2018-08-10 Fri

In ancient India, a girl child is considered a sign of goddess Laxmi. But later as the time passed, the status of the girl in a society declined. The perception of the girl was not welcomed in the society; she faced discrimination and humiliation. When it comes to the sector like education, good health, and opportunities, she was neglected just because of her gender. Many social reformers like Rajaram Mohan Roy, Swami Dayananda Saraswati, Ishwar Chandra Vidhyasagar came forward and they gave their best for improving the status of women.

To spread the awareness about girl child in the year 1990 SAARC had declared this year as ‘CARE FOR GIRL CHILD’. The full form of SAARC is ‘South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation’. ‘SAARC’ is formed by 8 countries (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Indian, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Pakistan), with its headquarters at Kathmandu.

The Indian government had issued 1 Rupee commemorative coin honouring girl child in the year 1990. The obverse of this coin depicts the picture of the small girl under the sun and the inscription ‘SAARC YEAR’ and 1990 below and with the logo of ‘SAARC’ to the left side of the girl, The legend ‘KHUSHAL BALIKA BHAVISHYA DESH KA’ in Devanagari and ‘CARE FOR THE GIRL CHILD’ in roman around. The Reverse of the coin depicts ‘ASHOKA'S LION’ with the legend ‘SATYAMEVA JAYATE’ and denomination 1 below, the inscription ‘BHARAT RUPAYE’ in Devanagari to right and ‘INDIAN RUPEE’ in roman to left.

Image Courtesy: Mintage World