4 min readOct 16, 2026 04:19 PM IST First published on: Oct 16, 2026 at 04:19 PM ISTToday, we celebrate “her” — the girl who speaks her mind; who refuses to let circumstances write her ending for her. In this month of International Day of the Girl Child, we think of the girls and women we have met across Maharashtra, and more recently in Madhya Pradesh. The young women from Beed who had each once been married as children. Today, one is a nurse. Another is completing her education because her family, and UNFPA, stopped her marriage in time. A third runs her own salon. We still remember how they stood in front of us — steady and unbroken — by everything that had tried to end their story early. The girl in Bhopal, at a government residential school life-skills class, had never met any of them. But we saw the same fire in her. Someone reached each of them in time: A health worker, a school, a programme, a person who chose to step in when it mattered most.We see the same story at a much bigger scale in the National Family Health Surveys. The numbers show that life is changing for Indian girls, and they also show where the change stops. The share of women aged 20 to 24 who were married before 18 fell from 26.8 per cent in NFHS 4 (2015-16) to 23.3 per cent in NFHS 5 (2019-21) and to 20.1 per cent in NFHS-6. School attendance among girls aged six and above rose from 68.8 per cent to 71.8 per cent to 73.7 per cent; women with a bank account rose from 53 per cent to 78.6 per cent to 89 per cent. Women who take part in decisions about their own healthcare, big purchases and family visits rose from 84 per cent to 88.7 per cent to 89 per cent.AdvertisementWomen owning a mobile phone rose from 45.9 per cent to 53.9 per cent to 63.6 per cent, which opens the door to banking, learning and information. Earning has moved more slowly. Women who work and earn their own income rose from 24.6 per cent to 25.4 per cent to 30.8 per cent. That means fewer than one in three. Every other gain here was meant to lead to this one, and it has not fully arrived.Also Read | India needs to say to US: We are open for business, but we don’t pay homageAnd yet, no girl got this far alone. A health worker reached one of the women from Beed in time. A scheme opened a bank account in a woman’s name for the first time. A school health programme kept a girl in Bhopal in her seat. But getting one girl this far is not the same as preparing the next one for what she will need: Health information so she can make her choices; a voice in her community, and skills for a job market AI is changing.This is not work for the girls or the government alone. The Ayushman Bharat School Health and Wellness programme, led by the Ministries of Health and Education, trains teachers to bring life skills and health education into schools like the one in Bhopal. It now needs to reach every girl in the same way. The Women-Friendly Gram Panchayat initiative, by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj with UNFPA’s technical support, now has one model girl-friendly gram panchayat in every district. The next step is to go beyond one so that a girl’s voice in local decisions becomes normal. Learning must lead to earning. That means linking skills training to real employers, markets and business opportunities, online and offline, with digital safety built in.AdvertisementThe women from Beed and the girls from Bhopal are at different points on the same road. One has found her footing. The other is starting to look for hers. What connects them is not luck. Someone, somewhere, made sure each was reached in time. Making that true for every girl on that road is the work ahead.Sanon is UNFPA India’s honorary ambassador for gender equality and Wojnar is UNFPA India representative and country director Bhutan