I vividly remember travelling on the highway once, when my eyes set upon a line written on the back of a truck. It said, ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’.
I was bewildered by it, so I turned to my mother and asked her what it meant. In clean and simple words she told me that it was about saving the girl child and encouraging their education. Still quite confused, I innocently asked her as to why we needed to save the girl child, what had happened to them? I don’t remember getting an answer to this question, but I think that I know the answer quite well now. The statistics speak for themselves.
India’s Gender Imbalance
India is the only large country in the world where more baby girls die than baby boys. The gender differential in child survival is currently 11 per cent. Additionally, according to UNICEF’s 2021 report, India is home to the largest number of child brides in the world: 223 million child brides – a third of the global total. The NFHS-5 (National family Health Survey) found that 71.5 percent of women (15-49 years) are literate whereas 84.4 percent of men in the country are literate.
It is extremely disheartening to see the backwardness of our society when it comes to the girl child. It sees the girl as an object for marriage and for raising kids only. Girls are denied equal opportunities despite being equally as competent as boys.
Keeping this in mind, the Government of India launched the ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ (save the daughter, teach the daughter) campaign in 2015 which was aimed at prevention of gender biased sex selective elimination, ensuring survival & protection of the girl child and ensuring education and participation of the girl child. This is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Women & Child Development, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and Department of School Education & Literacy, Ministry of Education. The campaign is targeted across the country, but the primary target areas include Bihar, Haryana, UP, and Punjab.
From spreading awareness about the need to educate girls to acting as an effective movement that spreads this message, it has yielded some positive results. It has been quoted in communication from the government as a proactive initiative for dealing with gender-based discrimination against the girl child with the161 districts that have been a part of the initial implementation of the BBBP scheme having witnessed an improving trend of SRB in 104 districts.
However, there are still certain areas it lacks upon, mainly in terms of budgetary planning and lack of monitoring. It was noted that during the period from 2016 to 2019, a large portion, nearly 78.91 percent was spent only on media campaigns and advocacy alone. The same could have been better utilised in terms of development of schools, grant of more scholarships, and opportunities.
The parliamentary committee led by Heena Vijaykumar Gavit, in December 2021, while discussing the report titled ‘Empowerment of Women through education with special reference to ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ mentioned in the report that the huge spending on national-level media campaigns for the scheme also violated the INR 50 lakh provision earmarked for each district under the scheme.
As per the report of Comptroller & Auditor General of India (CAG), due to inefficient allocation of funds, the scheme fell short in social, economic, and general sectors.
While some things have happened, much more needs to be done. While the media campaign under the scheme has done an exemplary job of raising the issue of son preference, regular monitoring of the progress of the scheme, as well as implementation of defined parameters are essential for forming better state-level and district-level policies to improve parameters that affect girls.
Since BBBP is one of the most important vehicles of the government to improve child sex ratio in backward regions and ensure education of the girl children, it is imperative that necessary steps be taken to strengthen the implementation of the scheme.
The slogan of ‘Beti Bachao’ has the power to uplift millions of girls from the shackles of patriarchy, dominance, illiteracy and abuse. Saving the girl child is not just a gender issue, it is a national one.
Featured image is for representational purposes only.