BETI BACHAO BETI PADHAO

Introdcution

‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ (BBBP) meaning ‘Save girl child, educate girl child’ is a social campaign introduced by the Government of India; it aims to create awareness and improve the effectiveness of various welfare services proposed for girls. The scheme was launched on 22 January 2015 by the current Prime Minister of India, Mr. Narendra Modi. The scheme intends to address the issue of the declining CSR (Child Sex Ratio) image and is a national programme run in association with the the Ministry of Human Resource Development, the Ministry of Women and Child Development and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Background

As per the census data, the CSR (child sex ratio) of 0–6 year children in India was only 927 girls per 1,000 boys in 2001, which dropped drastically in 2011 and remained 918 girls for every 1,000 boys in 2011. According to UNICEF report, 2012 India was 41st among 195 countries with such imbalance ratio.

While addressing the nation in 2014, on the occasion of International Day of Girl Child, the Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi appealed for the abolition of female foeticide and invited ideas from the citizens of India through the portal ‘MyGov.in’.

Objectives of BBBP

• To protect gender preferred sex selective elimination


• To ensure survival and prevention of girl child


• To ensure participation and education of girl child

Social Media

Social Media is playing a very important role in promoting this mission. Sakshi Malik, the Olympics 2016 Bronze Medallist was made the brand ambassador for the BBBP mission. There are a lot of people who support the campaign and the innovative hashtag ‘#SelfieWithDaughter’became highly popular on Social Media which was initiated by the Sarpanch (Head) of Bibipur village situated in Haryana; he himself took a selfie (self clicked photograph) with his daughter and posted on one of the social platforms ‘Facebook’ in 2015. This gesture was highly appreciated and followed by several people from across the world.

Women Empowerment

BBBP is run in favour of women and focuses on the empowerment and development of women. The diminishing ratio of girls in the Child Sex Ratio (CSR) is the major pointer of women disempowerment. CSR includes both, pre-birth inequality marked through gender preferred sex selection and post birth inequality against girl child. Social discrimination against girls and easy affordability and misuse of the diagnostic equipments have resulted greatly into female child foeticide and ultimately decreasing the ratio of girls in CSR.

Conclusion

BBBP mission emphasises on safeguarding and strengthening the rights of women. People are becoming more sensitised and several girls of India are bringing accolades to the nation and becoming popular on International level. Thus, people should stop discriminating between the girl and the boy child and support both the genders equally