Chief Minister's Girl Child Protection Scheme-II

What is the Chief Minister's Girl Child Protection Scheme-II?

Chief Minister's Girl Child Protection Scheme-II is the two-daughter variant of a Tamil Nadu scheme first introduced in 1992 by the Social Welfare and Women Empowerment Department. The scheme puts government money into a long-term deposit in the girl child's own name, so that a family that has only daughters has a direct financial stake in keeping them alive, in school and unmarried until adulthood.

Under Scheme-II, Rs 25,000 is deposited in the name of each of two girl children as a fixed deposit with the Tamil Nadu Power Finance and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited, and a copy of the fixed deposit receipt is handed to the family. The deposit runs until each girl completes 18 years of age, at which point the principal plus accrued interest is released to her. From the sixth year of the deposit onwards, an annual incentive of Rs 1,800 is credited to the girl child's own bank account to meet education expenses.

The parallel Scheme-I applies to a family with one girl child only and deposits Rs 50,000 in her name on the same terms.

The department states the objectives openly: eradicate female infanticide, promote girl child education, discourage the preference for a male child, promote the small family norm, raise the child sex ratio, and prevent child marriage.

Who is eligible for Scheme-II, and who is excluded?

You can apply if:

• Your family has exactly two girl children and no male child, and you undertake that no male child will be adopted in future.
• Your annual family income does not exceed Rs 1,20,000.
• Either parent has undergone sterilisation, and did so within 40 years of age.
• The parents or grandparents have been domiciled in Tamil Nadu for 10 years at the time of applying.
• You are applying before the second girl child completes 3 years of age.

Sri Lankan Tamil refugee families living in refugee camps in Tamil Nadu are covered by an extension of the scheme, and apply through e-Sevai centres.

You cannot apply if:

• The family has a male child, whether born or adopted. Such families are not eligible under either Scheme-I or Scheme-II.
• The family has three or more girl children. Scheme-II is limited to families with two girl children only.
• Neither parent has undergone sterilisation, or the sterilisation was done after the parent turned 40.
• Annual family income is above Rs 1,20,000.
• The second girl child has already crossed 3 years of age. Late applications are not eligible.
• The parents or grandparents cannot show 10 years of Tamil Nadu domicile.

How to apply for the Girl Child Protection Scheme-II

1. Collect the application form from the District Social Welfare Officer, the Extension Officer (Social Welfare) in your block, or the Rural Welfare Officer (Women). Forms are also published on the Tamil Nadu government forms page at tn.gov.in/appforms.
2. Obtain the birth certificates of both girl children from the Corporation, Municipality or Taluk office.
3. Obtain the sterilisation certificate from the government or private hospital where the procedure was done, and the age proof of the parent who underwent it.
4. Obtain the income certificate, the residence certificate showing 10 years of Tamil Nadu domicile and the community certificate from the Revenue Department, and the no male child certificate from the Extension Officer (Social Welfare), Rural Welfare Officer or Supervisor. In Chennai district the no-male-child certificate comes from the Taluk office.
5. Submit the completed application with all eight enclosures to the District Social Welfare Officer before the second girl child turns 3, and keep the dated acknowledgement.
6. Wait for sanction. The department's Citizen's Charter gives a probable processing time of one month.
7. Collect the copy of the fixed deposit receipt issued by Tamil Nadu Power Finance and keep it safely; it is the document you will need at renewal and at maturity.

Sri Lankan Tamil refugee families follow the same steps but file the application through an e-Sevai centre.

What documents are required?

How the deposit is renewed and paid out

The deposit is not left untouched for eighteen years. After the fifth year, Tamil Nadu Power Finance renews the fixed deposit on the recommendation of the District Social Welfare Officer. Families should therefore stay in contact with the district office rather than assuming the deposit runs on its own.

From the sixth year of deposit, Rs 1,800 a year is credited to the girl child's bank account as an education incentive. This is a cash-in-hand amount, separate from the deposit corpus.

