 bill no  113 of  2015 the  girl child (provision of extra  amenities) bill, 2015 by shri pralhad joshi, mp a billto provide for extra amenities to the girl child having no male siblings in the family including incentives to parents of girl child irrespective of their financial status and for matters connected therewithbe it enacted by parliament in the sixty-sixth year of the republic of india as follows:—1 (1) this act may be called the girl child (provision of extra amenities) act, 2015 (2) it extends to the whole of indiashort title, extent and commencement2 in this act, unless the context otherwise requires—definitions(a) "appropriate government" means in the case of a state, the government of that state and in all other cases, the central government;(b) "extra amenities" in relation to a girl child include—5(i) free railway pass to the girl child till she attains the age of twenty five years or gets married, whichever is earlier;(ii) priority in admission in educational institutions irrespective ofpercentage of marks;(iii) reservation in posts and services under the state; and10(iv) relaxation in age upto the age of forty years and relaxation in eligibilitycriteria for appointment to posts and services under the state;(c) "girl child" means a girl who has no male sibling; and (d) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this act15 3 (1) it shall be the duty of the central government to formulate and implement schemes aimed at the welfare of girl child and take steps to ensure provision of extra amenities to every girl child(2) for the purposes of sub-section (1), the central government shall designate an officer not below the rank of joint secretary—central government to formulate and implement schemes aimed at the welfare of girl child20(i) to look after the implementation of welfare schemes and provision of extraamenities;(ii) to issue special identity card to every girl child;(iii) to maintain a register of families of every girl child; and (iv) to undertake such other programmes and schemes for the welfare of girl child as may be prescribed254 every girl child shall be entitled to the following amenities, namely:—amenities to the girl child(i) free education from primary to higher secondary level;| (            | ii   | ) educational loan for higher and technical education at concessional rate of   ||--------------|------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------|| interest;    |      |                                                                                 || (            | iii  | ) reservation in admission to educational institutions;                         || 30           |      |                                                                                 || (            | iv   | ) opportunities for employment and self employment;                             || (            | v    | ) reservation in posts and services under the central and the state             || governments; |      |                                                                                 || (            | vi   | ) free healthcare facilities;                                                   || 35           |      |                                                                                 || (            | vii  | ) financial assistance to the girl child for setting up self-employment units;  || and          |      |                                                                                 |(viii) such other amenities as may be necessary for the all-round development of the girl child 5 the appropriate government shall, by notification in the official gazette, constitute a girl child wing for the following purposes, namely:—constitution of a girl child wing40(i) to conduct survey every year at panchayat level and district level to count thenumber of families having girl child;(ii) to co-ordinate with the local authorities for implementing welfare measuresfor the girl child; and(iii) to undertake such other functions as may be assigned to it from time to time by the appropriate government 6 a married couple having girl child, shall be given the following incentives by the appropriate government,—incentives to parents of girl child5(i) one time special promotion to either of the parents if either or both of themare government employee;(ii) such amount of money as is equivalent to twice the amount of bonus beingpaid to government employees to the parents, if neither of them is in government service; and10(iii) such other incentives as may be prescribed7  any person including a parent, who indulges in any act of abuse of a girl child shall not entitled to get any incentive or benefit under this actdisincentives for abusing girl child158 the central government shall, after due appropriation made by parliament by law in this behalf, provide requisite funds to the state governments for carrying out the purposes of this actcentral government to provide funds9 the provisions of this act shall be in addition to and not in derogation of any other law for the time being in force dealing with any of the matters dealt with in this actact not to be in derogation of any other law for the time being in force power to make rules10 (1) the central government may, by notification in the official gazette, make rules for carrying out the purpose of this act20 25(2) every rule made under this act shall be laid, as soon as may be after it is made,before each house of parliament, while it is in session, for a total period of thirty days which may be comprised in one session or in two or more successive sessions, and if, before the expiry of the session immediately following the session or the successive sessions aforesaid, both houses agree in making any modification in the rule or both the houses agree that the rule should not be made, the rule shall thereafter have effect only in such modified form or be of no effect, as the case may be; so, however, that any such modification or annulment shall be without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under