Contents

1. National Girl Child Day
2. Statehood Day
3. National Voters’ Day
4. Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) agreement

NATIONAL GIRL CHILD DAY

Focus: GS 1; Social empowerment, communalism, regionalism & secularism.

Why in News?

Nation Celebrates the National Girl Child Day

About National Girl Child Day

• Nation celebrated the National Girl Child Day today.
• The day is celebrated every year on 24thJanuary.
• The day is an initiative of the Ministry of Women and Child Development.
• The objective behind celebrating the National Girl Child Day is to provide all support and opportunities to the girls of the country.
• It also aims towards promoting awareness about the rights of the girl child and to increase awareness on the importance of girl’s education, and their health and nutrition.
• The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has saluted the daughters of the nation on National Girl Child Day today.
• In a tweet, Shri Modi Ji said “On National Girl Child Day, we salute our #DeshKiBeti and the accomplishments in various fields.
• The Central Government has undertaken many initiatives that focus on empowering the girl child, including access to education, better healthcare and improving gender sensitivity.”
• National Education Policy (NEP)-2020 has introduced “Gender Inclusion Fund for targeting the development of girl child. 
• The GOI will constitute a “Gender Inclusion Fund” to provide quality and equitable education for all girls.
• The fund will focus on ensuring 100% enrollment of girls in schooling and a record participation rate in higher education, decrease gender gaps at all levels, practice gender equity and inclusion in society, and improve the leadership capacity of girls through positive civil dialogues.
• Funds will also enable States to support and scale effective community-based interventions that address local context-specific barriers to girls and  transgender students.
• NEP 2020 will focus on the safety and security of school-going girls both inside and outside of the campus.
• The schools have to ensure harassment, discrimination, and domineer free campus before enlisting for yearly accreditation.
• This will increase the attendance number of girl children in the class.
• The policy will identify social mores and gender stereotypes that prevent girls from accessing education and causing regular dropouts.

Please Click on this link for detailed explanation about National Education Policy 2020

STATEHOOD DAY

Focus: GS 1; Post-independence consolidation and reorganization within the country.

Why in News?

PM greets people of Uttar Pradesh on their Statehood Day

Please click on this link for detailed explanation about State Reorganization Act 1956

NATIONAL VOTER’s DAY

Focus: GS 2; Appointment to various Constitutional posts, powers, functions and responsibilities of various Constitutional Bodies.

Why in News?

11th National Voters’ Day (NVD) to be celebrated on 25th January 2021.Theme for this year’s NVD is ‘Making Our Voters Empowered, Vigilant, Safe and Informed’

About National Voter’s Day

• Election Commission of India is celebrating 11th National Voters Day on 25th January 2021.
• The theme for this year’s NVD, ‘Making Our Voters Empowered, Vigilant, Safe and Informed’, envisages active and participative voters during elections.
• It also focuses on ECI’s commitment towards conducting elections safely during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The National Voters’ Day has been celebrated on January 25 every year since 2011, all across the country to mark the foundation day of Election Commission of India, i.e. 25th January 1950.
• The main purpose of the NVD celebration is to encourage, facilitate and maximize enrolment, especially for the new voters.
• Dedicated to the voters of the country, the day is utilized to spread awareness among voters and for promoting informed participation in the electoral process.
• New voters are felicitated and handed over their Elector Photo Identity Card (EPIC) in the NVD functions.
• The National Awards being conferred by the President on the occasion include those state and district level officers, who gave their outstanding performance in the conduct of elections in different spheres such as IT initiatives, security management, election management during Covid-19, accessible election and contribution in the field of voter awareness and outreach.
• ECI’s Web Radio ‘Hello Voters’ is an online digital radio service which will stream voter awareness programmes.
• It will be accessible through a link on the Election Commission of India website.
• The programming style of ‘Hello Voters’ has been envisaged to match that of the popular FM radio services.
• It will provide information and education on electoral processes through songs, drama, discussions, spots, stories of elections, etc. in Hindi, English and regional languages from all over the country.

About Systematic Voters Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP)

• It is the flagship program of the Election Commission of India for voter education, spreading voter awareness and promoting voter literacy in India.
• Since 2009, it has been working towards preparing India’s electors and equipping them with basic knowledge related to the electoral process.
• SVEEP is designed according to the socio-economic, cultural and demographic profile of the state as well as the history of electoral participation in previous rounds of elections and learning thereof.

BODOLAND TERRITORIAL REGION (BTR) AGREEMENT

Focus: GS 3; Linkages Between Development & Spread Of Extremism

Why in News?

Union Home Minister Shri Amit Shah attended a rally organized in Kokrajhar, Assam to celebrate the first anniversary of the historic Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) agreement

About Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) Agreement

• Bodoland, officially the Bodoland Territorial Region, is an autonomous region in Assam, Northeast India.
• It made up of four districts on the north bank of the Brahmaputra river, by the foothills of Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh.
• It is administered by an elected body known as the Bodoland Territorial Council which came into existence under the terms of a peace agreement signed in February 2003 and its autonomy was further extended by an agreement signed in January 2020.

• The region covers an area of over eight thousand square kilometres and is predominantly inhabited by the Bodo people and other indigenous communities of Assam.
• Bodos are the single largest tribal community in Assam, making up over 5-6 per cent of the state’s population.
• They have controlled large parts of Assam in the past.
• The four districts in Assam Kokrajhar, Baksa, Udalguri and Chirang  that constitute the Bodo Territorial Area District (BTAD), are home to several ethnic groups.
• A tripartite accord signed on Monday between the Centre, Assam government and Bodo representatives, including all factions of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) that has waged a violent struggle, holds out prospects for peace with all sides reaffirming faith in Assam’s territorial integrity.

About the Dispute

• The Bodos have had a long history of separatist demands, marked by armed struggle.
• In 1966-67, the demand for a separate state called Bodoland was raised under the banner of the Plains Tribals Council of Assam (PTCA), a political outfit.
• In 1987, the All Bodo Students Union (ABSU) renewed the demand. “Divide Assam fifty-fifty”, was a call given by the ABSU’s then leader, Upendra Nath Brahma.
• The unrest was a fallout of the Assam Movement (1979-85), whose culmination the Assam Accord addressed the demands of protection and safeguards for the “Assamese people”, leading the Bodos to launch a movement to protect their own identity.
• In December 2014, separatists killed more than 30 people in Kokrajhar and Sonitpur.
• In the 2012 Bodo-Muslim riots, hundreds were killed and almost 5 lakh were displaced.

About National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB)

• The National Democratic Front of Boroland was an armed separatist outfit which seeks to obtain a sovereign Boroland for the Bodo people.
• It is designated as a terrorist organisation by the Government of India.
• NDFB traces its origin to Bodo Security Force, a militant group formed in 1986.
• Alongside political movements, armed groups have also sought to create a separate Bodo state.
• In October 1986, the prominent group Bodo Security Force (BdSF) was formed by Ranjan Daimary.
• The BdSF subsequently renamed itself as the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), an organisation that is known to be involved in attacks, killings, and extortions.
• In the 1990s, Indian security forces launched extensive operations against the group, causing the latter to flee to bordering Bhutan.
• In Bhutan, the group faced stiff counter-insurgency operations by the Indian Army and the Royal Bhutan Army in the early 2000s.