Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
Chandigarh,The government has planned to improve child Sex Ratio at Birth (SRB) by 10 basis point per year. This was stated by Union Minister for Women and Child Development, Smt. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi while inaugurating the first Regional Consultation of District Collectors/Deputy Commissioners on the District Action Plan of Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Scheme here today. The government has chosen 100 districts, each of which will be given upto Rs. one crore rupees for this scheme this year, she said. The Minister said that the Ministry has come out with Action Plans for Village level, Block level as well as district level so that the number of girl children registers an ongoing increase, as also their educational levels go up. The steps she mentioned in this regard include promoting early registration of pregnancy in the first trimester, institutional deliveries and 100% birth registration. The Minister said that sarpanches need to be the nodal person in this endeavour and his/her role and responsibilities need to be defined.
The Minister further said that strict implementation of PC and PNDT Act and its monitoring was needed and for this District level Cell have to be strengthened. She said that the progress in regard to the measures and success under the scheme will be monitored as the Central level so that determined targets are achieved without fail.
The Minister informed that a multi-sectoral approach will be adopted wherein Ministries of Women & Child Development, Health & Family Welfare and Human Resources Development will work in tandem. Smt. Maneka Gandhi felt that the success of this scheme depended on changing people’s mind-set and social behavior. In order to tackle this, a media plan has been evolved whereby several short films are being prepared in regional languages, she said. These will be made available for use on National TV Channels and also Cable Channels. She exhorted the district officers to make extensive use of these, interspersed in commercial film show in theatres and the audio messages on FM, Radio and Community Radio for maximum reach. She suggested the use of Bill Boards, Naming & Shaming people, Nukkad Natak and incentivisation of doers of good work in this regard to promote the cause of Beti Bachao Beti Padhao and for ensuring positive time-bound results.
The Minister said that District Collectors/Commissioners being nodal officers can play a crucial part in the successful implementation of this scheme, which would have very wide social and national ramifications in the long run, and exhorted them to engage themselves fully in ensuring success of this scheme. The Minister also invited suggestion from the District Officers for further betterment/fine-coming the implementation of the scheme.
Punjab Minister for Women and Child Development, Shri Surjit Kumar Jyani in his remarks said that misuse of technology for greed coupled with a specific mind-set, was instrumental in eroding the child sex ratio in Punjab from 875 in 1991 to 798 in 2001. This however was reversed between 2001-2011 when SRB went up by 48 points due to concerted efforts of the state government. He enumerated the steps taken by the Punjab government in raising the girl child-births and furthering girl education.
Shri Sarvesh Kaushal, Chief Secretary Punjab gave an overview of the steps taken for effective implementation of PNDT Act, 100% state sponsored schemes for SC girls and imparting education and vocational skills to girls.
The day-long Regional consultation is attended by district Collector/Deputy Commissioners from Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and U.T. of Chandigarh.
