principal Secretary Social Security, Women and Child Development Raji P Srivastava welcomed the Chief Minister and other dignitaries. Incidentally, though the National Girl Child Day was on January 24, the state government is celebrating the occasion today. (editor@dailyworld.in)