80% Funds Of Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Spent On Media Campaigns: Report

The Parliamentary Committee on Empowerment of Women presented its report in the Lok Sabha recently. The report revealed that around 80% of Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Funds were spent on the media campaigns only. The committee emphasised that now it is time to move ahead of awareness and take actions to get outcomes in the field of women education and health.

The scheme was launched in January 2015 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to promote improvement in the child sex ratio that was at 918 girls over 1000 boys. The committee, headed by Heena Vijaykumar Gavit, presented the report titled, 'Empowerment of Women through education with special reference to Beti Bachao Beti Padhao'.

What Does The Data On Expenditure On Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Says?

The committee mentions that a total of Rs 446.72 crores was released for the implementation of Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme during 2016-19. Out of these, 78.91% of the funds was spent on media campaigns that includes jingles in Hindi and regional languages, radio, SMS and television campaigns, brochures, advertisements through print media, etc.

The committee also said that the focus of the Beti Bachao Beti padhao scheme should now move from advertisement and necessary actions should be taken for the implementation of steps that will give outcomes. It is time to invest the funds to start working on the vision of the scheme and take actions to get results in the field of female education and health.

The committee also highlighted that although the expenditure plans were already laid down for the Beti Bachao Beti padhao scheme, it still saw this massive amount being spent on media campaigns. The scheme was to be provided Rs 50 lakhs per year per district to spend on media projects as per the plan. This amount was to be divided in six further components.

There was also a breakdown on how much of these 50 lakhs will be spent in which areas and fields in the plan. A total of 50% of the fund was to be spent on awareness programs and innovation generation, 16% of the fund was to be spent on inter-sectoral consultation  10%  each on sectoral intervention in health and education, 6% for the monitoring activities, and 8% as flexi funds.

A total of 50% of the fund was to be spent on awareness programs and innovation generation, 16% of the fund was to be spent on inter-sectoral consultation  10%  each on sectoral intervention in health and education, 6% for the monitoring activities, and 8% as flexi funds.

About the Scheme

The scheme, as described on the Ministry of Women and Child Development website, consists of two key components: advocacy and media; and inter-sectoral intervention in the selected districts that have poor performance in terms of child sex ratio.

The performance on total fund utilisation under the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme was also poor. The total budget to be allocated to the scheme from 2014-15 t0 2019-20 was Rs 848 crores. The pandemic affected the budget in 2020-21 and a total of Rs. 622.48 crores was released. However, the States and the Union territories spend only Rs 156.46 crores on the scheme which is 25.13% of the funds.

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Beti Bachao Beti Padhao: 78.91 Percent Of Allocated Funds Used For Advertising