The Parliamentary Committee on Women’s Empowerment says, “Now, it is time to focus on other areas to help achieve measurable outcomes related to education and health.”
The government spent 80% of the funds under its flagship Save girl child (BBBP) plan on media campaigns and must now rethink this strategy and invest in measurable outcomes in health and education for girls, as noted by the Parliamentary Committee on Women’s Empowerment in its report tabled in the Lok Sabha Is.
“The committee found that out of the total ₹446.72 crore released during the period 2016- 2019, 78.91% was spent on media advocacy only,” the report said. It further added, “Over the past six years, through focused advocacy, BBBP has been able to draw the attention of the political leadership and national consciousness towards the importance of the girl child. Now, the measurable levels of education and health as envisaged under the scheme The time has come to focus on other verticals by making adequate financial provision to help achieve the results.
The committee is headed by Heena Vijayakumar Gavit and the report is titled ‘Empowerment of Women through Education’. Save girl child, It was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Thursday. Beti Bachao Scheme was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January 2015 Aimed at addressing gender selective abortion and the declining child sex ratio, which stood at 918 girls per 1,000 boys in 2011. This program is being implemented in 405 districts of the country.
The overall utilization under the plan was also poor – the committee found that since the inception of bbbp In 2014-15 till 2019-20, the total budgetary allocation under the scheme stood at ₹848 crore, excluding the COVID-stricken financial year of 2020-21. During this period, an amount of ₹622.48 crore was released to the states, but only 25.13% of the funds, i.e. ₹156.46 crore, have been spent by the states and union territories.
BBBP has two major components as per the implementation guidelines of the scheme on the website of Ministry of Women and Child Development. These include advocacy and media campaigns – 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 interventions in selected gender critical districts. Are included. Poor performance in terms of child sex ratio
The Committee noted that the huge expenditure on advertisements was despite a clearly laid down formula for utilization of the fund – Rs 50 lakh per district per annum has been earmarked for use under six different components. Of this, 16% funds for inter-sectoral counseling or capacity building, 50% for innovation or awareness generation activities, 6% for monitoring and evaluation, 10% for regional interventions in health, 10% for regional interventions in education. and 8% as Flexi Fund.
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