Impact of ‘Beti Bachao’ to be assessed in July

New Delhi, The gender ratio of districts under the “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao” (BBBP) will be checked in July to assess the impact of the scheme.
The scheme is also being extended to include 61 more districts, a senior official in the Ministry of Women and Child Development said adding there had been an improvement in sex ratio in districts where the scheme was initially launched. With this, 161 districts will be covered by the scheme which was launched in Panipat district of Haryana in January 2015. The scheme was initially launched in 100 districts with low sex ratio.
A community mobilisation scheme is being expanded to more districts after the pilot project was successful.
A decrease in school dropouts and increase in institutional deliveries and number of beneficiaries availing government schemes occurred during the pilot project. The project was initiated in some districts of Rajasthan, Haryana and other states in 2014. The scheme — which aims to ensure beneficiaries avail of government schemes that they are eligible for — is being extended to cover 303 districts, which include the 161 BBBP districts.
The community mobilisation scheme will cover districts in Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Andhra Pradesh.
Government schemes to battle malnutrition, improve gender ratio and provide education, maternity benefit and health facilities are explained to two women from every gram panchayat over a five-day training period.
These two women then inform women of their area about schemes like BBBP, ICDS and midday meal and help them to apply for them.
The two women are usually retired teachers or government servants and are paid Rs 4,000 a month. The government provides Rs 1 lakh per year per gram panchayat for this scheme. The states have been asked to submit action plans for the scheme following which funds are released. Funds have been released for 40 per cent districts so far.