PURNA Scheme

What is the PURNA Scheme?

PURNA Scheme is an adolescent girls' programme of the Women and Child Development Department, Government of Gujarat. According to the department's own description, the scheme aims to "reduce malnutrition, anemia and early marriage among Adolescent girls of Gujarat state" and to educate adolescent girls on health and nutrition.

PURNA Scheme addresses a specific gap in India's nutrition architecture. Government nutrition services concentrate heavily on children under six and on pregnant and lactating women. Between those two stages sits adolescence, the years when a girl's body is growing fastest, when iron requirements rise sharply with menstruation, and when the decisions that determine her adult health and her age at marriage are taken by others. A girl who enters marriage and pregnancy already anaemic and undernourished passes that deficit on to her child. PURNA is built around interrupting that cycle.

The scheme works through the state's existing anganwadi network under the Integrated Child Development Services machinery, which is why it needs no separate office, no application portal and no fee. The anganwadi worker in each area identifies adolescent girls in her catchment, enrols them, and delivers the programme's two components together: supplementary nutrition and structured education covering nutrition, personal hygiene, menstrual health, the harms of early marriage, and basic life skills.

PURNA runs alongside the department's other adolescent and women-focused programmes: Vahali Dikri, which works on the birth ratio, school dropout and child marriage; Mission Poshan, the state's nutrition mission; Mission Shakti; and the national Poshan Abhiyaan launched in March 2018. Read together, these form Gujarat's stack for the girl child, and PURNA is the piece aimed squarely at the adolescent years.

Who is covered by the PURNA Scheme?

Covered:

• Adolescent girls resident in Gujarat, mainly in the 11 to 18 age bracket, in the catchment area of an anganwadi centre.
• Out-of-school girls, who are an explicit focus because the school system cannot reach them with health and nutrition education.
• Girls in both rural and urban areas where the anganwadi network operates.

Not covered:

• Boys. PURNA is designed for adolescent girls only.
• Adult women past the adolescent age band, they fall under other departmental programmes such as maternal nutrition services and Mission Shakti.
• Children under six, who are covered by the regular ICDS supplementary nutrition and pre-school components rather than by PURNA.
• Girls resident outside Gujarat, since PURNA is a state programme.

There is no income test, no caste condition and no bank account requirement. Eligibility runs on age, sex and residence in the anganwadi's area, which is deliberate: an income test would have excluded exactly the girls who slip through, and a bank requirement would have made a service scheme behave like a cash scheme.

What documents are needed?

A girl without documents should still be taken to the anganwadi centre. The worker can record her on the basis of the existing household survey, and the absence of an Aadhaar card is not a reason to withhold nutrition.

How to enrol a girl in the PURNA Scheme

1. Identify the anganwadi centre serving your village, ward or locality. The anganwadi worker's name and the centre's timings are usually displayed at the centre itself.
2. Take the girl to the centre with an age proof. A birth certificate, school record, or the family's existing anganwadi record.
3. Ask the anganwadi worker to enrol her under the adolescent girls' programme. She records the girl's name, age, schooling status and household details in the register.
4. Attend the sessions and nutrition distribution on the days the worker announces. Continuity matters more than any single visit, because both the nutrition benefit and the education component are cumulative.
5. Cooperate with weight, height and haemoglobin checks when the health worker visits, since these are how the programme measures whether a girl is improving.

There is no online application for PURNA, no form to download, and no fee at any stage. Any person asking for money to enrol a girl is acting without authority.

How is the benefit delivered?

PURNA delivers in kind, not in cash. Supplementary nutrition is given through the anganwadi, and the education component is delivered as sessions at the centre. Because nothing is credited to a bank account, there is no payment status to track and no DBT failure to worry about. The practical measure of whether the scheme is working for a girl is whether she is actually attending and actually receiving the ration.

Follow-up is therefore local. If distribution has stopped, or sessions are not being held, the escalation route is the Child Development Project Officer (CDPO) for the block, then the District Women and Child Development Officer.

Common problems and what to do about them

• Girl not on the anganwadi register, go to the centre with an age proof and ask for enrolment; the register is maintained locally and can be updated.
• Out-of-school girl being missed: say so explicitly to the worker and to the CDPO, since out-of-school girls are a stated target of the programme.
• Nutrition distribution irregular — raise it with the CDPO for the block rather than only with the anganwadi worker, since supply issues are handled above centre level.
• Family resistance to a girl attending, the Abhayam 181 helpline exists precisely for adolescent girls and young women who need information, guidance and support.

Where to get help

• Local anganwadi centre; enrolment, nutrition and sessions.
• Child Development Project Officer (CDPO) for your block; supply and service delivery complaints.
• District Women and Child Development Officer, district-wise contacts are published on wcd.gujarat.gov.in.
• Women and Child Development Department, Block 9, 8th Floor, New Sachivalaya, Gandhinagar, telephone 079-23257942.
• Abhayam 181. The state helpline for adolescent girls, young women and women needing guidance or support.

PURNA is free. Nothing is charged for enrolment, nutrition or the education sessions.