Context:

The Ministry of Women and Child Development is celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) scheme.

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• The celebrations span from January 22, 2025, to March 8, 2025 (on International Women’s Day).
• The event will also showcase the launch of Mission Vatsalya (for development and child protection priorities) and Mission Shakti portals (for women's safety, security and empowerment).

About Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) Scheme

It was launched by the Prime Minister of India in 2015, in Panipat, Haryana.

This scheme is jointly run by the Ministry of Women & Child Development with the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. 

The BBBP scheme is now integrated with Mission Shakti, a comprehensive program for women’s safety and empowerment, for implementation during the 15th Finance Commission period from 2021-2022 to 2025-2026. Mission Shakti consists of two broader sub-schemes –

• Sambal: Safety and Security
• Samarthya: Empowerment 

Eligibility:

• The family should have a girl child below 10 years of age.
• There should be a Sukanya Samriddhi Account or SSA which has been opened in any Indian bank, in the name of the girl child in the family.
• The girl child should be a resident Indian. 
• NRI citizens do not possess eligibility for the BBBP scheme.

The scheme aims to achieve the following goals:

• Improve the child sex ratio
• Ensure gender equality and women empowerment
• Prevent gender-biased, sex-selective elimination
• Ensure survival and protection of the girl child
• Encourage education and participation of the girl child

The scheme is divided into three components – 

• Advocacy campaigns were launched to address the issue of declining Child Sex Ratio (CSR) and Sex Ratio at Birth (SBR);
• Multi-sectoral interventions were planned and are being implemented in gender-critical districts across the country; and 
• A financial incentive-linked scheme—Sukanya Samriddhi scheme—was launched to encourage parents to build a fund for female children.

Key initiatives under the scheme

• The Yashaswini Bike Expedition: It aims to showcase women's empowerment
• The Kanya Shiksha Pravesh Utsav: It re-enrolled over 100,000 out-of-school girls.
• The Doree TV Show aims to raise awareness about girl child abandonment. 
• The National Conference on Skilling: Betiyan Bane Kushal aims to increase equality and empower the girl child.

Achievements of the Scheme

• The scheme helped improve the national Sex Ratio at Birth (SRB) from 918 in 2014-15 to 930 in 2023-24.
• There was a rise in the gross enrolment ratio of girls at the secondary level from 75.51% in 2014-15 to 78% in 2023-24, 
• An increase in institutional deliveries from 61% to 97.3%
• A significant improvement in first-trimester antenatal care (care from health professionals during your pregnancy) registrations from 61% to 80.5%.