Biju Kanya Ratna Yojana

Biju Kanya Ratna Yojana is aimed at creating an enabling environment for the survival and development of the girl child and secure her dignity. Biju Kanya Ratna Yojana intends to address the issue of declining Child Sex Ratio in Odisha and in general low Child Sex Ratio districts in particular. This is being implemented in the districts of Angul, Dhenkanal, and Ganjam.

Under this, awareness activities are carried out along with training and capacity building programs for government officials, PRI members, elected representatives, grassroot workers, etc. Awards are also given to Panchayats, hospitals etc. for best practices in promoting equality of the girl child.

Objectives

The objectives of the Biju Kanya Ratna Yojana is provided below.

• To prohibit gender-biased sex selection

• To ensure survival, health & nutrition security of the girl child

• To ensure education & retention of girl children in school.

• To sensitize and mobilize the community and all stakeholders towards the value of the girl child.

• Take initiatives to encourage girls to express their views and to be heard, to participate actively, effectively and equally.

Components

The Scheme has four broad components

• Inter-Department Convergence

• Training & Capacity Building program

• Innovations

• IEC activities

The components are to be implemented both at the State level and district level by working out a detailed action plan.

• Inter Dept Convergence: The scheme will be implemented through close inter-department convergence specifically between the Women & Child Development Department, Health & Family Welfare Department and School & Mass Education Department. As the objective of the program encompasses the survival, nutrition, education and development of the girl child, these three Departments are to work in close coordination. Other Departments such as Schedule Caste & Schedule Tribe, Panchayati Raj, Labour & ESI, Home, Rural Development, Legal Service Authority too have an important role. At the state and district level, concerned departments in convergence are to achieve the goal of the scheme.

• Training & Capacity building program: Training and capacity building of all stakeholders is an integral component of this scheme. Some of these stakeholders to be trained are Govt Officials, elected representatives, PRI members; grass root functionaries (AWWs, ANMs, ASHAs, etc), women SHGs / Collectives, religious leaders, voluntary organizations, media, medical associations, industry associations, Youths & adolescents (girls and boys), medical doctors/practitioners in govt and private hospitals, nursing homes and diagnostics centres, Young and newly married couples: Pregnant and nursing women; old persons, parents and in general community.

• Innovations: Addressing the issue in hand, the implementing districts need to innovate, adopt any best practices such as the celebration of Girl Child Day, award panchayats doing innovative work, felicitating family in hospitals on the birth of girl child; research studies or surveys; any other activity.

• IEC activities: Awareness Generation and dissemination through activities such as Seminars/ Workshops/Community Radio/ Pamphlets/ TV/ Radio spots/ Hoardings etc.

Implementing Mechanism

The Department of Women & Child Development, Government of Odisha is the implementing Department and responsible for budgetary control and administration. At the district level, the district administration is the implementing agency for the scheme. State Resource Center for Women (SRCW) will function as Programme Management Unit (PMU) for the Scheme at the state level for implementation of the scheme.

The objectives of the scheme will be achieved through convergence and coordination with concerned departments, district administration and in PPP mode.

Partnership with organizations working on a declining Child Sex Ratio will be done to ensure effective implementation of the scheme.

The districts will do a situational analysis (Baseline) in the first year of the operationalization of the scheme. Thereafter the districts are to monitor the monitorable targets on a yearly basis to know about the progress/ impact of the scheme.