Rajasthan shines out in PM Narendra Modi’s Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao campaign
The desert state is in bloom. Rajasthan, infamous for female foeticide and infanticide and child marriages, is now saving its girls and their numbers are growing.
The state, which was in the bottom half of India’s child sex ratio rankings in the 2011 Census, has scripted a comeback and is bringing back its girls.
It’s a turnaround that’s impressed the Centre no end, more so because it’s probably the most successful example so far of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao campaign.
The Rajasthan government recently updated the Union government on how the turnaround was achieved over the past two years in a presentation that was accessed by ET.
A signed message from chief minister Vasundhara Raje for parents of newly born girls, a monetary grant for every girl child at various stages, a first-of-its kind informer scheme to reward those who tip-off the government on sex-selection activities and GPS-fitted sonography machines – Rajasthan is using every trick in the book to ensure that girls’ lives are saved.
The child sex ratio in Rajasthan – the number of girls for every 1,000 boys up to the age of 6 – had dipped to 888 in the 2011 Census from 909 in 2001. The ratio of girls to boys at birth, as measured by Rajasthan in 2015, is 925.
It’s a big deal for a state where only nine of the 33 districts had a child sex ratio exceeding 900 five years ago. The national average is 919, as per the 2011 Census.
Courtesy : ET
Providing girls basic education is a sure way of giving them much greater power. https://t.co/l7jdvyrsdk
— Vasundhara Raje (@VasundharaBJP) July 9, 2016
