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INDRAPRASTHA COLLEGE FOR WOMEN Public Policy Analysis of:

BETI BACHAO, BETI PADHAO SCHEME

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Paper Name- Public Policy in India Submitted to- Dr. Shubhra Seth Submitted by- Pratishtha Sharma (18/POL/58) Prerana Kumari (18/POL/59) Course- B. A. (Hons) Political Science Section- B Semester- 6th

SYNOPSIS In this project, we will critically analyze the “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao” policy in detail and its impact on the target audience. We will focus on the description, causes and consequences of this public policy. We will look into some challenges faced during the implementation of the policy and will suggest some recommendations for improving the current policy implementation for better efficiency. In our project, we will try to find answers to the following questions: Q1. What are the major features of the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao (BBBP) policy? Q2. What are the operational strategies of the BBBP policy? How far has the policy been successful in reaching the target audience? Q3. What are the areas where the policy is lacking? How can we improve the efficiency of this policy?

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The methodology adopted to systematically organize and conduct this research was qualitative and open-ended. Information was collected from research papers and articles from the internet, international and regional news reports, excerpts from books etc. We also conducted a survey showing the awareness regarding the policy among people between the age group of 20-40 years.

INTRODUCTION For an Indian woman and citizen, freedom does not just mean those guaranteed under the Constitution. It also means more jobs, opportunities for entrepreneurship, increased safety, ease in day-to-day living, and protection of the girl child. In short, the road to women’s empowerment has several factors dotting its path. To ensure women are empowered, the government and the public sector need to play important roles to enable their welfare in various sectors. Whether it’s providing free cooking gas and education schemes or enabling women to leverage technology, a slew of schemes have been launched in recent years to empower women to be independent in their lives. Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao scheme is one such flagship programme of the Government which focuses on challenging the mindsets and deep-rooted patriarchy in the societal system.

BACKGROUND In many parts of India, the birth of a girl child is not welcomed. Right from her arrival, she faces discrimination, humiliation, and oppression at every stage of life. When it comes to healthcare, education and growth opportunities, she is neglected because of her gender. In a country rife with gender inequalities and an underlying nature of patriarchy, girl children often find themselves at the short end of the stick. Discrimination against girls is rampant and due to the fear of abuse and exploitation, they are kept at home and not sent to school. Sex-selective abortion or female foeticide has led to a sharp drop in the ratio of girls born in contrast to boy infants in some states in India. The issue of girl child rights and protection in India is a very serious concern. Being home to more than one third of the 10 million child brides in the world, India has one of the highest numbers of girls forced into marriage before the legal age of 18. Ultrasound technology has made it possible for pregnant women and their families to learn the gender of a foetus early in a pregnancy, leading to the rise in abortion of female foetuses. Dowry system is also part of the problem. There is an expectation that a large dowry must be provided for daughters in order for them to marry. Therefore, the Government of India felt the need to initiate a campaign against female foeticide and to promote girl child rights. The Census, 2011 has shown significant declining trend in Child sex ratio (CSR), with 918 girls per 1000 boys in the age group of 0-6 years. The unabated decline in CSR since 1961 (from 976 in 1961 to 927 in 2001 and 918 in 2011) is a matter of grave concern as it reflects the low status of women in our society and indicates her disempowerment over a life-cycle continuum. Declining CSR is also indicative of pre-birth discrimination manifested through gender biased sex selection and post-birth discrimination against girls (in terms of healthcare, nutrition and educational opportunities). The principal factor behind the Child Sex Ratio being so adverse is the low Sex Ratio at Birth (SRB). Social construct discriminating girls on the one hand, easy availability, affordability and subsequent misuse of diagnostic tools on the other hand, have been critical in declining CSR. The strong socio-cultural and religious biases, preference for sons and discrimination towards daughters has heightened the problem.

