 Hello and welcome to NewsClick. I am Apoorva and we are bringing you a glimpse of some of the most important stories we report about at NewsClick. Let's begin with one of the biggest and most publicised schemes of Shri Shri Narendra Modi ji. The famous Beti Bachao Beti Parhao scheme. Big hoardings with the words Beti Bachao Beti Parhao printed alongside PM Modi's face can be found all across the country. An over-emphasised sympathy for women's issues can also be heard in Narendra Modi's speeches. So it did come as a big blow to the people when four years after Beti Bachao scheme was announced, the government said that more than 55% of the scheme's fund was spent just on its ardent publicity. Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Beti Bachao programme in 2015 to tackle two issues. First, the falling child sex ratio. The low number of girls to every 1,000 boys born in India. And second, to change society's mindset about the girl child. To make this happen, the government allocated at least 644 crore rupees to the scheme. Great, right? Well, not really. If you ask how this money was actually spent, approximately 56% of the amount has been spent on media activities, that is advertising and publicity. And almost 19% of the fund simply wasn't released. That's approximately 124 crore rupees. Not exactly a small amount. This leaves just 25% of the fund. And it was only this 25% that was sent to the states and districts under the scheme. A total of 161 districts are supposed to be covered by the scheme at this point. The 25% that they received is approximately 160 crore rupees. So, 161 districts and rupees 160 crore. Let's do the math. Each district got less than 1 crore under the programme. And spread across 4 years, that's less than 25 lakh rupees a year. So basically, more than half the fund they promised for Beti Bachao Beti Parhao was actually spent talking about how successful Beti Bachao Beti Parhao was. But one may question that the amount that was sent to these districts, however small, must have made a difference, right? Again, not really. In 53 districts out of the 161 districts under the scheme, the ratio of girls to boys actually declined. I'll give you a few examples. In Nicobar, the ratio fell from 985 girls per 1000 boys in 2014-15 to 839 girls per 1000 boys. That's a huge drop. And in Puducherry, the numbers fell from 1007 girls for every 1000 boys to 976 girls. And the worst part is, the number was actually higher before the scheme. So while the Beti Bachao Beti Parhao initiative might have won the Modi government a lot of points, its actual implementation was a complete failure. Government school teachers and employees from other state government departments launched an indefinite strike in Tamil Nadu on January 22nd. According to reports, over 7 lakh members from 175 employees and workers unions from across the state boycotted work. Less than 30% teachers turned up for work on the 22nd according to school education department officials. The striking employees were demanding the scrapping of the new pension scheme as it does not benefit the employees and has fewer returns. The strike is being held under the banner of joint action committee of Tamil Nadu teachers organization and government employees organization. Nearly 250 organizations are part of this Jack Dogeo. The government has not responded positively to any of their demands and has instead threatened to withhold the pay of the striking employees. On the second day of the strike, over 4000 employees conducted a sit-in demonstration at Rippon buildings, the seat of the Chennai Corporation. About 1500 people were arrested and detained in a nearby hall till the evening. Massive police force was deployed at the venue. Nearly 4 lakh defence civilian employees are going on a three day strike from January 23rd to January 25th against privatization and closure of the defence industry and to demand their rightful pension. The call for the strike has been jointly given by the All India Defence Federation, Indian National Defence Workers Federation and Bharatiya Pratiraksha Mazdoor Sangh. The government of India had reportedly decided not to make any further investments in the Ordinance Factory Board, OFP and Defence Public Sector Undertakings, DPSUs, earlier in February 2018. At the same time, the government also moved to sell stakes in two major DPSUs, the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and Bharat Dynamics Limited. This move implied that while core military hardware such as battle tanks, combat vehicles and specialized military trucks would remain in the domain of government own enterprises, the introduction of products and the creation of addition capacity would have to be undertaken by the private sector. Other than these, also among one of the key demands is regarding the pension contribution of the defence civilian employees. Civil servants in Swaziland are set to go on a country-wide strike on January 28. The main demand of the strike is a cost of living adjustment of 6.55% which translates into a salary increment. Workers had gone on a strike for the same demand in August-September last year but it was not accepted by the regime of King Maswati. Employees across all kinds of government offices, ministries, departments, schools, colleges, clinics, hospitals, transport departments and others will be taking part in this national strike. Swaziland is the last remaining absolute monarchy in the Sub-Saharan Africa. So that's all we have for you today. For detailed reports on these new stories, please log on to our website, www.newsclick.in and visit our Facebook page. You can also check out our video reports on our YouTube channel. Thank you.