What are the must-know schemes related to the girl child for your UPSC exam

National Girl Child Day promotes awareness about the rights of the girl child and increases awareness of the importance of girls’ education, health, and nutrition. It also aims to promote girls’ position in society to improve their living.

Key Takeaways:

1. NPS Vatsalya Scheme: The NPS Vatsalya scheme was launched by the Finance Minister on 18th September 2024. It is a new pension scheme for children in the age group of 0 to 18 years. A parent can deposit a minimum of 1000 per month and a maximum with no limit. This account will be operated by the parents until the child turns 18, after which the account will be in the name of the children. Once the child turns 18, the account can be seamlessly converted into a regular NPS account or a non-NPS scheme. It is regulated and administered by the Pension Fund Regulatory Authority of India (PFRDA).

2. Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana: Launched in 2015 as part of the Indian government’s ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ campaign, Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana is a small savings scheme designed to help parents of girl children accumulate a corpus for their daughter’s education and marriage.

3. Parents of a girl child aged 10 years or younger can invest in this scheme. The scheme allows for a minimum and maximum annual deposit of Rs.250 and Rs.1.5 lakh, respectively. Deposits to the account can be made for 15 years from the account opening date. The account, however, has a lock-in period of 21 years, implying that deposits mature after 21 years.

4. Mission Poshan 2.0: It addresses the challenges of malnutrition in children, adolescent girls, pregnant women, and lactating mothers. The strategic focus is on nutrition content by creating of convergent ecosystem to develop and promote practices that nurture health, wellness, and immunity. Initiatives have been taken to improve nutritional quality and testing in accredited labs, strengthen delivery, and leverage technology under the ‘Poshan Tracker’ for prompt supervision and management of services. Under Mission Poshan 2.0, the emphasis is placed on dietary diversity, food fortification, and encouraging the consumption of millet.

5. CBSE Udaan Scheme: Launched in 2014 by the Central government by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) under the guidance of the Ministry of Education aims to address low enrollment of women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), specifically in the Indian engineering colleges. The CBSE provides free tutorials for students of class 11 and class 12 to crack engineering entrance exams including the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE).

Beti bachao Beti Padhao

6. Beti Padhao, Beti Bachao: On January 22, the BBBP scheme completed 10 years since its launch in 2015. ‘ BBBP has been instrumental in overcoming gender biases and at the same time it has created the right environment to ensure that the girl child has access to education and opportunities to achieve her dreams’, the prime minister said.

• The Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao Scheme, launched to address the decline in Child Sex Ratio and related issues of empowerment of girls, is implemented by states with 100% central assistance. It set several targets concerning the nutritional status of girls, their attendance in schools, the provision of adequate infrastructure in schools and so on. This was to be done through publicity campaigns, inspections and raids to stop the illegal detection of pregnancy in clinics and other measures.

• In the 2011 Census, as many as 12 Haryana districts were among 100 gender-critical districts in the country, which were chosen based on the child sex ratio (0-6 years) for the campaign under the BBBP programme, launched in 2015, to control the menace of sex-selective abortions.

• After the launch of the BBBP in Haryana in 2015, the sex ratio at birth increased to 914 in 2017 compared to 871 in 2014. The sex ratio at birth rose to 923 in 2019 and then fell to 922 in 2020, 914 in 2021, 917 in 2022, 916 in 2023, and 910 in 2024.

BEYOND THE NUGGET: Sex Ratio at Birth

The Sex ratio at birth is defined as the number of female births per 1000 male births. The Economic Survey for 2023-24 noted that the national Sex Ratio at Birth improved from 918 per 1000 males (2014-15) to 930 (2023-24, provisional), citing data from the Health Management Information System (HMIS) of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.

(Source: NFHS)

(Source: In 2024, Haryana recorded lowest sex ratio in past 8 years, In 10 years, the hits and misses of ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’, Secure your daughter’s future with Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana)

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