While the Centre is pioneering various schemes and campaigns boosting the empowerment of a girl child, the states too are not lagging behind to manifest a better world for women, a better India. Rajasthan too has made elaborate contributions towards the protection and welfare of girl child.
The State of Rajasthan has been constantly keen on upbringing the development and education of girls. A lot has been done in the state for girls and women, thereby making them highly confident and independent in every realm of life.
Rajasthan has attached strings to the Central government’s Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) campaign which was initiated to support welfare schemes for girl child. The state
“We are a nodal agency for implementing BBBP . We have roped in other departments of the government, including the health department, panchayati raj department, education department, and carried out various activities in these districts to change the mindset of people towards the girl child,“ said Richa Khoda, commissioner, women empowerment department.
Nine districts in Rajasthan have reported a significant increase in sex ratio at birth. Shockingly, these districts were infamous for child sex ratio (0-6 years) in the state as per Census 2011. Among all the states, Tonk reported the highest increase of 72 in sex ratio of girl child at birth. In Tonk district, the sex ratio of girl child at birth was 926 (per 1,000 boys) in 2015-16.
In January 2015, the Centre had identified 100 dis tricts across the country, including 10 districts in the state for BBBP. The 10 districts covered in the first phase of BBBP were Sikar, Jhunjhunu, Jaipur, Dholpur, Dausa, Sriganganagar, Alwar, Sawai Madhopur, Bharatpur and Karauli. Later, in April 2016, the Centre included 61 more districts across the country.
Now, out of the 14 districts, nine have shown paramount amount of improvement after the department to empower women conducted an awareness drive and strengthened the implementation of Pre-Conception Pre-Natal Diagnostic Technique (PCPNDT) Act in districts.
After the state launched various campaigns like Bhamashah Yojana, Rajshree yojana in the state, there has been a drastic transformation in the condition of girls and women.
The sex ratio at birth in Sikar has improved by 46 points and in Jhunjhunu by 41 points. Besides, in Jaipur and Dholpur, the sex ratio at birth increased by 18 and 12 points, respectively, whereas Dausa and Sriganganagar rose by 10 points each, and Alwar and Sawai Madhopur seven points each.
The women empowerment department conducted activities like oath taking ceremonies in schools, appointed village volunteers to spread awareness on BBBP.
It is inspiring to know that events which were earlier only conducted on a boy birth, are now being held even when a girl is born. Events like `Beti janamotsava’ were also organised under the BBBP scheme. Earlier, such events were only organised during the birth of boys.
“We even organized a cricket tournament to spread awareness on BBBP in one of the 14 districts. At local fairs and `melas,’ we organised campaigns on the importance of girl child,“ BBBP nodal officer (state) Dr Jagdish Prasad said.
The state sure demands a humungous applause for immense improvements in the realm of female feticides and infanticides. Most appreciative is the fact that the government has made earnest efforts in this direction of girl empowerment and has managed to accomplished enormous feats in the same.