that rule statement  of  objects  and  reasonsinspite of government's strenuous efforts to maintain or restore demographic balance, the percentage of girl child is decreasing and there is considerable difference in the malefemale ratio in the countrythe discrimination against girl child or female infanticide widely prevails in middle income families, upper middle income families and rich families, as the technology of prenatal sex determination is easily accessible to them the central and state governments have undertaken a number of measures to improve survival and status of girl children in the countrythe enactment of pre-natal diagnostic techniques (prohibition of sex selection) act,1994 is one of the key initiatives to prevent female foeticide but it has not achieved its objective the government had set up a sectoral innovation council for improving child sex ratio and while acting upon its recommendations, a pilot scheme 'sabla' was launched for a comprehensive intervention for adolescent girls in the age group of 11-18 years moreover, sarva shiksha abhiyan (ssa), rashtriya madhyamik shiksha abhiyan, kasturba gandhi balika vidyalaya (kgbv), kishori shakti yojana (ksy), national nutritional programme for adolescent girl (npag), ujjawala scheme for prevention of trafficking and for rescue, rehabilitation and reintegration of trafficked victims, dhanlakhsmi—a conditional cash transfer scheme for girl child with insurance cover, indira gandhi scholarship for single girl child for pursuing higher and technical education and pragati scholarship for single girl child to pursue technical education have been launched by the government of india to encourage and empower the girl child the government has also set-up a fund called the nirbhaya fund with a corpus of one thousand crore rupees for empowerment, safety and security of women and girl childrenthe state governments are also implementing their own schemes to incentivize the birth of a girl child and encourage families to place a premium on her education and development through conditional cash transfer schemes like 'mukhya mantri kanya suraksha yojna' of bihar government, 'majoni' of assam, 'bhagyalakshmi scheme' of karnataka, 'ladli scheme yojna' of madhya pradesh, 'balika samridhi yojna' of gujarat and himachal pradesh, 'balri rakshak yojana' and 'kanya jagriti jyoti scheme' of punjab, 'kanyadan scheme' of madhya pradesh, 'kalyanalakshimi' of telangana, the girl child protection scheme of andhra pradesh, 'bangaru thalli' welfare scheme of government of andhra pradesh, shiksha karmi, district primary education programme (dpep), national programme for education of girls at elementary level (npegel), lok jumbish yojana (rajasthan), padhe bitiya badhe bitiya (uttar pradesh), ladli scheme, mamta-taruni programme to ensure adequate healthcare and timely counselling to adolescent girls and 'hunar scheme' of bihar to empower the adolescent girls belonging to the scheduled castes, the scheduled tribes and minority communitiesrecently launched schemes 'beti bachao—beti padhao' and 'sukanya samriddhi account' are a bid to encourage birth and education of girls and tackle the abysmally low child sex ratio of 918 female to 1000 malebut all these schemes could not bring any considerable change in the mindset of people the census-2012 has revealed that there has been sharp decline in child sex ratio in the age-group of 0-6 years, declining from 927 girls per thousand boys in 2001 to 919 in 2011 this decline has been continuing unabated since 1961to reset the feeling that girl child is a burden, protect the rights of the girl child, provide social and financial empowerment to girl child, eliminate negative cultural attitudes practices against girls, strengthen the role of the family in improving the status of the girl child, show unflinching support to the girl child to improve the social status of the girls/women and to prevent gender discrimination by empowering and protecting the rights of the girl children, there is an absolute need to sensitize the people of middle and rich class, where the core issue is swirlingtherefore, it is an opportune time to take stock of the situation of grave concern to save girl child and create awareness by sensitizing targeted groups and provide generous incentives to the families of only girl children for upbringing of their girl child in a respectable mannerthe bill seeks to achieve the above objectivesnew delhi;pralhad joshimarch 12, 2015 financial memorandumclause 3 of the bill provides that the central government shall formulate and implement schemes aimed at the welfare of girl child it further provides for issuing of special identity card and maintenance of a register of families of every girl child clause 4 provides for certain amenities like free education, health care facilities and financial assistance to the girl child for setting up self-employment units clause 5 provides for conduct of survey every year at panchayat and district level to count the number of families having girl child clause 6 provides for incentives to the parents of girl child clause 8 provides that the central government shall provide requisite funds to the state governments for carrying out the purpose of the billthe bill, therefore, if enacted, will involve expenditure from the consolidated fund of india it is estimated that an annual recurring expenditure of about rupees one thousand crores will be involveda non-recurring expenditure of about rupees one hundred crore is also likely to be involved memorandum  regarding  delegated  legislationclause 10 of the bill empowers the central government to make rules for carrying out the purposes of the bill as the rules will relate to matters of detail only, the delegation of legislative powers is of normal character———— a billto provide for extra amenities to the girl child having no male siblings in the family including incentives to parents of girl child irrespective of their financial status and for matters connected therewith————(shri pralhad joshi, mp)