THE POLICY INITIATIVE Since coordinated and convergent efforts are needed to ensure survival, protection and empowerment of the girl child, the Government launched the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao (BBPP) initiative on 22nd January, 2015 at Panipat in Haryana. It is a government social scheme launched by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in order to address the gender imbalance and discrimination against girl child in the Indian society. It is a tri-ministerial effort of Ministries of Women and Child Development, Health and Family Welfare and Human Resource Development with a focus on awareness and advocacy campaign for changing mindsets, multisectoral action in select 405 districts (low on CSR) enabling girls’ education and effective enforcement of Pre-Conception & Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (PC & PNDPT) Act.

OBJECTIVE OF THE SCHEME The specific objectives of the scheme include: 1) Preventing gender biased sex selective elimination 2) Ensuring survival and protection of the girl child 3) Ensuring education and participation of the girl child

MAJOR COMPONENTS OF THE SCHEME There are two major components of this scheme: a) Mass Communication Campaign on Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao Under the Scheme, a Nation-wide campaign was launched for celebrating Girl Child and enabling her education. The campaign aims at ensuring that girls are born, nurtured and educated without discrimination to become empowered citizens of this country with equal rights. A 360° media approach is being adopted to create awareness and disseminating information about the issue across the nation. This includes radio spots/ jingles in Hindi and regional languages, television publicity, community engagement through mobile exhibition vans, social media and field publicity. Awareness generation through SMS campaigns, Mailers, Hand-outs, Brochures and other IEC material in English, Hindi and regional languages is to be adopted. Social media platforms have been used for wider dissemination.

b) Multi-Sectoral interventions in 405 Selected Districts covering all States/UTs low on CSR Under the Scheme, the multi-sectoral action in selected 405 districts (including existing 161 districts) covering all States/UTs will focus on schematic intervention and sectoral actions in consultation with M/o H&FW & M/o HRD. Measurable outcomes and indicators will bring together concerned sectors, States and districts for urgent concerted multi-sectoral action to improve the CSR.

TARGET GROUPS 1. Primary: Young and newly married couples; pregnant and lactating mothers; parents 2. Secondary: Youth, adolescents (girls and boys), in-laws, medical doctors/ practitioners, private hospitals, nursing homes and diagnostic centres 3. Tertiary: Officials, PRIs, frontline workers, women SHGs/collectives, religious leaders, voluntary organizations, media, medical associations, industry associations, general public as a whole.

COVERAGE OF THE SCHEME First phase- 100 districts have been identified on the basis of low Child Sex Ratio as per Census 2011 covering all States/UTs as a pilot with at least one district in each state. The three criteria for selection of districts are-:  Districts below the national average (87 districts/23 states)  Districts above national average but shown declining trend (8 districts/8 states)  Districts above national average and shown increasing trend (5 districts/5 states- selected so that these CSR levels can be maintained and other districts can emulate and learn from their experiences). Second Phase- The scheme has further been expanded to 61 additional districts selected from 11 States/UT having CSR below 918. Pan India Expansion of BBBP- The Pan India Expansion of Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) covering all 640 districts (as per census 2011) of the country was launched on 8th March 2018.The BBBP is 100% central sector scheme with total outlay of Rs. 1132.5 Cr from 2017-18 to 2019-2020.

STRATEGIES FOR IMPLEMENTATION  Implement a sustained Social Mobilization and Communication Campaign to create equal value for the girl child & promote her education.  Place the issue of decline in CSR/SRB in public discourse, improvement of which would be an indicator for good governance.  Focus on Gender Critical Districts and Cities low on CSR for intensive & integrated action.  Adopt Innovative Interventions/Actions by the districts as per their local needs, context and sensibilities.  Mobilize & Train Panchayati Raj Institutions/Urban local bodies/ Grassroot workers as catalysts for social change, in partnership with local community/women’s/youth groups.  Engage with Communities to challenge gender stereotypes and social norms.  Ensure service delivery structures/schemes & programmes are sufficiently responsive to issues of gender and children’s rights.  Enable Inter-sectoral and inter-institutional convergence at District/Block/Grassroot levels.

