Schemes to Save the Girl Child

Print

Press Information Bureau
Government of India
Ministry of Women and Child Development

10-May-2012 17:49 IST

Schemes to Save the Girl Child

Provisional results of Census 2012 has revealed that while the overall sex ratio in the country has improved from 933 in 2001 to 940 females per 1000 males in 2011, there has been a sharp decline in child sex ratio in the age-group of 0-6 years, declining  from 927 girls per thousand boys in 2001 to 914 in 2011. This decline has been continuing unabated since 1961.

The Government recognizes that the problem of declining child sex ratio in India is not an isolated phenomenon but must be seen in the context of the low status of women and the girl child as a whole, within the home and outside. While its immediate reasons can be traced to increasing son preference as well as advances in technology that has encouraged sex selective abortions, concern of safety and security of the girl child along with the practice of dowry are no less responsible for it.

Accordingly, the Government has undertaken a number of measures to improve survival and status of girl children in the country. While  programmes for improvement of nutrition benefit all children including girl children, like the Integrated Child Development Scheme, National Rural Health Mission, Mid-day meal scheme etc., specific interventions for girl children include implementing the  Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994, pilot cash transfer scheme of ‘Dhanlakshmi’, setting up a Sectoral Innovation Council for improving child sex ratio, and the pilot scheme ‘Sabla’ for a comprehensive Intervention for adolescent girls in the age group of 11-18, with a focus on out of school girls in select 200 districts of the country.

Of the above, ‘Dhanlakshmi’ provides cash incentive, and the scheme does not discriminate on the basis of caste and creed. It is a pilot scheme being implemented in the following districts of the country:

State	District	Block
Andhra Pradesh	Khammam	Aswaraopeta
	Warangal	Narsampet
Chattisgarh	Bastar	Jagdalpur
	Bijapur	Bhopalpattnam
Orissa	Malkangiri	Kalimela
	Koraput	Semiliguda
Jharkhand	Giridih	Tisri
	Kodarma	Markachor
Bihar	Jamoi	Sono
Uttar Pradesh	Rae Bareilly	Shivgarh
Punjab	Fatehgarh Sahib	Sirhind

The details of funds sanctioned and the number of beneficiaries reported by the State Governments for the years, 2009-10 and 2010-11 are as below:

2009-10

S. No.	Name of Block	Grant  sanctioned (Rupees)	No. of Beneficiaries
1.	Sirhind Dist. Fatehgarh, Punjab	1,42,39,250	6,811
2.	Kalimela, Malkangiri, Dist.Malkangiri, Orissa	1,44,90,743	15,754
3.	Semiliguda Dist. Koraput,Orissa	78,28,667	6,582
4.	Markocho, DistrictKoderma,Jharkhand	31,68,805	2,606
5.	Sono, Dist. Jamui, Bihar	1,02,72,535	10,324
	Grand Total	5,00,00,000	42,077

2010-11

S.No.	Name of Block/State	Grant  sanctioned (Rupees)	No. of Beneficiaries
1.	Shivgarh Dist. Raebreilli, Uttar Pradesh	1,45,58,688	10,324
2.	Markachor DistrictKoderma,Jharkhand	74,86,255	6,415
	Grand Total	1,83,01,816	16,739

A number of States are also implementing their own schemes to incentivise the birth of a girl child and encourage families to place a premium on her education and development through Conditional Cash Transfer schemes (CCTs). Some of these are the Laadli Scheme of Delhi Govt., Mukhya Mantri Kanya Suraksha Yojana of Bihar Govt,Bhagyalakshmi Scheme of Karnataka,  Ladli Lakshmi  Yojana of MP, Balika Samridhi Yojana of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, Balri Rakshak Yojana in Punjab andKanyadan scheme of Madhya Pradesh.

This was stated by the Minister for Women and Child Development, Smt. Krishna Tirath, in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha today.