'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' sees an upward trend in the Sex Ratio at Birth (SRB) graph

New Delhi, October 7: 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' is a social campaign focused on generating awareness and improving the efficiency of welfare services to girls. The government on Friday claimed that there has been an improvement in sex ratio at birth in 104 districts selected for Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao (BBBP) scheme. 

 

The scheme clearly aims at checking female infanticide and educating girl children. The BBBP scheme is one of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pet projects and was launched by him in January, 2015 in Haryana's Panipat. It focuses on districts with the worst child sex ratio (CSR) as per the 2011 Census.

“An increasing trend in Sex Ratio at Birth (SRB) is visible in 104 districts, 119 districts have reported progress in registration of pregnancies in the first trimester and 146 districts have shown improvement in institutional deliveries,” said Secretary, Women and Child Development (WCD) Ministry, R K Shrivastava.

The WCD ministry now plans to extend this programme to all the districts of the country with the focus on the 56 of the total 161 districts that have shown a decline in SRB. In the national capital region, three districts have shown a decline (East Delhi, South Delhi, South-West Delhi) and four have shown improvement (North-West Delhi, North Delhi, West Delhi and North-east Delhi).

The goal of the programme is to address the issue of decline in child sex ratio in critical districts through an awareness campaign as well as multi-sectoral interventions, which include registration of pregnancies in first trimester, increased institutional deliveries, and prohibition of sex-determination. Of the 161 selected districts, the top five districts that showed improvement in sex ratio at birth (SRB) in 2016-2017 as compared to the previous year were Dibang Valley (761 to 1176); Lakshwadeep (832 to 955); Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh (849 to 943); Kadapa, Andhra Pradesh (500-594) and Pulwama, Jammu and Kashmir (949-1018).

Haryana which is the worst state in accordance with child sex ratio has seen improvements. According to 2011 census, (834 girls for every 1000 boys against the national average of 918), has shown improvement in sex ratio at birth in 18 of the total 20 districts selected in the state for the programme. In Rajasthan, out of 40 districts, 10 districts have shown great improvement while in Punjab, 14 out of 20 districts have shown an upward trend on the graph.