At maturity, when the girl completes 18 years, the deposited amount with accrued interest is paid to her. The department attaches one condition to the payout: the girl must appear for the Class 10 public examination. If she does not, the amount deposited along with accrued interest is remitted back rather than paid to the family. This is the clause that most often surprises families, and it is worth telling a daughter about years before she reaches Class 10.

Why Girl Child Protection Scheme applications get rejected

• Late application. The three-year cut-off is strict, and applications filed after the second girl child turns three are rejected outright.
• Sterilisation after age 40, or no sterilisation certificate at all.
• Income certificate above Rs 1,20,000 a year.
• No male child certificate not obtained from the correct authority; families often bring an affidavit instead, which is not accepted.
• Residence certificate short of 10 years of Tamil Nadu domicile for the parents or grandparents.
• A male child in the family, including an adopted son, which disqualifies the family permanently.

Scheme-I or Scheme-II: which one applies to your family

The two variants are not alternatives you can choose between; the family's composition decides which applies.

A family with one daughter that later has a second daughter should ask the District Social Welfare Officer how its case is treated, and must do so before the second child turns three.

Other child welfare programmes in Tamil Nadu

The Social Welfare and Women Empowerment Department runs the Girl Child Protection Scheme alongside several linked child welfare programmes, and a family approaching the District Social Welfare Officer should ask about all of them:

• Cradle Baby Scheme, which gives an alternative to abandonment or infanticide by allowing an unwanted infant to be left safely in the state's care.
• Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, implemented in Tamil Nadu under the department's child welfare wing.
• State Award for Girl Child Empowerment, given under the department's awards programme.
• Puratchi Thalaivar MGR Nutritious Meal Programme and the Chief Minister's Breakfast Scheme, which cover school-going children.
• Moovalur Ramamirtham Ammaiyar Higher Education Assurance Scheme, which pays Rs 1,000 a month to a girl from a government school once she joins a regular higher-education course — the natural continuation for a girl child protection beneficiary who clears Class 12.

Where to raise a grievance

• District level: District Social Welfare Officer.
• State level: Commissioner of Social Welfare, Commissionerate of Social Welfare, Lady Willington College Campus, Triplicane, Chennai 600 005.
• Phone: 044-24351885.

Application forms and certificates for the Chief Minister's Girl Child Protection Scheme carry no fee beyond the normal revenue charges for a certificate. No agent is needed, and no payment should be made to anyone promising a sanction.

How to check your application status

The Girl Child Protection Scheme-II has no online tracking portal, so status checks are done directly with the office that processed the paperwork.

1. Keep the dated acknowledgement given at the time of submission to the District Social Welfare Officer. It carries the reference the office uses to trace the file, so quote it whenever you ask for an update.
2. Visit or call the District Social Welfare Officer's office in person after the Citizen's Charter's one-month processing window has passed. Since the scheme is administered at district level, this office, not a state helpline, is where the actual sanction record sits.
3. Call the Commissionerate of Social Welfare at 044-24351885 if the district office is unresponsive or if you have already escalated once locally. This is the same number listed for grievances, and staff there can ask the district to confirm the file's stage.
4. Ask specifically whether the fixed deposit has been opened with Tamil Nadu Power Finance and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited. Sanction by the District Social Welfare Officer and the actual opening of the deposit are two separate steps, and a family can be "sanctioned" on paper while the deposit itself is still being processed.
5. After the fifth year, follow up on renewal rather than assuming it happens automatically. The fixed deposit is renewed by Tamil Nadu Power Finance only on the District Social Welfare Officer's recommendation, so a family that has moved district or lost touch with the original office should proactively confirm the renewal went through before the annual Rs 1,800 incentive or the age-18 payout falls due.
6. Preserve the fixed deposit receipt copy given at sanction. If the receipt or its details are ever disputed, this is the document the district office and Tamil Nadu Power Finance will ask for first, and there is no online duplicate available to a family that has lost it.

There is no SMS or portal-based status update for this scheme; every check runs through the District Social Welfare Officer or, for unresolved cases, the Commissionerate helpline above.