International Day of the Girl Child 2026 Observed on 11 October with a Focus on Ending Child Marriage

11 October 2026National

The International Day of the Girl Child was observed on 11 October 2026 under the theme "End child marriage and invest in girls' rights!", training attention on the roughly one in five young women still married in childhood. The day was declared by UN General Assembly Resolution 66/170 of 19 December 2011 and first observed in 2012, growing out of Plan International's "Because I am a Girl" campaign. India observes it alongside National Girl Child Day on 24 January and runs Beti Bachao Beti Padhao and Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana; it falls a day after World Mental Health Day, whose 2026 theme centred on lived experience.

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The day grew out of Plan International's 'Because I am a Girl' campaign, with Canada sponsoring the UN resolution | UN Women and UNICEF lead the global observance | India's minimum legal age of marriage for women is 18 under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006

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