By Catherine Ageno
As the world commemorates the International Day of the Girl Child today, the government of Uganda is asked to ensure that both the girl and boy child are given equal opportunity to access education.
The call is made by the spokesperson of the opposition Forum for Democratic Change Women’s League Ms Sarah Eperu.
Her call comes after a study by Twaweza Uganda, an “organization that works on enabling children to learn and governments to be more open and responsive in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda, showed that citizens were divided on whether men and boys should be given priority over women and girls when circumstances are tight.
The Sauti Za Wanaichi mobile phone survey conducted between May 12 and 30 2018 indicated that one out of three citizens (32%) agreed with the idea that boys should be given priority over girls when it comes to school.
However, Ms Eperu tells KFM that this is a bad precedent for the young male adults which encourages further abuse and marginalization of women. She calls for urgent action by the ministry of gender, labor and social development to ensure equal opportunities are availed to both young women and men.
The International Day of the Girl Child today is celebrated annually on 11th October to promote girl’s empowerment and fulfilment of their human rights while also highlighting the challenges that girls all over the world face.
Launched in 2012 by the United Nations general assembly, the Day of The Girl Summit, held at United Nations headquarters every year aims to bring together organisations that serve girls to further the advancement of their human rights. All over the world, there are marches and special events such as concerts and sporting events to mark the occasion. In a global ‘takeover’ girls get the chance to take over key roles in business, politics and sport for the day and stories are shared on social media with the hashtags #girlstakeover #dayofthegirl and #girlhero!
