Beti Bachao Beti Padhao

Also called: BBBP · Topic: Population of India: Distribution, Density, Growth and Composition · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 3 "Human Development"; Class 12, Ch 1 "Population: Distribution, Density, Growth and Composition"

Meaning

Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) means "Save the daughter, educate the daughter". It is a government campaign, launched on 22 January 2015 at Panipat (Haryana), to stop the fall in the Child Sex Ratio and help girls survive, stay safe and go to school [2].

• It matters because India's child sex ratio (age 0-6) fell to 918 in Census 2011, the lowest ever.
• NCERT uses BBBP as an example of a campaign that promotes gender sensitivity. This means getting society to see and stop unfair treatment of girls.

Explanation

Why it was needed: from sex to discrimination

• Sex is the biological difference between people. Gender is the set of roles and behaviour that society expects from people because of their sex.
• Social roles and institutions turn this difference into discrimination:
• Family, school, workplace and religion treat girls and women unfairly. This is discrimination.
• They also keep girls and women out of many things. This is exclusion.

• As a result, women and transgender persons are denied education, jobs, representation, equal pay and dignity. NCERT calls this a "crime against humanity".

• UNDP Human Development Report 1995 warned: "If development is not engendered it is endangered."

• Engendered means planned so that women and men gain equally.
• Growth that leaves out half the population will not last.

The problem BBBP attacks: how girls go "missing"

• How a low sex ratio at birth comes about:
• A family prefers sons, for dowry, inheritance, old-age support or rituals.
• An ultrasound scan is used to find out the sex of the foetus.
• If the foetus is a girl, it is aborted. This is gender-biased sex-selective elimination.

• Fewer girls are born, so the Sex Ratio at Birth (SRB) falls.

• Natural SRB is about 950 girls per 1,000 boys, because biology produces about 105 boys for every 100 girls. An SRB well below 950 shows that girls are being removed before birth.

• Neglect after birth: girls who are given less food and health care die more often. Together with sex-selective abortion, this produces "missing women" (Amartya Sen, 1990). These are women who should be alive but are not.

How the scheme is designed

• Aims [2]:
• stop the fall in the Child Sex Ratio (CSR);
• prevent gender-biased sex-selective elimination;

• help girls survive, stay safe (protection) and go to school (education).

• Three ministries run it together:

• Women and Child Development (WCD), the lead ministry;
• Health and Family Welfare;

• Education.

• Coverage: it started in 100 gender-critical districts, the districts with the lowest child sex ratio. It now covers the whole country.

• Target: raise the SRB by 2 points every year [2].
• Partner law: the PC-PNDT Act 1994 (Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act) does the enforcement work.
• It bans finding out or telling the sex of a foetus.
• It bans advertising sex-determination services.
• Every ultrasound clinic must register under it.

Results so far

• HMIS (Health Management Information System) is the health ministry's record of births reported by health facilities.
• In HMIS data, the national SRB was 918 in 2014-15 and rose to 930 in 2023-24 [2]. It was 929 in 2024-25 [3].
• Census 2027 will show whether this improvement is real. Its Population Enumeration takes place in February 2027, and its reference date is 1 March 2027 [5][6].

Where it occurs

• Launch site: Panipat, Haryana. Haryana had the lowest sex ratio among states (879) in Census 2011, which is why it was chosen.
• Area: it began in 100 gender-critical districts and now covers all of India.
• Who runs it: Ministry of Women and Child Development (lead), with the Ministries of Health and Family Welfare and Education. It started in 2015.
• Problem regions it targets:
• The north-west (Haryana, Punjab, Delhi) has the worst SRB in the Census-era pattern.

• The Hindi belt (Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh) has low female literacy, high fertility and a poor sex ratio in the same districts.

• Contrast region: Kerala had the highest state sex ratio (1,084) in Census 2011 and the highest literacy (about 94%). This shows what the "Padhao" (education) side can achieve.

• Survey picture (NFHS-5, 2019-21) [4]:
• national SRB 929;
• highest in Ladakh (1,125), then Lakshadweep (1,051);
• lowest in Tamil Nadu (878), then Odisha and Telangana (894 each).

Don't confuse with

• Child Sex Ratio (CSR) vs Sex Ratio at Birth (SRB): CSR counts girls per 1,000 boys aged 0-6 in the Census (918 in 2011). SRB counts girls born per 1,000 boys born. BBBP's yearly target of 2 points applies to the SRB. Both figures happen to be 918 (CSR in Census 2011, SRB in HMIS 2014-15), so read the question carefully.
• BBBP vs PC-PNDT Act: BBBP (2015) is a campaign to change attitudes and support girls. The PC-PNDT Act (1994) is a law that bans sex determination of a foetus.
• Census vs NFHS figures: the Census 2011 overall sex ratio is 943. NFHS-5 recorded 1,020 women per 1,000 men in the household population, but that is a sample survey, not a full count.
• Overall sex ratio vs SRB rankings: Haryana (879) was lowest for the overall sex ratio in Census 2011. Tamil Nadu (878) was lowest for the SRB in NFHS-5 [4]. Different sources give different rankings.

Prelims Hooks

• BBBP was launched on 22 January 2015 at Panipat, Haryana [2].
• Lead ministry: WCD, working with Health and Family Welfare and Education. It started in 100 districts and now covers the whole country.
• Target: raise the SRB by 2 points a year. HMIS SRB went from 918 (2014-15) to 930 (2023-24) [2] and was 929 (2024-25) [3].
• Why Panipat: Haryana had the lowest sex ratio (879) among states in Census 2011. Kerala had the highest (1,084).
• Trap: Census 2011 CSR (0-6) = 918, the lowest ever, while the overall sex ratio rose to 943.
• Natural SRB ≈ 950 (about 105 boys per 100 girls). PC-PNDT Act = 1994. "Missing women" = Amartya Sen, 1990.

Mains Points

• Causes BBBP has to fight:
• son preference (dowry, inheritance, old-age support);
• cheap ultrasound and weak enforcement of the PC-PNDT Act;
• neglect of girls in food and health care, which produces "missing women".

• The problem is worst in the fairly rich, literate north-west (Punjab, Haryana). This shows that wealth alone does not remove son preference, so a campaign to change attitudes is needed.

• Effects and the spatial link:

• An adverse sex ratio leads to a "marriage squeeze" (too few brides for the number of men), trafficking of brides from eastern states and violence against women.

• Low female literacy, high fertility and a poor sex ratio cluster in the Hindi belt. Kerala and Tamil Nadu have high female literacy, low fertility and better sex ratios. This is why BBBP joins "Bachao" (survival) with "Padhao" (education). A map-based answer works well here.

• Policy assessment:

• BBBP, the PC-PNDT Act and girls' education schemes work together. HMIS SRB rose from 918 (2014-15) to 930 (2023-24) [2][3].
• Female LFPR (the share of women working or looking for work) rose from 23.3% (2017-18) to 41.7% (2023-24) [7]. This supports the case that education and jobs together empower women.
• Census 2027 will confirm whether the gain is real. This is UNDP's 1995 warning in action: development that leaves out women is in danger.

Related concepts

• Sex ratio at birth
• Missing women

Read more

• Sex ratio, gender and literacy