Union Minister Meenakshi Lekhi credits PM Modi, ‘Beti Bachao, Padhao’ for improvement in sex ratio

Panipat (Haryana) [India]: Union Minister Meenakshi Lekhi on Friday said the sex ratio in the country has seen a marked improvement due to concerted efforts in this direction by the Centre under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

Attending a ‘Betiyon Ki Lohri’ event here on Saturday, Lekhi said PM Modi conceived the ‘Beti Bachao, Padhao’ campaign in a bid to address and reverse the low sex ratio in the country. 

“One of the main reasons for celebrating Lohri for our daughters is that on January 22, 2015, PM Modi declared ‘Beti Bachao, Padhao’ from here (Panipat). The campaign was the need of the hour as the sex ratio was abysmally low in the country at the time,” Lekhi said. 

“There were 916 girls against 1000 boys at the time. This needed to change and a general awareness campaign was the need of the hour. The ratio is now 933 girls against 1000 boys. In 2022-23, 1020 daughters were born against 1000 boys, which put us on par with developed countries,” she added. 
Last year, in April, in the 100th episode of his monthly radio broadcast ‘Mann Ki Baat’, PM Modi said the gender ratio has improved in Haryana as a result of many campaigns such as ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ and ‘Selfie With Daughter’. 

“I started the campaign ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ from Haryana itself. The ‘Selfie with Daughter’ campaign influenced me a lot and I mentioned it in my episode. Soon, the ‘Selfie with Daughter’ campaign turned into a global campaign. The motive of this campaign was to make people understand the importance of a daughter in one’s life,” the PM said. 

Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) was launched by PM Modi in January 2015 at Panipat in Haryana. 

It seeks to address the declining Child Sex Ratio (CSR) and related issues of women’s empowerment over a life-cycle continuum.