All that was discussed in the Houses through the day
Nearly 45 per cent of the funds allocated to the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) scheme in FY 2019-20 had not been utilised, data presented by Smriti Irani, Union minister for women and child development in the Rajya Sabha September 22, 2020, showed.
Irani though claimed that there has been a positive behavioural change towards the value of the girl child. Sex ratio at birth had shown an improvement of 16 points at the national level — 934 in 2019-20, from 918 in 2014-15.
National Nutrition Mission
An amount of Rs 1,521 crore out of the Rs 3,400 crore allocated under the POSHAN Abhiyan (earlier known as National Nutrition Mission) had not been utilised in FY 2019-20, Irani told the Rajya Sabha.
Digital Literacy Mission
Around 2.15 crore candidates had been certified under the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan or PMGDISHA scheme, that was implemented in 2017, Sanjay Dhotre, Union minister of state for electronics and information technology told the Rajya Sabha.
The Government of India had approved this scheme to usher digital literacy in rural India by covering six crore rural households (one person per household).
Mid-day meals
State governments had been advised to provide food security alliance consisting of food grains, pulses, oil etc to all eligible children till their schools were closed due to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Union Minister of Education, Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ told the Rajya Sabha.
They had been further advised to follow all precautionary measures to face the situation arising out of COVID-19, the minister added.
Tribal literacy
The literacy rate of Scheduled Tribes (STs) improved to at 69.4 per cent in 2018-19, from 67.7 per cent in 2017-18, Arjun Munda, Union minister for tribal affairs told the Rajya Sabha. This was against 78.1 per cent at an all India level in 2018-19 and 76.9 per cent the previous year, the minister added.
He was citing figures from the the Periodic Labour Force Survey 2018-19 report.
The tribal affairs ministry had been implementing a separate Central Sector Scheme ‘Eklavya Model Residential Schools’ from 2019-20, Munda said.
Coal power plants
Power generation from coal-based power plants in India had been increasing except during the last year ie financial year 2019-20, RK Singh, Union minister of state for power, new and renewable energy told the Lok Sabha.
The decrease in generation of power from coal-based power plants this year was due to the impact of COVID-19, Singh said.
Slum database
The government had not initiated the process of preparing a database of slums in India or assisting state governments in conducting surveys, Hardeep Singh Puri, Union minister for housing and urban affairs told the Lok Sabha. The database of slums in the country was captured by the Union government through the Census of India on a decadal basis.
The slum population had reduced in the cities of Delhi and Mumbai, according to Census 2001 and 2011. But it had increased in Chennai over this period.
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