The Union Minister of Women and Child Development and Textiles, Smriti Zubin Irani, felicitated districts and states which have successfully implemented the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) scheme at a function in New Delhi today. Minister of State of Women and Child Development, Debasree Chaudhuri, was guest of honour at the event.Ministers of Women and Child Development (WCD) from the states of Haryana, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh were also present.Haryana, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh were felicitated for improvement in Sex Ratio at Birth (SRB).Ten districts selected for improvement in SRB were also felicitated during the programme. The ten districts are: East Kameng (Arunachal Pradesh), Mahendragarh and Bhiwani (Haryana), Udham Singh Nagar (Uttarakhand), Namakkal (Tamil Nadu), Jalgaon (Maharashtra) Etawah (Uttar Pradesh), Raigarh (Chhattisgarh), Rewa (Madhya Pradesh) and Jodhpur (Rajasthan).In addition, ten districts selected for good work in awareness generation and outreach activities under BBBP were also felicitated by the Minister. These districts are: Tiruvallur (Tamil Nadu), Ahmedabad (Gujarat), Mandi, Shimla, Sirmaur (Himachal Pradesh) Kishtwar (J&K), Gadag (Karnataka), Wokha (Nagaland), Farrukhabad (Uttar Pradesh), and Nagaur (Rajasthan).On this occasion, Union Minister of WCD, Smriti Zubin Irani, made special mention of Kameng District of Arunachal Pradesh which has registered a sharp improvement in SRB from 807 in 2014-15 to 1039 in 2018-19. She said that this makes it clear that nothing is impossible if the Government and society collectively resolve to achieve a target. The Women and Child Development Minister also mentioned Mahendragarh district of Haryana where the SRB has risen to 916 from below 800 mark in 2001.She also appreciated the work done by the district of Tiruvallur of Tamil Nadu for recording impressive increase of 38 points in SRB from 925 to 963 in the last one year.
The WCD Minister said the SRB at the national level has also improved by 13 points from 918 in 2014-15 to 931 in 2018-19. Smriti Zubin Irani acknowledged the contribution of each district in improvement of SRB. She further added that with the collective efforts of the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministries of Human Resource Development and Health and Family Welfare the girl child is now protected from birth till the rest of her life.Minister of State of WCD, Debasree Chaudhuri, in her address, stressed on the need for more concrete steps to further improve the skewed child sex ratio. She said that the success of BBBP scheme largely depends on the committed participation of State governments, district administrations and the active support of community members. She appealed to every citizen to become a part of the social change programme of BBBP in order to end discrimination against the girl child and strive harder to create a girl child friendly environment. Secretary WCD in his welcome address gave a detailed outline of the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme. A slide show of innovations for implementation of the BBBP scheme by States/ Districts was shown followed by short videos of innovative interventions undertaken by the winning states and districts.The BBBP scheme was launched on 22nd January,2015. It is being implemented in 640 districts and all districts are covered through advocacy and media campaign. Out of these districts, 405 are covered under Multi-Sectoral Intervention in which 100% Centrally Sponsored Scheme grant is provided directly to the District Magistrate/District Collector for BBBP.The latest reports on State/UT-wise SRB data for the period 2014-15 and 2018-19, shows an improving trend at the national level in SRB from 918 to 931.