Haryana can be a trendsetter, given its enormous success in busting its image of a State having among the worst sex ratios in the country
In a bizarre coincidence, at about the same time when a group of people was working for girl child empowerment through a ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ (BBBP) half-marathon in Noida, some unscrupulous elements were taking people for a ride across Uttar Pradesh in the name of this scheme. In a scam that reportedly runs across the State, thousands of innocent parents of girl children are being sold purported application forms for getting cash benefits of upto two lakh rupees. The fact is that this scheme, translated as save girl child and educate her, doesn't have a cash component for beneficiaries.
While the Ministry of Women and Child Development has issued a warning, one sincerely hopes that the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) too would take cognisance of this to prevent any further escalation of this scam to other parts of the country, which could potentially fleece millions of poor people.
BBBP was one of the visionary schemes launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself on January 22, 2015, from Panipat in Haryana, which had the worst sex ratio in the country — 834 as against national average of 919, as per the
2011 Census.
In fact Haryana had become infamous for being cruel to girl child and stories of sex selection and termination of pregnancies had become rampant. However, many other States did not fare too well either. This trend of decline in the child sex ratio (CSR: Number of girls per 1000 of boys between 0-6 years of age), has been unabated since 1961. The decline from 945 in 1991 to 927 in 2001 and further to 918 in 2011, is especially alarming, and a major indicator of women disempowerment.
The Ministry notes, “CSR reflects both, pre-birth discrimination manifested through gender biased sex selection, and post birth discrimination against girls.” The BBBP programme was designed to address the declining CSR and related issues of women empowerment over a life-cycle continuum. It is a tri-ministerial effort of the Ministries of Women and Child Development, Health & Family Welfare and Human Resource Development.
The goal of this programme is to celebrate the girl child and enable her education. Prevention of gender-biased sex selective elimination, ensuring survival and protection of girl child, and ensuring their education are the stated objectives of the scheme, which are to be achieved through mass awareness campaigns and multi-sectoral interventions at the district level. A large number of very good practices have come to limelight in the wake of this campaign.
Kathua district in Jammu & Kashmir has launched a special ringtone dedicated to this programme. Rajasthan's Pali district administration under the district Collector, Kumarpal Gautam, launched a special ‘Aapni Beti Yojana’, under which each doctor doing sonography either privately or as part of a hospital or clinic in the district, is encouraged to adopt an underprivileged girl child and bear all expenses for her education and treatment, besides the celebration of her birthday etc.
Haryana, incidentally, has made rapid strides and emerged as among the best performing state with a slew of innovative measures. Perhaps the first-of-its-kind in the country, the Haryana Chief Minister announced a one lakh rupee award for those who informed about the violation of the PC & PNDT Act.
In a major boost to the cause, the State appointed Haryana's Olympics medalist Sakshi Malik as the brand ambassador of BBBP. The Chief Minister had also announced that CSR had crossed over 900 — 903, for the first time in a decade after the launch of BBBP. Four out of the 12 districts where the first phase of BBBP was launched, recorded a sex ratio of above 900, as per data for December, 2015. In Karnal, the ratio improved from 820 in Census 2011 to 959; Sonipat from 790 to 942; while in Bhiwani and Mahendragarh, it increased to 912 from 831 and 778, respectively, according to a report.
These are good signs. Haryana can become a trendsetter for other States to follow, in what could be a dramatic turnaround of its image — from ‘Beti bachao, padhao’ to ‘badhao’!
(The writer is strategic communications professional)