Discrimination against women in India often manifests not through overt violence but through subtle, everyday routines that have become deeply woven into the cultural fabric. These practices are so normalized that they frequently go unnoticed, yet they shape the lived experiences of girls and women from childhood onward.
The Invisible Threads of Gender Bias
This discrimination flamboyantly occupies the dining table, where daughters serve meals and eat last. It appears in school registers where girls' names vanish after Class 8, and it surfaces in family discussions where their ambitions are weighed against "practical" considerations like marriage or financial constraints. Long before a girl comprehends the concept of inequality, she has already navigated its realities.
Education, which should serve as an equalizer, often reflects existing societal disparities instead. For countless girls, schooling concludes not due to lack of capability but because investment in their futures is viewed as discretionary. Secondary-level dropouts are rarely addressed as systemic failures; they are accepted as inevitable social outcomes.
The Genesis of Beti Bachao Beti Padhao
This was precisely the context that prompted the launch of India's Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) scheme in 2015. The initiative emerged as a necessary response in a nation where daughters were still being negotiated—sometimes welcomed, but frequently not. The declining sex ratio and educational inequalities represented more than mere statistics; they constituted a profound societal indictment.
Why BBBP Became Imperative
By 2014–15, India's Sex Ratio at Birth (SRB) had plummeted to 918 according to Press Information Bureau data, signaling unmistakable gender-biased sex selection. This phenomenon transcended rural-urban divides, economic classes, and educational backgrounds. While medical access had advanced, ethical restraint had failed to keep pace.
BBBP was conceived as a direct countermeasure to this demographic crisis. Its objectives were clear: improve SRB by two points annually, maintain institutional deliveries above 95 percent, enhance early antenatal registration, and boost girls' participation in secondary education and skill development. Essentially, it aimed to intervene before discrimination became irreversible.
Eleven Years of Data: Progress and Complexity
More than a decade later, the numbers reveal a nuanced narrative of advancement without complete resolution. The national Sex Ratio at Birth has climbed from 918 in 2014–15 to 930 in 2023–24, marking a significant 12-point improvement. Demographers rightly emphasize that such shifts require sustained intervention, with awareness campaigns, stricter monitoring of diagnostic centers, and district-level accountability playing crucial roles.
Educational and Healthcare Advancements
Educational metrics show positive movement as well. Girls' Gross Enrolment Ratio at the secondary level increased from 75.51 percent in 2014–15 to 78 percent in 2023–24. Initiatives like Kanya Shiksha Pravesh Utsav facilitated the re-enrollment of over 100,000 out-of-school girls, indicating that retention—not just access—was finally receiving attention.
Healthcare indicators represent one of BBBP's most notable successes. Institutional deliveries surged from 61 percent in 2014–15 to over 97.3 percent by 2023–24. Safer births, improved antenatal care, and early registration reduced risks that historically burdened women and girl children disproportionately. These achievements translate into tangible outcomes: lives carried safely to term, daughters remaining in classrooms longer, and mothers surviving childbirth.
Awareness Campaigns and Their Impact
BBBP's most visible interventions involved strategic campaigns. Initiatives such as Selfie with Daughters and community celebrations like Beti Janmotsav deliberately targeted social attitudes, particularly among fathers and families. In a society where discrimination is often defended as "tradition," such public disruptions proved meaningful.
The scheme's subsequent integration with Mission Shakti expanded its scope. Through Sambal and Samarthya components, BBBP became part of a broader safety and empowerment framework, connecting One Stop Centres, women's helplines, working women's hostels, creches, and skilling initiatives. District-level Hubs for Empowerment of Women aimed to reduce fragmentation and consolidate services.
Where the Numbers Reveal Limitations
Despite these gains, data also highlights BBBP's constraints. While secondary enrollment has risen, the transition from education to employment remains weak. Women's workforce participation continues to lag despite skilling efforts and policy convergence.
Improving sex ratios does not automatically enhance women's life opportunities. Many girls educated during the BBBP era still exit the workforce prematurely, constrained by unpaid care work, unsafe public spaces, or social expectations surrounding marriage and motherhood.
Uneven Progress Across Districts
Progress varies significantly across districts. Funding allocations differ based on SRB performance: ₹40 lakh for districts with SRB below 918, ₹30 lakh for those between 919 and 952, and ₹20 lakh for better-performing districts. However, administrative capacity—not just funding—often determines success. Where local governance is weak, the scheme struggles to move beyond events and slogans.
A Decade Later: What Has Truly Changed?
Beti Bachao Beti Padhao accomplished what few policies achieve: it transformed gender bias into a national conversation backed by measurable targets. It improved key indicators, particularly in healthcare and survival, and created pressure points where silence once prevailed.
Yet it also exposed the limits of awareness-led reform. Gender discrimination in India is sustained not only by attitudes but also by economic structures, labor markets, and social expectations that policy posters alone cannot dismantle.
As the scheme marks its eleventh year, the challenge has evolved. It is no longer solely about saving the girl child and sending her to school. It is about ensuring that the girl who survives, studies, and grows up is not quietly pushed back into dependency.
The numbers demonstrate progress, but they also reveal restraint. What follows will determine whether BBBP is remembered as a turning point or merely as the moment India finally acknowledged it had a problem.
