Dhanalakshmi Scheme Shifts Gender Norms Long After Its Close

Study by US-based researchers finds widespread social change, helps shift 'son preference' norms

- ARCHIS MOHAN

A new analysis of the Centre's Dhanalakshmi scheme of conditional cash transfer (CCT), launched in March 2008 to improve the gender ratio in select districts of the country, has found that it helped shift 'son preference' norms even several years after the cash transfers stopped.

The scheme was launched, according to a reply to a question in Parliament by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, to change society's perception of the girl child and establish that she is also a productive member of the family. The Dhanalakshmi scheme was introduced as a pilot project in 11 blocks across seven states.

These blocks were in Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Punjab. A recent analysis of the project by Nabaneeta Biswas of West Virginia's Marshall University, Christopher Cornwell, and Laura Zimmermann, both of the University of Georgia, examined the impact of the scheme on the Sirhind block of Punjab's Fatehgarh Sahib district and compared it to other districts in the state that were not covered by the scheme.

Based on the 2001 Census, Fatehgarh Sahib had the worst child-sex ratio in India, with 766 girls per 1,000 boys. Within the district, Sirhind block had a child sex ratio of 749 and was therefore chosen as a 'treatment' area for the programme.