Government Spent 80% Of ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ Funds On Just Media Campaigns. Erm, What About On Actual Education
According to the Parliamentary Committee on Empowerment of Women report tabled in Lok Sabha, the government spent 80% of funds under its flagship Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao (BBBP) scheme on just media campaigns. They are now revisiting the strategy to invest the funds in measurable outcomes in health and education for girls. The title of the report is ‘Empowerment of Women through education with special reference to Beti Bachao Beti Padhao.’
The Committee found out that out of a total of Rs.446.72 crores released during the period 2016- 2019, a total of 78.91% was spent on media advocacy. The report further added that for the last six years, BBBP has been able to capture the attention of political leadership and national consciousness towards valuing the girl child. In order to achieve measurable outcomes related to education and health envisaged under the scheme, it’s time to focus on other verticals by making ample financial provisions.
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 report also highlighted that total utilisation under the scheme was poor, the Committee found that since the inception of the BBBP scheme in 2014-15 till 2019-20, the total Budgetary allocation was Rs.848 crore, excluding the COVID-stricken financial year of 2020-21. An amount of Rs.622.48 crores was released to the States but only 25.13% of the funds, i.e. Rs.156.46 crores have been spent by the States and Union Territories, during the period.
There are two key components of BBBP, according to the implementation guidelines of the scheme. 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, and multi-sectoral intervention in selected gender critical districts that underperformed with respect to child sex ratio.
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According to the Committee report, despite the clearly laid down formula for utilisation of funds such massive spending on advertisement happened. Rs.50 lakh per year is earmarked for a district for utilisation under six different components. Of this, 16% of funds are for inter-sectoral consultation or capacity building, 50% for innovation or awareness generation activities, 6% for monitoring and evaluation, 10% for sectoral interventions in health, 10% for sectoral interventions in education, and 8% as flexi funds.
In 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Beti Bachao scheme to address sex-selective abortion and the declining child sex ratio in the year 2011. In the country, the programme is being implemented across 405 districts for now.
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