10 years of Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao

Why in News?

Marking 10 years of the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao movement, the Prime Minister has highlighted the instrumentality of the scheme in overcoming gender biases and empowering girl children.

What is Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao?

• Launch - In 2015, the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao (BBBP) scheme was launched to address concerns about gender discrimination and women empowerment in the country.
• The name Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao translates to ‘Save the girl child, educate the girl child’.
• Objectives
  • Improve the child sex ratio
  • Ensure gender equality and women empowerment
  • Prevent gender-biased, sex-selective elimination
  • Ensure survival and protection of the girl child
  • Encourage education and participation of the girl child
• Three components
  • Advocacy campaigns - To address the issue of declining CSR and SBR.
  • Multi-sectoral interventions -  To be implemented in gender-critical districts across the country.
  • Sukanya Samriddhi scheme— A financial incentive-linked scheme to encourage parents to build a fund for female children.
• Tri-ministerial initiative – BBBP  is run jointly by the
  • Ministry of Women & Child Development (MoWCD)- Budgetary control and administration
  • Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoH&FW) - Capacity building and quality control
  • Ministry of Human Resources Development (MoHRD) - Community engagement programmes.
• Implementation - Programmes and interventions designed to incentivise improvements in the CSR and SRB ratios are being implemented in the shortlisted gender-critical districts.
• The scheme outlines measurable outcomes and indicators to monitor progress in these 640 districts.

• Eligibility - The family should have a girl child below 10 years of age.
• There should be a Sukanya Samriddhi Account or SSA which has been opened in any Indian bank, in the name of the girl child in the family.
• The girl child should be a resident Indian and NRI citizens do not possess eligibility for the BBBP scheme.BBBP initiatives undertaken by districts

What are the achievements of the scheme?

• Improvement in sex ratio – National SRB Index has shown an upward trend from 918 (2014-15) to 934 (2019-20), an improvement of 16 points in five years.
• 422 districts out of the 640 districts covered under BBBP have shown improvement in SRB from 2014-15 to 2018-19.
• Increase in GER - National Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) of girls in secondary schools improved from 77.45 (2014-15) to 81.32 (2018-19)—3.87 points in four years.
• Better school facilities - Proportion of schools with separate, functional toilets for girls rose from 92.1% in 2014-15 to 95.1% in 2018-19.
• Improvement in health - 1st trimester ANC registration rate increased from 61% in 2014-15 to 71% in 2019-20.
• Institutional deliveries rate soared from 87% in 2014-15 to 94% in 2019-20.
• Overcoming gender biases – The scheme has improved the attitude of the people towards girls child.
• Women empowerment - It has created the right environment to ensure that the girl child has access to education and opportunities to achieve her dreams.
• People movement - Over the past decade, it has become a transformative, people powered initiative and has drawn participation from people across all walks of life.
• Gender equality - Districts with historically low child sex ratios have reported significant improvements and awareness campaigns have instilled a deeper sense of the importance of gender equality.

References

1. PIB | BBBP
2. Myscheme | BBBP