Half truths are dangerous and so is misreporting. Often media houses hide facts to serve their purpose which is to belittle the achievements of the current government and its policies. Recently, in an article published by Scroll, the ‘Beti Padhao Beti Bachao’ scheme was targeted.
According to a report published in the Press Information Bureau, the census in 2011 has shown a conspicuously declining trend in Child Sex Ratio (CSR), with 918 girls per 1000 boys in the age group of 0-6 years. The CSR has gone from 976/1000 in 1961 to 918/1000 in 2011. Out of the 640 districts, CSR has declined in
429 districts (2/3rd of the country). 244 districts were below the national average of 918.
The CSR is an indicator of the condition of women in our society. The 2011 census indicated that women were still disempowered over a life-cycle continuum. It also indicates that pre-birth discrimination achieved through gender-biased sex selection and post birth discrimination against girls (in terms of health care, nutrition, and educational opportunities) were still prevalent in our society.
Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao (BBBP) was launched to address this problem by the Hon’ble Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, on the 22nd of January, 2015 in Panipat. It is among the flagship programmes of the Government, meant to overcome the menace of a skewed Child Sex Ratio and related issues of empowerment of women on a life-cycle continuum.
As stated by the headline of the article by Scroll, the government used 56% of the allotted budget and spent it on advertisements to promote the scheme. In the budget of 2018-19 the Centre had allotted Rs 280 crore for the scheme out of which 155.71 crore were kept for advertisement. The Scroll’s article failed to take into consideration that the purpose of this scheme is to change the impression and attitude of people toward girls’ education and a good way to achieve this is through the dissemination of Information and proper campaigning. An essential part of the implementation of the scheme is conveniently mocked as ‘Publicity’.
“Since 2018-’19, all 640 districts [as per Census 2011] of the country have been covered under Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao scheme,” said Virendra Kumar (Union Minister of State for Women and Child Development, Virendra Kumar, in the Lok Sabha. In Phase-1 (2014-15 i.e. January 2015), the scheme was started with 100 districts and got expanded to 61 additional districts in Phase-II (2015-16, February 2016). According to the PIB conditions are improving. As of now, favourable trends are visible in many of the districts. The latest reports, as per the Health Management Information System (HMIS) data of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) for 161 BBBP districts, indicate that things are improving for the period between April-March, 2015-16 & 2016-17. The Hon’ble Prime Minister of India launched the Pan India Expansion of Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) covering all 640 districts of the country in a formal function held at Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan on the 8th of March 2018.
The Scheme has been welcomed and has proved successful as a National Agenda in improving the Child Sex Ratio. It has resulted in increased awareness, sensitization around the issue of a declining CSR in the public domain but ambiguous reports of the kind that Scroll published create a misleading picture of fruitful schemes and attempt to soil genuine reforms and policies.