- launched by the Prime Minister on January 22, 2015, at Panipat in Haryana.
- It is a joint initiative of the Ministries of Women & Child Development, Health & Family Welfare and Human Resources Development
- twin objectives: to protect a girl child of her right to be born and her right to life, and to empower her with education and life skills.
- also launched the "Sukanya Samriddhi Account" for the benefit of the girl child for her education. The current year’s Budget proposal for 2015-16, gives it a tax break on its accrued annual interest of 9.1%.
- The scheme was initiated with an initial corpus of Rs 100 crore
The Gender Inequality Index (GII):
- an index for measurement of gender disparity
- introduced in the 2010 Human Development Report 20th anniversary edition by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
- Dimensions: reproductive health (MMR, Adolescent birth rate), empowerment (Share of seats in parliament, secondary education), and labor market participation.
- Value: 0~ non-existence of Inequality. 1~ Complete Inequality.
- very High: High: Medium: Low
- 2014 Report: Top 3 ~ Norway, Australia, Switzerland
- Bottom 3 ~ Niger, Congo, Central African Republic.
- India: 135. Medium.
- Pakistan: 146
- Bangladesh: 142
- Afghanistan: 169
- Maldives: 103
- Sri Lanka: 73
- China: 91
- SA: 118
- Brazil: 79
- Russia: 57
