Why was Panipat chosen for launch of the campaign?

• One of the principles of behavioral economics is to adapt the message to match “mental models”
• of people.
• The campaign was flagged from Panipat, Haryana because:
  • Panipat had the worst child sex ratio at 834 among Indian states as compared with the national average of 919 as per Census, 2011.
  • The choice of Panipat was also symbolic through the association with the famous battles fought at Panipat in 1526, 1556 and 1761.
• The symbolism captured by the choice of Panipat in Haryana helped significantly in matching the message to the relevant mental model.

Which other symbols were used?

• The initiative was expanded to all districts of the Country on March 8, 2018 from Jhunjunu, Rajasthan.
• Rajasthan was chosen as the State improved from 888 girls per 1000 boys in 2011 to 922 per 1000 boys in 2017-18.
• International Women’s Day was chosen to launch to reinforce the stress on gender empowerment and establish the social norm of ‘girls are valuable’.

How has India performed in child sex ratio after the launch of BBBP?

• India’s child sex ratio had been consistently falling for decades.
• Between the 2001 and 2011, 21 out of 29 states registered a decline in child sex ratio.
• On an average, the sex ratio for 161 districts has improved from 909 in 2015-16 to 919 in 2018- 19.

Which states showed significant improvement?

• The large states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand had registered declining child sex ratios between the 2001 and 2011 censuses.
• Around the launch of the BBBP, these states had among the poorest sex ratios at birth.
• By 2018-19, all these states showed a reversal of the trend.

How was “Social norm” used effectively in BBBP?

• People’s attitude towards the girl child needed to change.
• People needed to stop viewing girls as burdens and start celebrating them instead.
• The selfie campaign showcased examples of parents around the country.
• The celebration of the girl child quickly became the norm.
• Most people wanted to conform, and more and more parents posted selfies with their girls.
• It was started by one proud father in a village in Haryana
• The campaign went viral and #SelfieWithDaughter became a worldwide hit.

What are the lessons learnt from the #SelfieWithDaughter campaign?

• Two elements enabled the campaign’s success:
  • first, telling people what the norm is.
  • second, showcasing other people who were acting in line with that norm.

The strategy addresses a cognitive bias called ‘failure bias’.

• Therefore, in the context of BBBP, focus must be on people who treat their girls fairly.
• This corrects the failure bias and makes the social norm of fair treatment of girls unequivocally clear.

The Power of Clear Messaging

What is the significance of message in the success of a programme?

• The success of any programme depends upon the level of involvement of all the relevant stakeholders.
• One of the principles of behavioural economics is that the messaging needs to be clear and simple and aligned to a mental model.
• Use of socially and culturally identifiable names gives a clear message of the objectives of the programme.
• Apart from the SBM and BBBP programmes that have successfully employed the power of messaging, several other programmes have utilised this power.

This is evident from the names used for various recent schemes