By IANS,
Ahmedabad : Taking a drive to promote girl child education to villages, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi Saturday toured parts of Dangs district and urged villagers to send their young daughters to school.
Modi toured villages in tribal-dominated Dangs district in south Gujarat and escorted children to school and anganvadis or daytime child care and health centres. Handing out sweets and chocolates to the children he enrolled them in schools for the new academic year. He also handed over Vidya Lakshmi bonds to girl students.
“We have resolved to make Gujarat free from the bane of illiteracy and malnutrition. And seeing the response of the people to the statewide Kanya Kelavani Mahotsav (girl child education festival) it is clear the ‘yagna’ of education has been very successful and the movement is bound to gain rapid popularity,” Modi said on the concluding day of the campaign.
Urging tribal people to conserve forest cover, Modi said the declining rainfall in the district was a matter of grave concern. “Unless we conserve and maintain our forest cover the future would indeed be bleak for all of us,” he said.
Addressing another meeting, Modi told a gathering of women: “First education and then marriage. Education is the most powerful tool to achieve the goal of women’s empowerment. Educate your girl child before you marry them.”