Majority of funds for Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme spent on 'media-related activities'

File image

Over 56 percent of funds allocated for the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme were spent on “media-related activities from 2014-15 to 2018-19, The Quint has reported.

The publication, whilst quoting data released by the government, has also pointed out that less than 25 percent of the funds were actually disbursed to districts and states. In addition, over 19 percent of the funds released by the government altogether.

The Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme was commissioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 22, 2015 with the qualitative aim of “changing mindsets regarding the girl child” and the quantitative aim of “addressing the declining sex ratio”. The scheme required three Union ministries to work in tandem — Women and Child Development, Health and Family Welfare and Human Resource Development.

According to the answer provided by Virendra Kumar, Union MoS for Women and Child Development in the Lok Sabha, the government has allocated a total of Rs 644 crore for the scheme. Out of this, only Rs 159 crore has been sent to the districts and states.

Even though the disproportionate allocation of funds paints a bad picture on the Centre’s seriousness on the issue, Virendra Kumar rejects this argument. In fact, he announced that the government has planned to expand the scheme to all 640 districts in the country.

However, the data pointed out by the report tells another story on the intermittent success of the scheme. For instance, in the 53 of the 161 districts covered in the first and second phases of the implementation of the scheme, the child sex ratio has actually declined since 2015. In the remaining districts, the child sex ratio has increased.

In fact, the decline in sex ratio is particularly sharp in Union Territories. For instance in Nicobar, the child sex ratio fell from 985 females per 1,000 males in 2014-15 to 839 in 2016-17. Similarly, in Puducherry's Yanam, it fell from 1,107 in 2014-15 to 976. The government has given Rs 55 crore and Rs 46 crore to Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Puducherry respectively.