ROLE OF CENTRAL MINISTRIES The Ministry of Women and Child Development is responsible for budgetary control and administration of the scheme from the Centre. At the State level, the Secretary of the Department of Women and Child Development is responsible for overall direction and implementation of the scheme. DPO at district level is the nodal officer for the implementation of the Scheme. The scheme is implemented through ICDS platform/MSK/DLCW at district, block and village level in convergence with Health, Education and Panchayati Raj Ministry. a) Ministry of Women and Child Development: It undertakes the training of stakeholders, community mobilization & sensitization, identifies and involves gender champions, rewards and recognizes of institutions and frontline workers. b) Ministry of Health & Family Welfare: Monitoring for effective implementation of Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (PC & PNDPT) Act, promotion of early registration of pregnancy, institutional deliveries and registration of births. c) Ministry of Human Resource Development: Ensure universal enrolment of girls, achieve decreased drop-out rate, making schools girl-friendly: retention of girls in secondary schools, availability of functional toilets.

MONITORABLE TARGETS  Improve the Sex Ratio at Birth (SRB) in selected gender critical districts by 2 points in a year.  Reduce Gender differentials in Under Five Child Mortality Rate from 7 points in 2014(latest available SRS report) to 1.5 points per year  At least 1.5 % increase per year of Institutional Deliveries.  At least 1% increase per year of 1st Trimester ANC Registration.  Increase enrolment of girls in secondary education to 82% by 2018-19.  Provide functional toilet for girls in every school in selected districts.  Improve the Nutrition status of girls- by reducing number of underweight and anaemic girls under 5 years of age.  Ensure universalization of ICDS, girls’ attendance and equal care monitored, using joint ICDS NHM Mother Child Protection Cards.  Promote a protective environment for Girl Children through implementation of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act 2012.  Train Elected Representatives/ Grassroot functionaries as Community Champions to mobilize communities to improve CSR and promote Girl’s education.

DIFFERENT SCHEMES INTRODUCED UNDER BBBP Apart from the various campaigns, awareness programmes and creation of impoverished reforms, there are several schemes under Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao each of which focuses on the upliftment, empowerment and welfare of women & girl child. These are: 1. Sukanya Samridhi Yojana- It is a government-backed savings scheme as part of the “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao Yojana” for the benefit of the girl child. It can be opened by the parents of a girl child below the age of 10. A Sukanya Samridhi Account has tenure of 21 years or until the girl child marries at the age of 18. From April 2020, this scheme offers an interest rate of 7.6% compounded annually. 2. Balika Samridhi Yojana- It was introduced by the Indian government in 1997 under the policies for Women and Child Development to facilitate the girl child. It is widely known as a key initiative to support the birth and education of the girl child. Balika Samridhi yojana covers girl children in

families below the poverty line (BPL) as defined by the Government of India, in rural and urban areas, who are born on or after 15 August, 1997. 3. Ladli Laxmi Yojana- It is a scheme which will spread awareness on positive thinking about the birth, education and health of a girl child. It was launched by the government of Madhya Pradesh in 2007. 4. Ladli Scheme- Affected by how the girl child is treated in the society the Haryana government came up with this scheme to focus on the enhancement of mindset of the society. The scheme aims to bring changes in the attitude of people towards girl children, while eliminating cases of female foeticide. The scheme offers Rs.5000 per year for a time period of 5 years as financial incentive to all the residential parents of Haryana. 5. Kanyashree Prakalpa Yojana- It is one of the most efficient schemes launched in West Bengal by the State government on 8th March 2013. This scheme performs as a conditional cash transfer plan aiming to improve and progress the status of girl child.

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POLICY ANALYSIS SURVEY Survey Link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfpVLEzuBZa96OTG1GlRoyQ5AIW 2yziDEYNI2tBpxH4Xs7fLA/viewform?usp=sf_link We conducted a survey among 85 people from diverse backgrounds between the age group of 20-40 years analyze the level of policy awareness among them and to find out whether the government has been successful in implementing the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao policy effectively. Through this survey we tried to find answers to the following: 1. What is the major source of information regarding the BBBP policy of the sample population? 2. Whether they or someone they know availed any benefit under the scheme? 3. What are the areas of improvement for better implementation of the policy?

