Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao | 80% of funds spent on media campaigns, says Parliamentary Committee

The government spent a whopping 80% of funds under its flagship Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao scheme on media campaigns and must now revisit this strategy and invest in measurable outcomes in health and education for girls, noted the Parliamentary Committee on Empowerment of Women in its report tabled in Lok Sabha. Now, it is time to focus on other verticals by making ample financial provisions to help achieve measurable outcomes related to education and health envisaged under the scheme.” The Committee is chaired by Heena Vijaykumar Gavit and the report is titled ‘Empowerment of Women through education with special reference to Beti Bachao Beti Padhao ’. The Beti Bachao scheme was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January 2015 with the aim to address sex selective abortion and the declining child sex ratio which was at 918 girls for every 1,000 boys in 2011. These include advocacy and media campaign – radio spots or jingles in Hindi and regional languages, television publicity, outdoor and print media, community engagement through mobile exhibition vans, SMS campaigns, brochures, etc- and multi-sectoral intervention in selected gender critical districts that perform poorly with respect to child sex ratio.