Ministry of Women and Child Development Initiative: Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao

Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao is a Government of India scheme that aims to generate awareness and improving the efficiency of welfare services meant for women. The scheme was initiated with an initial corpus of 100 crore.

The Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao (BBBP) Scheme has been introduced in October, 2014 to address the issue declining Child Sex Ratio (CSR). This is being implemented through a national campaign and focused multi sectoral action in 100 selected districts low in CSR, covering all States and UTs. This is a joint initiative of Ministry of Women and Child Development, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Ministry of Human Resource Development.

The trend of decline in the Child Sex Ratio (CSR), defined as number of girls per 1000 of boys between 0-6 years of age, has been unabated since 1961. The decline from 945 in 1991 to 927 in 2001 and further to 918 in 2011 is alarming.

The decline in the CSR is a major indicator of women disempowerment. CSR reflects both, pre-birth discrimination manifested through gender biased sex selection, and post birth discrimination against girls. Social construct discriminating against girls on the one hand, easy availability, affordability and subsequent misuse of diagnostic tools on the other hand, have been critical in increasing Sex Selective Elimination of girls leading to low Child Sex Ratio.

Since coordinated and convergent efforts are needed to ensure survival, protection and empowerment of the girl child, Government has announced Beti Bachao Beti Padhao initiative. This is being implemented through a national campaign and focused multi sectoral action in 100 selected districts low in CSR, covering all States and UTs. This is a joint initiative of Ministry of Women and Child Development, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Ministry of Human Resource Development.

The Overall Goal of the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao (BBBP) Scheme is to celebrate the girl child and enable her education. The objectives of the Scheme are as under:

• Prevention of gender biased sex selective elimination
• Ensuring survival & protection of the girl child
• Ensuring education and participation of the girl child

Strategies

• Implement a sustained Social Mobilization and Communication Campaign to create equal value for the girl child & promote her education.
• Place the issue of decline in CSR/SRB in public discourse, improvement of which would be a indicator for good governance.
• Focus on Gender Critical Districts and Cities low on CSR for intensive & integrated action.
• Mobilize & Train Panchayati Raj Institutions/Urban local bodies/ Grassroot workers as catalysts for social change, in partnership with local community/women’s/youth groups.
• Ensure service delivery structures/schemes & programmes are sufficiently responsive to issues of gender and children’s rights.
• Enable Inter-sectoral and inter-institutional convergence at District/Block/Grassroot levels.