Beti Bachao scheme kicks off in district

Rachna Khaira

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, September 27

The administration has kicked off the ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ scheme in the district today.

Jalandhar was recently chosen for the project along with eight other districts in the state by the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development. It has also received Rs 18 lakh to run the project for the next three months.

According to Girish Dayalan, Additional Deputy Commissioner (Development), the district administration as per the detailed action plan had chosen 50 villages in rural areas and a few pockets in urban areas where the gender ratio was the lowest as compared to other areas in the district.

“A multi-sectoral approach has been made to strengthen the project by including a majority of the departments in the programme. While the Health Department will ensure proper implementation of the PC & PNDT Act and registration of expected mothers in the district, the Education Department would ensure educational opportunities to the girl child,” said Dayalan.

He said the Department of Social Security and Development of Women and Children, Punjab, has planned many initiatives that includes installation of LED Gudda-Guddi boards on major intersections in the city and also another LED board that will display the monthly list of top 10 villages with the highest gender ratio and the worst 10 villages with the lowest gender ratio in the district.

“The boards will display the district map and the top 10 villages with the highest gender ratio with pink markings and the worst 10 villages with red markings. Also, ample awareness will be spread at panchayat ghars, BDPO offices, wedding places and also among newlywed couples, who visit the Tehsil Complex for marriage registration,” the ADC (D) said.

He said the district administration was planning to identify top 10 women achievers in the district whose pictures would be displayed on the 2017 annual calendar printed by the district administration.

The district administration is also planning to create awareness by organising nukkad nataks, poster-making competitions in gram sabhas.

The administration is also planning to hold campaigns in schools, primary health centres, block and district-level hospitals, anganwadi centres and also panchayat bhawans at various places.

Besides, educational institutes will be told to organise a single dedicated activity related to girl’s education, nutrition, self-defence, skill development and also sports on each day of the week.

The administration is also planning to fix a day every month and celebrate it as a girl-centric day. Also, a week-long activity has been planned that includes roadshows, signature campaigns for pledge against discrimination of the girl child, nukkad nataks by involving local residents.

While the state government has launched many schemes to ensure a healthy gender ratio in the state. Many districts, including Jalandhar, was yet to show improvement. The problem is severe in urban slum areas and villages and among people living below the poverty line and even among a section of the upper strata of society.

The scheme was earlier launched on January 22 last year at Panipat in Haryana to address the issues of declining gender ratio in the country. In the first phase, the Ministry of Women and Child Development had selected around 100 districts in the country, including 11 in Punjab. Now, along with Jalandhar, the scheme will be launched in eight other districts, including Faridkot, Bathinda, Ludhiana, Moga, Ropar, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala and Nawanshahr.

Steps to be taken by Education Dept

It will initiate mass campaign to achieve 100 per cent enrolment of girls, along with convergence of the SABLA scheme and the department will monitor the data regarding girls education and share it with the district administration to institute a annual district-level award for promoting girl’s education out of the scheme fund.

It will collect the information of top performing girls in education/sports wings and share it with the district task force to make them local gender champions.

The department will display the gender ratio class-wise on special notice boards installed outside every classroom.