Governor appeals to state’s society to sponsor girl child

The governor of Nagaland has appealed to individuals and communities in Nagaland to come forward and sponsor a girl child under the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (‘Save the girl child, educate the girl child’) scheme of the government of India. So far, about 133 girls have been sponsored by various communities.

The prime minister of India had launched the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme in January 2015, an initiative to address issues that affect women in the longer term and to reverse the trend of adverse and declining Child Sex Ratio (CSR).  The decline in CSR is an alarming indicator for women disempowerment. 

In continuation of the initiatives, PB Acharya, the governor of Nagaland and Assam, has launched a bank account for the scheme in Nagaland.  He had a series of meeting with social organizations and various community leaders residing at Dimapur on June 11^th and the 12th.

About 133 girls were sponsored by various organizations, the governor’s office informed in a press release issued to the media on Monday. An exclusive bank account with the State Bank of India has been opened for said purpose.  The governor has appealed to citizens wishing to sponsor a girl child for one year. An amount of Rs.2, 500 may to be deposited in said bank account with the Kohima branch of the State Bank of India. 

“The girls and the Private Schools will be identified and selected by a Committee formed for the purpose by the honorable governor. In this connection, honorable governor appealed to the civil societies and individuals and community leaders to come forward and strengthen the Scheme.  He also appealed to strengthen residential facilities, school uniforms, books, transport etc for such identified girls,” the governor’s office stated. The sponsors will be kept informed about the progress of their sponsored child regularly, the establishment stated. 

‘The honorable governor has expressed happiness for the spontaneous response and he values the relationship with the nongovernmental organizations and community organizations,’ it added.

The Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao is a government of India scheme that aims to generate awareness and improving the efficiency of welfare services meant for women. The scheme was initiated with an initial corpus of Rs. 100 crore (US$15 million).

According to census data, the child sex Ratio (0–6 years) in India was 927 girls per 1,000 boys in 2001, which dropped drastically to 918 girls for every 1,000 boys in 2011. A 2012 UNICEF report has ranked India 41st among 195 countries.

The Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao scheme was introduced in October, 2014 to address the issue of declining Child Sex Ratio. This is being implemented through a national campaign and focused multi-sector action in 100 selected districts that are low in CSR. It covers all the states and union territories in India. This is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Ministry of Human Resource Development. (Source: Wikipedia)

(Al Ngullie, June 13, 2016; Eastern Mirror)

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