Does Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Work? A Ground-Level Perspective

Beti Bachao Beti Padhao is launched by our government in January 2015. The main aim of this program is to solve the issue of declining Child Sex Ratio as well as promote education among girls. This is a very crucial step taken by our government towards gender equality. After nearly a decade of this launch, does it truly work? We will discuss this issue in the below article and find out how much it solves the problem.

What is the Objective of Beti Bachao Beti Padhao program

1. Gender based Selection in Major Activities: The main aim of this program is to reduce the female feticide and enhance the child sex ratio.
2. Survival and Protection of Girl Child: Another aim of this program is to enhance the access of healthcare and nutrition for girls.
3. Promotion Education among Girl Child: It aims to increase enrollment and retention of girls in schools and colleges.

BBBP’s Achievements On Paper

1. Increment in CSR: Initial reports issued by the government tells us that there is marginal improvements in Child Sex Ratio in only those districts where this BBBP program were actively implemented.
   for ex: State like Haryana shows the significant progress between 2015 and 2020.
2. Campaigns of Awareness: Huge Campaigns across the whole country draws the attention through advertisements and rallies.
3. Increment in Enrollment of girl child in Schools: Reports show that enrollment in schools of girls increases especially in rural and semi urban locations.

Challenges and Actual Reality of BBBP

Despite of having this on-paper achievements ground reality tells us the whole different story. Major challenges faced by this program are misuse of funds, biases, uneven implementation.

1. Misuse of Funds: One of the major challenges faces by the BBBP program is misuse of funds, like spending heavily on publicity and advertisements instead of spending the right amount on actual problem. Talking about the stats that approximately 78% of the allocated money was spend on advertisement.
2. Persistent of Social Norms: Despite of conducting impactful awareness campaigns changing the traditional norms takes longer than expected. Mainly in rural areas preference for the male children still persists, girls have limited access to quality education and healthcare.
3. Limited focus beyond Campaigns: BBBP majorly focuses on only awareness building without actual implementation of actionable programs. Polices also have less integration in BBBP and this disconnect limits the program impact.

Interviews showcasing ground reality

1. Positive change in Mindsets: Majorly in states like Haryana, people understand a growing recognition of girls’ education and its value. Moreover, Scholarships and Fee concessions for girls have encouraged families to send their daughters to the school.
2. Role of ground workers: Anganwadi and ASHA workers of MP said that irregular funding hampers their ability to carry out structural BBBP initiatives.
3. Role of Household chores: Some families of UP admitted that despite sending girls to school, they still give priority to their sons’ education because of household chores.

What Needs To Change?

1. Proper use of Funds: A major proportion of the budget of BBBP program should be allocated to grassroots implementation instead of publicity.
2. More Community Engagement: Rural communities like Panchayats and self-help groups should be paired with awareness campaigns.
3. Holistic Development: More benefits should be introduce like skill-development programs for adolescent girls and support for higher education.
4. Supervision over Progress Regularly: Area-wise performance metrics would be set up to track the progress and ensure the stable working of this program.

Conclusion

Beti Bachao Beti Padhao is an ambitious program that brought attention to critical issues like declining CSR and girls’ education. This program has achieved success in raising awareness in some regions. Talking about its overall impacts, then, it remains inconsistent due to the misuse of funding provided by the higher authorities, over power of traditional norms in prioritizing sons’ education.
Truly saying, BBBP must go beyond slogans and advertisements. It requires the systematic approach, better distribution of funding and collaboration of root level authorities like Panchayats and SHGs only then this dream of saving and educating girl child will be possible in the country like India.