Bulk of Beti Bachao program funds allegedly spent on advertising

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The Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao Scheme (BBBP) which was launched with much fanfare to empower the girl child and also help combat the decline in Child Sex Ratio has been a major electoral slogan too. The scheme’s nodal ministry is the Women and Child Development Ministry and it also includes Ministries of Health and Family Welfare and Education (Department of School Education and Literacy).

However, a report submitted in Parliament on Thursday, by the Committee on Empowerment of Women, chaired by Maharashtra Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Lok Sabha MP Heena Vijaykumar Gavit, has made a startling revelation. The Committee has put on record public its “dismay” at the poor utilisation of the amount allocated by the centre for its Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao scheme. It has revealed “Nearly 80 percent of the funds for the scheme has been used for its advertising and not on sectoral interventions such as in health and education for women.” According to a report in the Indian Express, “78.91 percent of the total fund has been spent by the states only on media advocacy.”

The report titled “Empowerment of women through education with special reference to Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao Scheme’’ was submitted in Lok Sabha on Thursday. The report noted that “of the Rs 446.72 crore released under the scheme between 2016 and 2019, 78.91 percent was spent on media advocacy, and not on sectoral intervention on health and education for women,” reported the Times of India.

According to the IE report, since the inception of the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao scheme, Rs 848 crore had been allocated, and the states were given Rs 622.48 crore (apart from the pandemic period in the financial year of 2020-21) but “only 25.13 percent of the funds, i.e. Rs 156.46 crore, has been spent by the states, reflecting not up to the mark performance”. It has been reported that the committee recommended that the ministry take up the issue with states and “ensure proper utilisation of BBBP funds for the benefit of the girl child,” adding, “The government should…focus on planned expenditure allocation for sectoral interventions in education and health.”

According to the report, nearly 80 percent of the funds for the scheme has been used for its advertising and not on sectoral interventions such as in health and education for women. The committee reportedly stated that “since its inception in 2014-15 till 2019-20, the total budgetary allocation under the scheme was Rs 848 crore, excluding the Covid-stricken. During this period, an amount Rs 622.48 crore was released to the states.”

Commenting on the “whopping 78.91%” spent “only on media advocacy” the committee stated that though it “understands the necessity to undertake a media campaign to spread the message of Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao among the people, they have felt that it is equally important to balance the objectives of the scheme.”