Kolkata stood the “worst” in the sex ratio among the 161 districts undertaken for ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ (BBBP) scheme , launched in January, 2015, by the Ministry of Women and Child Development.
Fifty districts have done well and a state like Sikkim has even more girl child population than that of males.
Giving this information in the lok Sabha, Union Minister Maneka Gandhi said West Bengal is the only state which has completely refused to the implement the BBP scheme which, she said is “not political”. The ready response of the minister came during the Question Hour when a Trinamool Congress member mentioned that West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee had initiated a programme ‘Kanyashree’ which has also received a UN award.
TMC member Mriganka Mahato also requested that Rs KanyashreeRs programme’s model should be followed by other states.Maneka said out of 161 districts under BBBP scheme,, Kolkata has shown a “severe declining trend” in terms of child sex ratio.
“In fact, Kolkata is unfortunately the worst of the 161 districts that we have taken,” the minister said.
The Women and Child Development Minister said while the Rs KanyashreeRs programme was effective, West Bengal is the “only state in India which has completely refused to implement the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) scheme”. Maneka also said that many states -’Mamta Yoja’ in Goa, Rs ladliRs Yojana in , Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Rs BalikaRs Samridhi Yojana in Gujarat , Rs Bangaru TalliRs scheme in Andhra Pradesh- have done equally well in implementing schemes similar to Kanyashree.The Minister urged West Bengal government to adopt BBBP scheme saying “there is no reason why Chief Minister not adopt it.”
Besides Kolkata, the worst performing districts included Etawa, Farrukhabad, Saharanpur, Eta, Bijnore ( in UP), Champawat, Pithoragarh, Hardwar, Dehradun and , Chamoli , all in Uttarakahnd.
As one of the members asked the minister to encourage people’s involvement to improve sex ration, She said BBBP scheme has been successful because of the active participation of people. She said centre has no feet on the ground and states are taking initiative and innovating under the scheme.As one of the member said about a racket of people getting sex-selection outside their respective states, the minister said if state are doing well then “people go outside and do abortions” adding “ we have informed police on these sex selection”.