India marks 11 August as Daughter's Day, celebrates it on Twitter

India is celebrating Daughter's Day on Thursday (11 August) after a campaign on social media by Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi was launched on 8 August. Gandhi posted a picture with her daughter-in-law and granddaughter on Twitter to start the week long campaign.

According to Gandhi, the initiative by her ministry is meant to celebrate woman and womanhood. The aim behind the campaign is to remove the concept of female feticide and level the sex ratio in the country. Patriarchal attitudes are deeply ingrained in Indian society, where women are seen as inferior. However, Gandhi believes that these kinds of campaigns will help in the improvement of the society and will encourage people to send their daughters to school.

"We are asking people to celebrate the young women and girls in their lives. The time has come to celebrate women. Women are doing much better now, there's more confidence in them. We want to spread the message that the girl child should be valued," BBC quoted her as saying.

The Twitter campaign's hashtag has been named after the ministry's flagship programme 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' (save daughter, educate daughter) that was launched by the prime minister of India, Narendra Modi, in January 2015 to deal with the issue of the distorted child sex ratio in the country.

The minister also explained the importance of daughters, daughters-in-law and granddaughters in the family.

The campaign assumes significance as females face various atrocities in the country. According to the BBC report, every day at least 22 women are killed for dowry and a rape is reported every 22 minutes in India. And, in every five minutes a woman is assaulted within her home.