Uttar Pradesh Mukhyamantri Bal Seva Yojana

What is Uttar Pradesh Mukhyamantri Bal Seva Yojana?

Uttar Pradesh Mukhyamantri Bal Seva Yojana is a child protection and income support scheme run by the Women and Child Development Department of the Government of Uttar Pradesh, through the Directorate of Women Welfare and the District Probation Officers in all 75 districts. The scheme was announced in May 2021, at the height of the second wave of COVID-19, to prevent children who had suddenly lost parents from dropping out of school, being trafficked or being pushed into child labour.

The scheme is often written locally as Mukhyamantri Bal Seva Yojana and is sometimes shortened to Bal Seva Yojana in district notices. It runs in two distinct components, and confusing the two is the single most common reason an application goes to the wrong desk:

• Mukhyamantri Bal Seva Yojana (COVID-19), for children whose mother, father or both died because of COVID-19 infection. Payment is Rs 4,000 per month per child.
• Mukhyamantri Bal Seva Yojana (General), for children orphaned or left without parental care for any other reason. Payment is Rs 2,500 per month per child.

Both components pay the money by Direct Benefit Transfer into the child's own bank account, or into a joint account operated with the guardian where the child is very young. The scheme is administered alongside Mission Vatsalya, the central child protection umbrella, and the district-level record keeping is done by the District Probation Officer's office.

Who is eligible for Mukhyamantri Bal Seva Yojana?

A child can receive the benefit if:

• The child is a permanent resident of Uttar Pradesh.
• The child is below 18 years of age on the date of application.
• The child has lost one or both parents, or the legal guardian who was maintaining the child.
• For the COVID component, the death of the parent was due to COVID-19 infection, supported by a death certificate or hospital record.
• For the General component with one surviving parent, the family's annual income is below Rs 3 lakh.

The General component also reaches children in situations that are not literal orphanhood but leave a child without support: children whose parents are in prison, children rescued from child labour or bonded labour, children of families that lost their sole earner, and children living in child care institutions.

A child is not eligible if:

• The child is 18 years or older at the time of first application, except for the separate 18-to-23 higher education component described below.
• The child is not a resident of Uttar Pradesh, since this is a state scheme funded from the state budget.
• Both parents are alive and earning, and there is no other qualifying circumstance such as a parent in prison.
• The family income exceeds Rs 3 lakh a year and only one parent has died. This income bar does not apply to a child who has lost both parents.
• The claim is duplicated. A child already drawing the COVID component cannot also draw the General component for the same period.

What benefits does Mukhyamantri Bal Seva Yojana provide?

Monthly maintenance. Rs 4,000 per month under the COVID component and Rs 2,500 per month under the General component, paid until the child turns 18.

Marriage grant for girls. A one-time payment of Rs 1,01,000 towards the marriage of an eligible girl, sanctioned after she reaches 18 years.

Residential schooling. Children aged 11 to 18 are given admission to Atal Residential Schools and Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas, with free education, boarding and lodging. This is the part of the scheme guardians most often do not know about, and it removes the single largest cost of raising an orphaned child.

Institutional care. A completely orphaned child with no willing relative is placed in a child care institution run by the department, on an order of the district Child Welfare Committee constituted under the Juvenile Justice Act.

Higher education support. Young people aged 18 to 23 who lost one or both parents or their legal guardian, and who have finished Class 12, receive Rs 2,500 per month while completing a bachelor's degree or a diploma.

Devices for study. Tablets or laptops are given to eligible students under the state's device distribution programme, so that school and college work can continue at home.

What documents are required for Mukhyamantri Bal Seva Yojana?

How to apply for Mukhyamantri Bal Seva Yojana

1. Collect the application form from the office of the District Probation Officer (Jila Probation Adhikari) in your district headquarters, or from the Block Development Office. Some districts publish the form as a PDF on their NIC district website under Notices.
2. Fill in the child's details — name, date of birth, name and date of death of the deceased parent or parents, the guardian's name and relationship, and the child's bank account number with IFSC code.
3. Attach the documents listed above. Self-attested photocopies are accepted; carry the originals for verification.
4. Submit the form. In rural areas, hand it to the Gram Panchayat Officer, Village Development Officer or Block Development Officer. In urban areas, hand it to the accountant at the Tehsil office. In either case the application can also be submitted directly to the District Probation Officer.
5. Field verification follows. An officer from the block or tehsil verifies the death, the child's residence and the guardian's custody of the child, and forwards the case to the district.
6. Sanction and payment. The District Probation Officer sanctions the case and the monthly amount begins to flow by DBT to the seeded bank account. Keep the acknowledgement receipt with its case number.

How to check the status of a Bal Seva Yojana application

1. Visit the District Probation Officer's office with your acknowledgement receipt and the case number written on it.
2. Ask the dealing clerk whether the case is at verification, sanction or payment stage. District offices maintain a register of Bal Seva cases.
3. Check your bank passbook or SMS alerts for a DBT credit. The narration usually names the Women Welfare Directorate or the district social welfare account.
4. If the case has been sanctioned but no money has arrived for more than two months, the problem is almost always the bank account, not the sanction: ask the bank to confirm that the account is Aadhaar-seeded and active.

Why Bal Seva Yojana applications get rejected

• Death certificate does not mention COVID-19 while the family applied under the COVID component. The fix is to reapply under the General component, where the cause of death does not matter.
• No income certificate attached where one parent survives. The General component needs proof that family income is under Rs 3 lakh.
• Child is already 18 on the date of application. Apply instead under the 18-to-23 higher education support if the child has passed Class 12.
• Bank account not Aadhaar-seeded, so the DBT credit bounces back. Get the seeding done at the branch and inform the District Probation Officer.
• Guardianship not established. Where a relative other than a surviving parent has custody, the Child Welfare Committee's order or a guardianship document is needed.
• Duplicate application filed in two districts after the family moved. Only one district can hold the case.

Key dates and history

Uttar Pradesh launched the scheme in May 2021, and district administrations ran the first collection drive for forms between 4 June 2021 and 1 October 2021, as recorded in district notices such as the one published by Meerut district. The COVID component was designed as a closed cohort. It covers children whose parent died of COVID-19 during the pandemic period, so new applications for that component are now rare. The General component remains open all year, and it is the route almost every new applicant should use.

Grievance redressal and help

• District Probation Officer of your district is the first and the most effective point of contact for anything to do with sanction or payment.
• Childline 1098 is the national toll-free child helpline, operating in Uttar Pradesh under Mission Vatsalya, for any child in distress or without care.
• Jansunwai portal at jansunwai.up.nic.in accepts written grievances against a district office and generates a tracking number.
• Child Welfare Committee of the district decides custody and institutional placement questions.

Uttar Pradesh Mukhyamantri Bal Seva Yojana charges no application fee at any stage. No agent, pradhan or middleman is authorised to take money for adding a child's name to the list, and no official will ask for an OTP from a guardian's phone.