Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 22 nd

January,2015 in Panipat, Haryana. It is a nationwide scheme aimed at protecting of girl child, for
addressing issues of declining sex ratio and prevention of female foeticide. Recently, India’s rank in
the Global Gender Gap Index released by World Economic Forum in 2020 was 112 th out of 153
countries which is not very good number; hence this scheme through various other schemes like
Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana, Ladli scheme, Ladli Laxmi Yojana aims to promote the education and
development of girl child by providing certain incentives. This scheme is a joint effort by the Ministry
of Women and Child Development, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Ministry of Human
Resource Development. The major regions in focus under the scheme are north Indian states like
Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Bihar and Delhi.

India is a country where more than 80% of the people worship different types of goddesses but they
want to kill their own girl child because of the orthodox mindset of the people for want of a son.
Since time immemorial, the birth of a girl child in our society has been considered to be a curse while
the birth of a male child has been considered a boon. This scheme was launched by the Indian
government as a result of sharp decline in sex ratio of females.

It has been three years since the launch of the scheme by the Indian Government and it has indeed
yielded positive results. There has been increase by 16 basis points in the sex ratio at birth in 2019-
20 which is quite a considerable achievement by the government. Also, the enrolment of girls in
schools at secondary levels has increased to 81.32% as of 2019 as per the data of Ministry of Women
and Child Welfare. The efforts of some states or districts like Manasa district of Punjab and
Pithorgarh district cannot be ignored in this aspect. Pithorgarh launched various campaigns and
street plays for achieving the objectives of the scheme while Manasa district launched Udaan
scheme where the girl child was given a day to spend with the professional who she aspired to be in
future. However, there is still a long way to go as changing the orthodox mindset of the people that
has existed since centuries cannot be achieved in a short span of time.