Addressing the Conference, the WCD Minister highlighted the need to involve various stakeholders and join hands for achieving the goals of BBBP. The Minister suggested several initiatives such as celebrating the birth of Girl Child, engaging Sarpanches and make them aware about various aspects of the scheme and issues of girl child. The Minister said that positive environment must be created for Girls. The Minister highlighted need for training of women sarpanches in every district for achieving goals of BBBP.
Under the BBBP scheme, several local level innovative initiatives focusing on advocacy and community engagements have been undertaken by the Districts across the country. The Minister interacted with DCs/DMs/Nodal officers who shared various initiatives taken by them in their districts. The Minister appreciated the initiatives such as involving Chemist Associations so that no drugs for abortion are sold without prescription and that chemists report in case such issue comes to their notice. The Minister suggested that counselling facilities may be set up at abortion centres where necessary information and counseling can be provided to women.
The Minister said that WCD Ministry would start an e-magazine to capture the innovations and best practices so as to find out what works and what doesn’t work. She said that failures are just as important as successes. The e-magazines would be distributed in districts so that all districts can learn from experiences of each other.
The Minister stressed on the need for Self- defense training for girls, and also consent issues. She shared that Kenya has dealt with women security issues through “Just say no campaign”. She shared examples of districts such as Samba, J&K (special BBBP fund and self-defense training), Ahmednagar, Maharashtra (Kanya Ratna Utsav Programme) and other districts.
The Minister stated that as a result of initiatives by states/UTs/districts, latest reports of HMIS data of MoHFW for 161 BBBP districts indicate that for time period between April-March 2015-16 and 2016-17, an improving trend in sex ratio at birth (SRB) is visible in 104 districts, 119 districts have reported progress in first trimester registrations against reported Ante Natal Care registrations and 146 districts have reported improvement in institutional deliveries.
The Minister further stressed that districts should take steps in the direction of creating assets for girl child with the involvement of parents wherein some financial incentive can be linked so as to give sense of ownership to the family and therefore they can have long term association with that asset which can help the girl child in the long run. She further suggested that promoting adoptions can also be helpful in reducing the female foeticide and infanticide.
The Minister highlighted that following are the main focus points for BBBP scheme:
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- Compulsory institutional deliveries
- Strict implementation of PC&PNDT Act
- Every village should have listing of children both girls and boys
- Various organisations should be involved by giving them separate targets
- Changing mindset through various incentives and unique initiatives
- Training Women Sarpanches as they can be change agents in their villages.
Secretary, WCD, Shri Rakesh Srivastava, emphasized on bringing the Issue in public domain through Visibility of BBBP logo. He further said that Some districts have catalyzed the potential of local champions under BBBP who are chosen from diverse fields of sports, academics, writers, lawyers, students etc. The local champions are selected by District Administration as role models excelling in different fields. The local champions are mobilizing youth from gram panchayats and villages to work as community volunteers under BBBP. The District Collectors/Deputy Commissioners, lead the implementation of the BBBP Scheme in the newly selected 244 districts.
Representatives from Ministry of Health and Family welfare shared the enforcement of PC&PNDT Act. Ministry of Human Resource Development shared various schemes which promote Education of Girl Child. The Director, WCD, Haryana shared their journey of successful implementation of the scheme on-ground and the various innovative interventions.
The Deputy Commissioners/Collectors/District Magistrates and Officials from select districts of Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh , Sikar, Rajasthan and Sonepat, Haryana also shared their experiences on the journey of successful implementation of the scheme on-ground and the various innovative interventions, they have undertaken like celebration of birth of girl child, display of birth statistics through digital Guddi Gudda boards, oath taking ceremonies, linking of birth of girl child with Sukanya Samriddhi accounts, plantation drives through involvement of urban local bodies, sealing of unregistered ultrasonography machines, and the like.
State Principal Secretaries, Deputy Commissioners/Collectors and District Magistrates, UN bodies and CSO agencies attended the conference.