Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao campaign

•  India’s Olympic Bronze medalist Sakshi Malik was announced as the new brand ambassador of Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao campaign recently.
• Sakshi became the first Indian woman wrestler to clinch a medal at the recently concluded Olympics. She won bronze medal in wrestling in the 58 kg category.

About BBBP(Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao campaign ):

• Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao Andolan is a programme aimed at generating awareness and improving the efficiency of delivery of welfare services meant for women. It is set up with an initial corpus of Rs 100 crore.
• The adverse and declining child sex ratio (CSR) across the States is a major cause of concern as it has fallen from 927 in 2001 to 918 in 2011. The BBBP seeks to arrest the trend and over time to reverse it.
• A 100 critical low CSR districts in all States and UTs have been identified for focused and convergent action by the Ministries.
• The Ministry of WCD(Women and Child Development) is the nodal Ministry for this initiative and will carry out training to stakeholders, community mobilization and sensitization. It will also embark upon a range of advocacy measures and activities, not limited to the 100 low CSR districts but all across the country.
• All forms of media and social media platforms would be used for this.
• There is special focus on increasing access to education as a means to empower the girl child. It emphasizes the significance of education in making available better avenues of employment, skill development and turning girls themselves into agent of social change in their lives. Thus, the scheme has marked targets such as increasing enrolment at secondary level from 73 to 76%, reducing drop-out rates at upper primary and secondary level, and reinvigorating School Management Committee to enhance girls’ access to education

Analysis:

• The continued decline in CSR from 945 in 1991 to 927 in 2001 and further to 918 in 2011 is a major indicator of women disempowerment and lack of value attached to her. Successive governments introduced several cash incentive schemes, based on assumption that arrival of money on the birth of girl would increase her value and bring down practice of female foeticide. But such initiatives have failed to improve CSR because they do not deal with deep rooted socio-economic causes of declining CSR such as patriarchal attitudes, practice of dowry, and preference for male child due to their ability to economically support parents in old age
• BBBP is a step in the right direction, bringing much needed focus on issue of girl child and declining CSR. The initiative sets itself aside from others as it has direct support of the Prime Minister giving it much needed political impetus to function. However, it is important to understand that steps to improve their quality of life through education needs intervention beyond targeted goals of enrolment.
• The high drop-out rates of girls is a result of socio-economic issues at play outside the school. And, they can be tackled only when deep-rooted and everyday silent exclusion of marginalized families and parents in community participation is addressed so that community can be gradually made aware of the value of education for the girl child.
• Although the initiative is a union government led programme, its objective of increasing educational opportunities for the girl child for improved quality of life is significantly dependent on participation of the state governments. Therefore, if the scheme has to succeed, it needs engage at a more in-depth and sustainable level to effectively tackle the blind spots responsible for low value of girl child in our community.

By: Vishal