Aravanaippu

What is the Aravanaippu scheme?

Aravanaippu is a girl child scheme of the Department of Women and Child Development, Government of Puducherry. The scheme provides financial assistance of Rs 1,200 to a lactating mother so that she can provide nutritious food to her girl child, with the stated aim of improving the status of the girl child in the family.

The name is the Tamil word aravaNaippu, meaning an embrace, and the scheme is listed on the department's website under that name. It is sometimes bracketed in central service listings with a related component under the label "Kulavilakku-Aravanaippu", covering financial assistance for pregnant and lactating women.

Readers should know the state of the record before relying on this page. The Department of Women and Child Development maintains an Aravanaippu page on wcd.py.gov.in, but that page carries no English text. It points to a Tamil version which itself has no scheme detail on it. The scheme does not appear in the department's current citizen charter, which sets out the department's schemes in active operation with their amounts and conditions. The figures below come from established scheme listings rather than from a live departmental notification, and the department is the only authority that can confirm whether Aravanaippu is still receiving applications.

That is not a reason to ignore the scheme, a family with a newborn girl in a low-income household in Puducherry should still ask about it, but it is a reason to ask before assuming.

Who is eligible for Aravanaippu, and who is not?

A mother is eligible if:

• She is a lactating mother of a girl child.
• Her annual income does not exceed Rs 24,000, as the scheme's published conditions state.
• The girl child was born after 1 April 2005, the cut-off the scheme's conditions record.
• The household has no more than two girl children receiving the benefit.
• She is resident in the union territory of Puducherry.

A mother is not eligible if:

• The child is a boy. Aravanaippu is a girl child scheme, and its whole purpose is to raise the standing of daughters in the family.
• Two girl children in the household have already received the assistance. The third is outside the scheme.
• The certified annual income is above the ceiling.
• The girl child was born before the scheme's cut-off date.

The Rs 24,000 income ceiling deserves a comment. It is an old figure. The department's current girl child schemes use Rs 75,000 — that is the ceiling in the Grant of Incentive to the Family Having One Girl Child or Two Girl Children, for example. The gap between the two figures is itself evidence that the Aravanaippu conditions on record date from an earlier period. Ask the department which ceiling it applies today.

How much is paid, and what is it for?

The assistance is Rs 1,200, paid to the lactating mother.

It is a small, single payment with a specific purpose: nutritious food for the mother and the girl child during the nursing period. It is not a savings deposit, not a maturity-linked instrument and not a monthly allowance. Families comparing it with the department's other girl child measures should keep that distinction clear, because the others work quite differently.

What are the alternatives if Aravanaippu is closed?

This is the practical question, and the department's current citizen charter answers it.

CM Cares Scheme for the Empowerment of New Born Girl Child. The department gives Rs 50,000 for a female child. Girl children born on or after 17 March 2023 are eligible. The parents or guardians must be citizens of India and residents of the union territory of Puducherry for the last five years. There is no income limit. The certificates required are the birth certificate of the girl child, the discharge slip, the parents' Aadhaar card, the ration card, the parents' bank passbook and the father's caste proof. This is by a wide margin the largest benefit available for a newborn girl in Puducherry today.

Grant of Incentive to the Family Having One Girl Child or Two Girl Children and Parents Who Have Undergone Family Planning. An amount of Rs 30,000 is deposited in the name of a single girl child, or Rs 15,000 in the name of each of two girl children, and the maturity value is given to the girl when she attains 18 years. The annual income must not exceed Rs 75,000, the father must be at least 21 and the mother at least 18, either parent must have undergone family planning at a Central or State Government hospital, and the parents' marriage must be registered.

Grant of Financial Assistance to Poor Parents Having Only One Girl Child Who Is Studying in 8th to 10th Standard. A deposit in the name of the girl child, with the maturity amount released when she attains 18, applied for through the head of the educational institution.

Integrated Child Development Services. The department runs 855 Anganwadi centres across five ICDS projects: Villianur, Karaikal, Ariankuppam, Muthialpet and Sithankudi, plus 13 centres in Mahe and 9 in Yanam. Supplementary nutrition, health check-ups, referral services, immunisation, nutrition and health education and non-formal pre-school education are all provided free to expectant and nursing mothers, other women aged 15 to 45, children aged 0 to 6 and adolescent girls. Enrolment is at the Anganwadi centre itself, with no form and no income test. For a nursing mother in Puducherry, this is the most immediately useful thing on this page.

How to apply for Aravanaippu

1. Ask the Women and Child Development office whether Aravanaippu is currently receiving applications, and ask in the same visit about the CM Cares scheme for a newborn girl child. This first step is genuinely necessary here.
2. Register the birth and collect the birth certificate of the girl child from the municipality or commune panchayat.
3. Obtain income and residence certificates from the Revenue Department, and keep the family ration card ready to show how many girl children are in the household.
4. Collect the application form from the Department of Women and Child Development, or from the women development application forms section of wcd.py.gov.in.
5. Fill in the form and attach the enclosures; birth certificate, income certificate, residence certificate, ration card, hospital discharge slip, Aadhaar and a copy of the mother's bank passbook.
6. Submit to the right office: the Deputy Director (Women Development), Department of Women and Child Development, Puducherry; the Child Development Project Officer, Karaikal; or the Welfare Officer, Mahe or Yanam. Take a dated acknowledgement.

How long does it take, and how do you follow up?

The department's standard note across its women development schemes is that selection is periodical and depends on the availability of funds. There is no published service timeline and no online tracker.

Follow up at the office where the application was lodged, quoting the inward number and date. Where there is delay, the department's own escalation route is the Director, Department of Women and Child Development, Puducherry for the Puducherry region, the Collector, Karaikal for Karaikal, and the Regional Administrator for Mahe and Yanam. The department publishes its contact number as 0413-2244785 and its e-mail as wcd[at]py[dot]gov[dot]in.

Why do applications get rejected?

• Scheme not currently open. Confirm first; this is the reason specific to Aravanaippu.
• Income certificate above the ceiling. Have it corrected at the Revenue Department if it overstates the position.
• Two girl children already benefited. The household limit is firm.
• Birth certificate missing or the date outside the cut-off. Register the birth promptly and check the date.
• Bank account not in the mother's name. The assistance goes to the lactating mother, so the account must be hers.

Where do you complain?

• Contact the Director, Department of Women and Child Development, Puducherry, on 0413-2244785 or at wcd[at]py[dot]gov[dot]in.
• In Karaikal approach the Collector; in Mahe and Yanam the Regional Administrator concerned.
• An unresolved grievance can be lodged on CPGRAMS at pgportal.gov.in against the Government of Puducherry, Department of Women and Child Development.

No fee is payable for the form or the processing, and no agent is needed.