Brand Ambassador of Beti Bachao Beti Padhao

Beti Bachao Beti Padhao — translating directly as Save the Daughter, Educate the Daughter — is one of independent India’s most significant and emotionally resonant social welfare campaigns, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 22, 2015 at Panipat in Haryana. The campaign addresses a deeply rooted societal challenge — the declining Child Sex Ratio in India, where son preference combined with sex-selective practices had created dangerous demographic imbalances that endangered girls’ right to life itself before even considering their right to education, dignity, and equal opportunity. As a tri-ministerial initiative jointly implemented by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, and the Ministry of Education, BBBP represents the government’s recognition that changing deep-seated gender bias requires sustained, multi-sectoral intervention at the national, state, and community levels simultaneously. The campaign’s brand ambassadors — appointed at national and state levels — have been among India’s most celebrated women athletes, whose achievements on the world stage powerfully embody the campaign’s core argument that India’s daughters, when given opportunity, carry the nation’s flag higher than any son could.

Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Brand Ambassadors — Complete Overview

Sakshi Malik — The National Brand Ambassador

Sakshi Malik’s appointment as the national brand ambassador of Beti Bachao Beti Padhao on August 26, 2016 came at a moment of extraordinary national sporting pride — just days after she became the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal in wrestling, claiming a bronze medal at the Rio 2016 Olympics in the 58 kg freestyle category and ending a medal drought for Indian women at the Games. The timing of the appointment was not coincidental — it represented a deliberate decision to connect the campaign’s central message to the most powerful possible evidence for its argument at exactly the moment when that evidence was freshest in the national consciousness.

Sakshi Malik’s story is almost a literal embodiment of what Beti Bachao Beti Padhao exists to create the conditions for. Born in Rohtak, Haryana — one of the states with some of India’s most concerning Child Sex Ratio statistics and historically among the regions where girl child welfare challenges are most acute — her path from local wrestling practice to Olympic podium demonstrated with athletic precision what becomes possible when a daughter is saved, educated, supported, and allowed to pursue excellence. The irony and the power of her being from Haryana — the campaign’s original focus district — made her ambassadorship not just strategically sound but culturally profound.

As brand ambassador, Sakshi Malik participated in campaigns, public events, and communications that carried the message of girl child empowerment to audiences across Haryana and nationally — audiences that include precisely the communities where son preference remains strongest and where a familiar, celebrated, locally-rooted champion’s voice carries more persuasive weight than any government directive or advertising campaign could manage alone.

Manu Bhaker — Haryana’s Current BBBP Ambassador

Haryana’s state-level Beti Bachao Beti Padhao campaign received a new and extraordinarily credentialed ambassador in August 2024 when Minister of State Aseem Goel announced Olympic champion Manu Bhaker as the brand ambassador for Haryana’s BBBP campaign — following her historic performance at the Paris 2024 Olympics where she became the first Indian to win two medals at a single Olympic Games in the modern era, claiming bronze in both the 10m air pistol individual and 10m air pistol mixed team events.

Manu Bhaker’s ambassadorial significance for Beti Bachao Beti Padhao in Haryana mirrors and surpasses even Sakshi Malik’s impact — because Bhaker’s achievements represent a continuation and amplification of the message that Haryana’s daughters can reach the absolute summit of global sporting competition when given the opportunity to train, compete, and pursue excellence. Born in Jhajjar district, Haryana — a state that has historically been associated with some of India’s most challenging gender ratio statistics — her dual Olympic medal achievement is the most powerful argument for girl child empowerment that Haryana has ever produced.

The state government’s choice of Bhaker reflects sophisticated understanding of how ambassador credibility works for a campaign that fundamentally requires communities to reconsider deeply held beliefs about gender. A woman who has defeated competitors from across the world, whose hands have held Olympic medals, and whose name is announced on international sporting stages carries a form of authority in conversations about girl child value that purely rhetorical campaigns cannot access. Her presence at BBBP events converts abstract policy arguments into lived, embodied proof.

Avani Lekhara — Rajasthan’s BBBP Ambassador

Avani Lekhara’s appointment as the brand ambassador of Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’s campaign in Rajasthan adds another dimension of significance to the programme’s ambassador strategy — Lekhara is a Paralympic champion whose gold medal at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics in the women’s 10m air rifle standing SH1 category made her the first Indian woman to win a gold medal at the Paralympic Games. Shot at the age of 19 despite being confined to a wheelchair following a car accident that left her partially paralysed, her achievement represents an argument for girl child empowerment that extends beyond physical ability — communicating that India’s daughters carry potential that transcends every form of circumstantial limitation when given support, training, and belief.

The Community Ambassador Network — Women Sarpanches

In January 2025, Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Saini announced a landmark expansion of BBBP’s ambassador model — designating all women sarpanches of the state as brand ambassadors of their respective villages under the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao campaign. This grassroots ambassador network represents a fundamentally different approach to behaviour change communication — recognising that in village communities, the most credible messenger for messages about girl child welfare is not a national sports celebrity seen occasionally on television, but the elected woman leader of the community who is present, known, and respected in daily village life.

Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’s brand ambassador strategy across national, state, district, and village levels reflects a campaign that understands the multi-layered nature of deep social change — requiring both the inspirational national figure who demonstrates what is possible and the trusted community voice who can translate that inspiration into changed behaviour in specific households, specific decisions, and specific families across India’s most challenged districts.