NEW DELHI: Celebrating the success of ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ scheme, Union Minister of Women and Child Development Smriti Irani on Friday felicitated five states and 10 districts, for performing excellently in improving Sex Ratio at Birth (SRB), over the last five years.
Apart from this, 10 more districts were felicitated for their commendable work in spreading awareness among the masses.
Speaking on the occasion, Ms Irani specifically hailed the performance of East Kamang in Arunachal Pradesh, which has shown a drastic change in sex ratio. In 2014-15, it was 807, which has now risen to 1039.
Secretary in the Ministry of Women and Child Development Shankar Aggarwal said, “The declining sex ratio is a matter of concern for the government. The scheme aims at securing rights of the girl child, to be born, live with dignity and achieve her full potential. It is a measure of gender justice. The overall goal is to celebrate the girl child and enable her education.”
The states, which were conferred the award, include Haryana, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
Among the districts were Purvi Kawang in Arunachal Pradesh, Mahendragarh in Haryana, Udham Singh Nagar in Uttarakhand, Nammakal in Tamilnadu, Bhiwani in Haryana, Jalgaon in Maharashtra, Ettawa in Uttar Pradesh, Raigarh in Chhattisgarh, Rewa in Madhya Pradeshn and Jodhpur in Rajasthan.
The districts awarded for excellently spreading awareness about the scheme, include Tiruvallur in Tamilnadu, Ahmedabad in Gujarat, Mandi in Himachal Pradesh, Kishtwar in Jammu and Kashmir, Gadag in Karnataka, Shimla in Himachal Pradesh, Wokha in Nagaland, Farukhabad in Uttar Pradesh, Sirmaur in Himachal Pradesh and Nagaur in Rajasthan.
One of the awardees – Mandi Deputy Commissioner Rugved Milind Thakur, while speaking to UNI, expressed happiness over the award. He congratulated the district for this magnificent achievement and said that the BBBP campaign in the district has been successful in creating mass movement, with public support.
“As a result of this, for the second time in a year, Mandi has been awarded the National Award for Beti Bachao Beti Padhao”, he told UNI.
The scheme was started by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 22, 2015 from Panipat, Haryana. The scheme, which was started from 100 districts then, has now expanded to all 640 districts. It aims to empower women, right from birth.
It is a tri-ministerial scheme, where three ministries – Women and Child, Human Resource and Health Family Welfare provide impetus to the scheme.
The journey of implementation of the scheme was also shown, through a short video.
(agencies)
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