OBSERVATIONS:  For about 34.5% of the people, the source of information for the scheme was newspapers and magazines. 22.6% of the sample studied about the scheme in their school or college. Around 16.7% people received information through awareness drives. 17.9% of the people got to know about the scheme through their friends, family, neighbours etc. For about 8.3% of the people, the source of information was television, advertisements or other forms of media.

 About 75.3% of the people or someone they knew faced gender discrimination. According to them the main reasons for discrimination against women were patriarchal structure of our society, illiteracy, early portrayals of women was weak, male chauvinism, orthodox and conservative mindsets etc. Everyone believed that there was a need for government intervention.

 Around 47.1% of the people or their acquaintances were benefitted through the policy, whereas 52.9% people or their acquaintances did not receive any benefit through the policy. Around 80% people believe that the policy is helpful in changing the mindsets of the people about the role of women and the need to educate and protect them.

 36.5% people believe that such policies reach the target audience and help reduce gender discrimination, 47.1% people are not sure about the benefits of the policy and 16.5% people believe that the policy does not reach the target population.

 On the question of problems with the policy, 21.2% people believe that there is lack of proper implementation and 17.6% people think that there is failure to deliver policy awareness. Some people believe that there is improper policy formulation, corruption in government departments etc. 52.9% people think that all the above mentioned issues cause failure in policy delivery.

CONCLUSIONS:  The primary source of information on the scheme for most people were newspapers, television, ads, school, college, awareness drives and media. Since an important component of the scheme was advocacy and media campaign, it can be concluded that to a large extent, the government was successful in creating awareness and disseminating information about the scheme.  A major part of the sample population and/or their acquaintances still faces gender discrimination and less than 50% of them have received benefits under the policy, so there is a need for improvement.  According to most of the people, the government should focus on improving policy implementation and developing effective strategies for better dissemination of information to the target audience,

PERFORMANCE OF THE POLICY As per the overall report analysis from ‘NAVDISHA’, Annual Report of 2018-19 for ‘Beti Bachao and Beti Padhao’ as well as central government statistical data on the BBBP scheme, the following were the areas of improvement:  Sex Ratio at Birth- Sex Ratio at Birth (SRB) has improved by 16 points from 918 (2014-15) to 934 (2019-20), as per the Health Management Information System (HMIS) data. Out of 640 districts covered under BBBP, 422 districts have shown improvement in SRB from 2014-15 to 2018-2019, like Mau (Uttar Pradesh), Karnal, Mahendergarh (Haryana) etc.  Health- Percentage of 1st Trimester ANC (AnteNatal Care) Registration has shown an improving trend from 61% in 2014-15 to 71% in 2019-20. Percentage of Institutional Deliveries has shown an improving trend from 87% in 2014-15 to 94% in 2019-20.  Education- Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) of girls in the schools at secondary level has improved from 77.45 (2014-15) to 81.32 (2018-19) as per Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) provisional data. Percentage of schools with functional separate toilets for girls has shown improvement from 92.1% in 2014-15 to 95.1% in 2018-19.  Attitudinal Change- The BBBP scheme has been able to bring the focus on important issue of female infanticide, lack of education amongst girls and deprivation of their rights on a life cycle continuum. BetiJanmotsav is one of the key programmes celebrated in each district.

CRITICAL REVIEW The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) reported that the scheme failed to meet its objectives. As per the CAG data, the sex ratio has deteriorated in many districts of Haryana and Punjab. According to the report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Human Resource Development, only ₹5 crore of a total of ₹43 crore allotted for the scheme in the financial year 2016-2017 was properly used. Evidence from initial evaluation suggests that State and District level task forces have not even managed to convene regularly, let alone actually monitor the quantitative output targets set out in the scheme. Moreover the expenditure of funds earmarked for the scheme has been centred around national level media campaigns, as opposed to community level interventions for improving education and health outcomes. As per the government data, more than 56 % of funds were spent on publicity from 2014-15 to 2018-19. Less than 25% of the funds were released to districts and states, and the government did not release more than 19 percent of the funds. According to experts, the scheme’s minimal success is...