'Beti Bachao Beti Padhao' scheme extended to 61 districts: Maneka Gandhi

Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi on Monday announced that the 'Beti Bachao Beti Padhao' scheme, which was initially launched in 100 districts, is now being extended to 61 more districts across the nation.

Addressing a session on initiatives and achievements of the Women & Child Development Ministry at the all India regional editors' conference in Jaipur today, Gandhi said that some of the key measures include 'one stop centres' for women affected by violence.

The measures also include enactment of Juvenile Justice Act 2015, 33% reservation of women in police workforce, Khoya Paya portal for missing children, MoU with Railways on missing children, schemes of Gender Champions and Special Police Volunteers among others.

She added that the scheme, which was initially launched in 100 districts with adverse child sex ratio and encouraged by the results of the scheme, was now being extended to 61 more districts,

Speaking about the new scheme of One Stop Centres launched in July last year, Gandhi said that 20 one stop centres, called 'Sakhi', have already been set up, out of which ten are operational.

She announced that 660 such Centres are proposed to be set up. 33% reservation for women has already been operationalised by seven big states as well as all Union Territories and the remaining states are expected to implement it soon, which will help to deal with crimes against women more effectively.