Child sex ratio in Maharashtra up thanks to Beti Bachao

Just at the beginning of this decade, Beed in Maharashtra’s Marathwada region made news nationwide on account of heinous crime of female foeticide, leading to a serious crackdown on several medical practitioners. It was one of those districts where child sex ratio had plummeted alarmingly to 807 girls per 1000 boys, against the national average of 917.

Alarm bells began to ring when the rampant practice of pre natal sex selection came to light with the connivance of several reputed medical practitioners in Beed. The Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prevention of Sex Determination) Act, enacted by Parliament of India in 1994, bans use of sex selection techniques before or after conception and prevents the misuse of prenatal diagnostic technique for sex selective abortion. However, due to laxity in enforcement, the there was no let up in discrimination against the girl child.

The state government woke up to the challenge and announced a slew of measures to stop female foeticide and catch its perpetrators. Teams were formed to crack down on illegal ultrasound centres indulging in sex determination tests. Food & Drug Administration kept a watch on the sale of drugs and medicines required for medical termination of pregnancy. Action was taken against 12 chemists in Beed district who failed to provide satisfactory replies to the show cause notices served upon them.

Awareness is the key

To supplement the enforcement programme, a massive awareness drive was initiated to drive home the importance of girl child. Besides the public service advertisements broadcast over television and radio, Amir Khan’s TV show ‘Satyamev Jayate’ also helped raise the level of awareness about female foeticide.

Voluntary Organizations (NGOs) came forward to supplement government’s efforts in this girl child mission. In Beed, organizations like ‘Tee Foundation’ and ‘Marathwada Lok Vikas Manch’ came forward to adopt talukas, in a bid to improve child sex ratio. The Voluntary Organizations conducted house to house surveys and listed out the reasons for adverse sex ratio.

While the government supervised strict enforcement of the PCPNDT Act, holistic health services were made available to pregnant women through regular health check up, vitamin administration and nutrition supplement under the National Rural Health Mission, NRHM. Special training programmes were held for ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist) volunteers and Anganwadi Sevikas for skill upgrade. Voluntary Organizations played a key role in inter-personal communication, by reaching out of women during their free time.

Sincere efforts of government, voluntary organizations and citizen activists began to show results. Beed district recorded an over 100 points jump in sex ratio during since the last census count in 2011. Under the Beti Bachao. Beto Padhao campaign, the CSR target for Beed has been fixed at 925 by 2015-16, which is much higher than the targets fixed for other low child sex ratio districts like Jalgaon, Aurangabad, Buldhana etc.

Beed has shown that through enforcement and by creating community awareness the issue of adverse CSR can be successfully tackled. But the, activists say there is still a long way to go for Beed to catch up with the ideal sex ratio of 951.

PIB Mum|

Source NRHM Maharashtra and reports.

BETI BACHAO , BETI PADHAO Highlights of the Campaign

• Government's ambitious 'Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Scheme', launched by the Prime Minister on January 22 at Panipat, Haryana, aims to improve the child sex ratio (CSR) and promote empowerment of girl child through education. It is being implemented with an initial corpus of Rs 100 crores, announced in the 2014-15 budget
• The Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Scheme will be implemented in 100 selected districts, which will cover all states and UTs and is a joint initiative of Women and Child Development, Human Resource Development and Health Ministries. These districts have Child Sex Ratio, far below the national ratio of 918 girls per 1000 boys.
• Extent of coverage : Andaman & Nicobar Islands (1), Andhra Pradesh (1), Arunachal Pradesh (1), Assam (1), Bihar (1), Chandigarh (1), Chhattisgarh (1), Dadra & Nagar Haveli (1), Daman & Diu (1), Goa (1), Gujarat (5), Haryana (12), Himachal Pradesh (1), Jammu &Kashmir (5), Jharkhand (1), Karnataka (1), Kerala (1), Lakshadweep (1), Madhya Pradesh (4), Maharashtra (10), Manipur (1), Meghalaya (1), Mizoram(1), Nagaland (1), Delhi (5), Odisha (1), Puducherry (1), Punjab (11), Rajasthan (10), Sikkim (1), Tamilnadu (1), Telangana (1), Tripura (1), Uttar Pradesh (10), Uttarakhand (2) and West Bengal (1).
• 10 districts of Maharashtra covered under Beti Bachao; Beti Padhao campaign are : Beed, Jalna, Jalgaon, Ahmednagar, Aurangabad, Buldhana, Washim, Osmanabad, Kolhapur and Sangli.
• 2011 Census Child Sex Ratio and 2015-16 district wise targets are as follows : Beed – 2011 CSR 807 (target 925), Jalna – 870 (938), Jalgaon 842 (899), Ahmednagar 852 (929 ), Aurangabad 858 (880), Buldhana -855 ( 872 ) Washim -863 (928 ), Osmanabad 867 ( 928 ) , Kolhapur -863 (910), Sangli 862 (865)
• The key interventions include registration of pregnancies in the first trimester with Anganwadi Kendras, improved access to ICDS services, increasing institutional deliveries, registration of births and strict monitoring of Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques act, as part of ‘Beti Bacho’ initiative.
• Strict implementation of Right To Education Act, universal enrolment of girls, promotion of girl friendly schools, steps to reduce girls drop-out ratio are part of the ‘Beti Padhao’ initiative. There is also a thrust on reversing ‘son-centric’ customs and rituals.
• Bollywood actor Madhuri Dixit has been roped in as the brand ambassador of 'Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao campaign'

PIB Mum| Man

Source : WCD Resource Book + reports

SUKANYA SAMRIDDHI ACCOUNT What it is ?

A Small Savings Instrument for girl child – Sukanya Samriddhi Account was launched on January 22, by the Prime Minister at Panipat, Haryana, as part of the launch of ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ campaign.

Sukanya Samriddhi Account can be opened in the name of a girl child any time from her birth till she attains the age of 10 years with a minimum deposit of Rs. 1000 and thereafter any amount in multiple of Rs. 100 can be deposited. For one time, a girl child who has attained the age of 10 years prior to one year from the date of introduction of this scheme, is also eligible under the scheme.

The account can be opened in any post office or authorized branches of commercial banks across the country by producing birth certificate of the girl child.

A maximum of Rs. 1,50,000 can be deposited in a financial year.

The account holder girl child will be able to operate the account herself on attaining the age of 10 years.

The account will remain operative for 21 years from the date of opening of account or marriage of the girl child after attaining 18 years of age whichever is earlier.

To meet the requirement of higher education expenses of the account holder girl child, partial withdrawal of 50 % of the balance would be allowed after the girl child has attained the age of 18 years. The provision of not allowing withdrawal from the account till the girl child attains the age of 18 years has been kept to prevent early age marriage of girls.

To motivate parents to open an account in the name of girl child and for her welfare to deposit maximum of their savings upto the prescribed limits, higher rate of interest @ 9.1 % is proposed to be given on the deposits on annually compounded basis with income tax concessions in this financial year.

PIB Mum| Man

Source : National Savings Institute. RO Mumbai.