Kishori Balika Yojana - Uttarakhand

What is Kishori Balika Yojana in Uttarakhand?

Kishori Balika Yojana is an adolescent-girls scheme in Uttarakhand that focuses on awareness, nutrition and life skills rather than on a cash payment. According to the myScheme listing, the scheme aims to create awareness among adolescent girls aged 14 to 18 years about nutrition, health and life skills. It is run by the Department of Women Empowerment and Child Development, Government of Uttarakhand, through the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) network of Anganwadi Centres.

Kishori Balika Yojana sits within the wider national effort for adolescent girls. The Scheme for Adolescent Girls, as described on Vikaspedia, targets girls in the 11-to-18 age group and gives special attention to out-of-school girls who can gather at Anganwadi Centres. In Uttarakhand, the Anganwadi Centre is the point of delivery: girls attend awareness sessions there, receive supplementary nutrition where provided, and have their health monitored through an Anganwadi card.

The purpose is to help adolescent girls take charge of their own health at a critical stage of growth: improving their knowledge of a balanced diet, personal hygiene, menstrual health, and the basic life skills that support their transition into adulthood.

Who is eligible for Kishori Balika Yojana?

A girl can take part if:

• She is an adolescent girl aged 14 to 18 years, as listed on myScheme.
• She is a resident of Uttarakhand and lives within an Anganwadi Centre's area.
• She is willing to attend the awareness and life-skills sessions at the Anganwadi Centre. Out-of-school girls are a special focus of the programme.

A person is not eligible / cannot apply if:

• She is outside the 14 to 18 year age band set for this scheme.
• She is not a resident of the Anganwadi Centre's service area.
• The applicant is a boy. The scheme is exclusively for adolescent girls.

There is no income test to worry about for participation and no fee to join. The scheme is designed to be open and easy to access, so that girls who are not in school are not left out of health and nutrition support.

What benefit does the scheme provide?

Kishori Balika Yojana is a service-based scheme, not a cash-transfer scheme. The benefits an enrolled girl receives are:

• Awareness sessions on nutrition, health and life skills at the Anganwadi Centre.
• Supplementary nutrition where provided through the ICDS network, to improve the girl's dietary intake.
• Health monitoring. The Anganwadi worker tracks the girl's health, often through an Anganwadi card, and links her to health checks.
• Life-skills and hygiene guidance, including menstrual health awareness.

Because the benefit is a set of services rather than a rupee amount, there is no bank transfer and no instalment schedule. The value to the girl is knowledge, regular nutrition support and health follow-up during the adolescent years.

How does the supplementary nutrition work?

Kishori Balika Yojana in Uttarakhand runs within the national Scheme for Adolescent Girls (SAG), which was aligned under Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 in 2021. According to the Ministry of Women and Child Development, adolescent girls aged 14 to 18 years receive supplementary nutrition in the form of Take-Home Ration (THR) designed to provide about 600 calories, 18 to 20 grams of protein and micronutrients per day for 300 days a year. The girl or her family collects the ration through the Anganwadi Centre rather than eating it on site, which suits out-of-school girls who cannot attend daily. The aim, as the Ministry puts it, is to break the inter-generational cycle of nutritional and gender disadvantage. An undernourished adolescent girl is more likely to become an undernourished mother, so the intervention targets this stage of life deliberately.

Alongside nutrition, the wider programme in Uttarakhand; historically also delivered as the Kishori Shakti Yojana through the Integrated Child Development Services, covers non-nutrition components such as iron-folic acid supplementation, health check-ups and referral, life-skills education, guidance on family welfare and existing public services, and awareness of schemes the girl becomes eligible for as she nears adulthood.

Why does the scheme focus on the 14-to-18 age band?

Adolescence is when a girl's nutritional needs peak but her diet is often neglected, and anaemia is widespread among Indian adolescent girls. According to the Ministry of Women and Child Development, the Scheme for Adolescent Girls targets this exact window — 14 to 18 years; because good nutrition, health awareness and life skills at this stage improve not only the girl's own health but, in the long run, the health of the next generation. The scheme was consciously extended to out-of-school girls, who are the least likely to be reached by school-based health programmes and the most likely to miss out on nutrition and awareness support. The Anganwadi Centre, present in almost every village and ward, is used as the delivery point precisely so that these girls are not left out.

What documents help at enrolment?

Enrolment is deliberately light on paperwork so that out-of-school and less well-off girls can join without difficulty. The Anganwadi worker records the girl's details and keeps her monitoring card.

How to apply for Kishori Balika Yojana

1. Visit the local Anganwadi Centre in your village or ward and ask the Anganwadi worker about Kishori Balika Yojana.
2. Give the girl's details; name, age and address, and show age and residence proof so the worker can confirm she is 14 to 18 years old.
3. Let the worker enrol her in the awareness sessions, nutrition support and health monitoring maintained at the centre.
4. Attend the sessions regularly so the girl gets the full benefit of the nutrition, health and life-skills support.

There is no online form and no application fee. The Anganwadi Centre is the single point of contact for joining, attending and following up.

How can you check participation or raise a concern?

Since enrolment and monitoring are handled at the Anganwadi Centre, the Anganwadi worker and the local Child Development Project Officer (CDPO) are the first points of contact to check whether a girl is enrolled or to raise a concern about nutrition or session delivery. For department-level information you can use the Women Empowerment and Child Development portal at wecd.uk.gov.in, or call the Uttarakhand citizen call centre on 155300.

Common issues and how to fix them

• Girl not enrolled, visit the Anganwadi Centre and ask the worker to add her; carry age and residence proof.
• Age dispute; produce a birth certificate or school record to confirm the 14 to 18 year band.
• Sessions not running; raise it with the CDPO for your project area so the centre's schedule is corrected.

Kishori Balika Yojana is a modest, service-focused scheme. For readers it may be most useful understood alongside Uttarakhand's other adolescent-girl and Anganwadi-based programmes rather than as a standalone cash benefit, because its value lies in regular awareness, nutrition and health support rather than a one-time payment.