Kishori Balika Yojana (Scheme for Adolescent Girls)

What is Kishori Balika Yojana?

Kishori Balika Yojana is how Madhya Pradesh delivers the national Scheme for Adolescent Girls through its Women and Child Development Department. The scheme targets girls between 11 and 14 years who are out of school. The age band where undernutrition, anaemia and early dropout compound each other, and brings them back into contact with the state through the anganwadi centre.

The design has two halves. The nutrition half supplies take-home ration through the anganwadi for about 300 days in a year, six days a week. The non-nutrition half covers health check-ups and referral, iron and folic acid supplementation, deworming, nutrition and health education, guidance on family welfare and hygiene, and life-skill and vocational orientation intended to keep a girl learning even when she is not in a classroom.

Kishori Balika Yojana runs in districts selected by the state government following criteria set by the Government of India, and the beneficiary records sit in the department's management information system, mpwcdmis.gov.in. Local usage often shortens the name to Kishori Balika Scheme or simply the adolescent girls' scheme at the anganwadi.

Who is eligible for Kishori Balika Yojana?

A girl can be enrolled if:

• She is between 11 and 14 years of age.
• She is out of school. The scheme's defining target group.
• She lives in the service area of an anganwadi centre in a district where the scheme is being implemented.
• Her family records her in the anganwadi register, with a Samagra ID and an age proof.

A girl is not eligible, or cannot be enrolled, if:

• She is under 11 or over 14. Younger children are covered by the regular supplementary nutrition programme for the 3–6 age group and by the ration for under-threes; girls above 14 fall outside this scheme's window and are pointed towards school and skill programmes.
• She is already enrolled in school and the district is running the scheme strictly for out-of-school girls. School-going girls of the same age are covered by the school health and anaemia programme.
• She lives in a district where the scheme is not currently notified. State selection of districts is a real limit, and enrolment is not possible where the scheme has not been extended.
• She is already registered at another anganwadi, the MIS de-duplicates, and a girl draws ration from one centre only.

No income test and no caste condition is applied. Kishori Balika Yojana is an age and schooling-status scheme, not a poverty-line scheme.

What benefits does an enrolled girl get?

Take-home ration. Dry ration is issued through the anganwadi for roughly 300 days a year, on six days of the week. Reported contents include pulses such as gram and tur dal, cereals and millets, and ghee issued at intervals; the exact basket and per-day cost norm is fixed by the state and revised from time to time, so the anganwadi's current entitlement chart is the authority, not a figure quoted online.

Health and anaemia services.

• Periodic health check-ups with referral to the sub-centre or PHC where a problem is found.
• Iron and folic acid supplementation, the core anaemia intervention for this age group.
• Deworming on the state's schedule.
• Growth and health monitoring recorded on the girl's anganwadi card.

Learning and life skills.

• Nutrition and health education; what to eat, menstrual hygiene, hand washing and safe water.
• Family welfare, child care and home management guidance.
• Life-skill sessions aimed at confidence, communication and decision-making.
• Vocational orientation, linking older girls in the group to skill training routes available in the district.

The vocational component is guidance and orientation delivered through the anganwadi network, not a full trade course with a certificate. Families expecting an ITI-style qualification from this scheme are looking at the wrong programme, skill certification for older girls runs through the state's skill development and ITI systems instead.

What documents are required?

Anganwadi enrolment is deliberately low-friction. A worker who has an age proof and a Samagra entry can register a girl the same day.

How to apply for Kishori Balika Yojana

Kishori Balika Yojana has no public online application. Enrolment happens at the anganwadi.

1. Find the anganwadi centre that serves your village, ward or basti. Ask at the panchayat office or with neighbours if you do not know which centre covers your address.
2. Meet the anganwadi worker with the girl and carry her age proof and the family Samagra ID.
3. Ask for registration under the adolescent girls' scheme. The worker records the girl's name, age, schooling status and Samagra details in the centre register.
4. Get the entry made in the department MIS. The worker or the supervisor uploads the record so that ration is allotted against the girl's name in the next cycle.
5. Collect the take-home ration on the days the centre distributes it, and bring the girl for the health check-up and IFA rounds when the anganwadi calls them.
6. Attend the sessions on nutrition, health, life skills and vocational guidance held at the centre.

Families who cannot get a girl registered at the centre should approach the Supervisor for that anganwadi sector, and then the Child Development Project Officer (CDPO) of the project, both of whom sit above the anganwadi worker in the same department.

How to check whether a girl is registered and receiving ration

1. Ask the anganwadi worker to show the beneficiary register entry with the girl's name and date of registration.
2. Check the anganwadi card issued for the girl, which is where health and growth monitoring entries are made.
3. Compare the ration actually received against the entitlement chart displayed at the centre.
4. If the name is in the register but ration is not being handed over, raise it with the Supervisor and then the CDPO of the project.

Common problems and how to fix them

• Girl not registered because she has no birth certificate. A school record, an immunisation card or the anganwadi's own record of the child from earlier years can serve as age evidence; ask the worker to record what is available rather than dropping the case.
• No Samagra ID. The family should get a Samagra member ID created at the panchayat, nagar palika or through the Samagra portal, it is needed for most Madhya Pradesh benefits, not just this one.
• Ration issued short or irregularly. Note the dates and quantities and take it to the Supervisor. Distribution records are auditable.
• Girl turns 15. She ages out of the scheme. The right next step is a return to schooling through the open-school route or enrolment in a skill programme.
• Centre says the scheme is not running here. District selection is a state decision. The CDPO can confirm whether the district is covered.

Where to complain or get help

• Anganwadi Supervisor for the sector, first level above the worker.
• Child Development Project Officer (CDPO) for the ICDS project.
• District Programme Officer, Women and Child Development, at the district headquarters.
• Department MIS and information portal: mpwcdmis.gov.in.
• CM Helpline 181 and the national child helpline 1098 for a child at risk.

Enrolment, ration and every service under Kishori Balika Yojana are free. No fee is payable to any worker or agent for adding a girl's name.