Mukhyamantri Aanchal Amrit Yojana

What is Mukhyamantri Aanchal Amrit Yojana?

Mukhyamantri Aanchal Amrit Yojana is an Uttarakhand state nutrition scheme run by the Department of Women Empowerment and Child Development. Under the scheme, children aged 3 to 6 years who attend an anganwadi centre are served 100 ml of sweetened, flavoured milk fortified with vitamin A and vitamin D, free of cost, on four days a week. Readers searching in Hindi or in transliteration will find the same scheme written as Mukhyamantri Anchal Amrit Yojana.

The scheme takes its name from Aanchal, the brand of the Uttarakhand Cooperative Dairy Federation Limited, which supplies the milk. That single fact explains the scheme's second purpose: alongside cutting malnutrition among pre-school children, Aanchal Amrit creates a guaranteed institutional buyer for milk pooled from dairy cooperatives in the hills, which supports the incomes of small milk producers.

Mukhyamantri Aanchal Amrit Yojana was launched in Dehradun in 2019 by the then Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat. Distribution was interrupted during the Covid-19 period when anganwadi centres were shut, and the scheme was re-launched on 28 October 2021 by Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami. Reported coverage at anganwadi level is around 1.72 lakh children at roughly 20,000 anganwadi centres, with a budget in the order of Rs 13 crore.

The state has since extended fortified milk to school children. Under the mid-day meal, children in Classes 1 to 8 are served milk once a week; reported coverage is around 6.9 lakh children in about 17,045 schools. The anganwadi-level entitlement of 100 ml four days a week and the school-level entitlement of once a week are separate arrangements, and a child moves from one to the other on entering Class 1.

Why fortified milk. Vitamin A deficiency is linked to poor immunity and eye problems in young children, and vitamin D deficiency to rickets and weak bone development. Fortifying the milk lets the state address both micronutrient gaps through a food children will actually drink, which is why the milk is sweetened and flavoured rather than served plain.

Who is eligible for Mukhyamantri Aanchal Amrit Yojana?

A child is covered if:

• The child is aged 3 to 6 years and is enrolled at an anganwadi centre anywhere in Uttarakhand.
• The child is studying in Classes 1 to 8 at a government or government-aided school covered by the mid-day meal, in which case milk is served once a week.

There is no income test, no caste condition and no fee. Aanchal Amrit is a universal entitlement attached to anganwadi and school enrolment, which is the single most important thing for a parent to understand, it is not a scheme you apply for separately.

A child is not eligible if:

• The child is below 3 years. Children aged 6 months to 3 years at anganwadi centres receive take-home ration under ICDS instead, not milk at the centre.
• The child is above 6 years and not enrolled in a government or government-aided school covered by the mid-day meal.
• The child is not registered at any anganwadi centre. Registration is the gateway; an unregistered child cannot be served.
• The child attends a private school outside the mid-day meal system, such schools are not part of the school-level component.

A child with a medical reason to avoid milk, such as lactose intolerance or a dairy allergy, should not be served it. Parents must tell the anganwadi worker or class teacher, because the scheme has no medical screening step of its own.

What documents are needed?

No document is demanded at the point of serving the milk. The documents above are for the underlying anganwadi or school enrolment.

How to apply for Mukhyamantri Aanchal Amrit Yojana

There is no separate application form for Aanchal Amrit. The steps are the steps for getting a child on the anganwadi roll:

1. Locate the anganwadi centre mapped to your village or urban ward. The gram panchayat, ward member or ASHA worker will tell you which one serves your address.
2. Visit the centre with the child's birth certificate, your Aadhaar and a proof of residence, and ask the anganwadi worker to enrol the child.
3. Confirm the Poshan Tracker entry. The worker registers the child on the national Poshan Tracker application; ask to see the entry, since attendance and entitlements flow from it.
4. Send the child to the centre on serving days. Milk is served at the centre on four days a week; a child who does not attend is not served, because there is no take-home component for the milk.
5. For school-going children, no action is needed beyond normal enrolment in a government or government-aided school, the weekly milk is part of the mid-day meal.

Registration is free. No agent, form fee or online payment is involved at any step.

How much benefit does the scheme provide?

Mukhyamantri Aanchal Amrit Yojana provides 100 ml of fortified milk per child per serving day, four days a week, at anganwadi centres. Over a month, that is roughly 16 servings, or about 1.6 litres of fortified milk per child. There is no cash equivalent and no take-home substitute.

For school children in Classes 1 to 8, the entitlement is one serving a week alongside the PM POSHAN mid-day meal.

The milk is procured from the Uttarakhand Cooperative Dairy Federation Limited, and fortification with vitamin A and vitamin D is done before supply. The department sets the serving days locally, so which four days of the week milk arrives varies between blocks depending on the supply route into hill areas.

How to check whether your child is receiving the benefit

There is no beneficiary-status website for Aanchal Amrit. Practical checks:

1. Ask the anganwadi worker to show the daily serving register. Milk distribution is recorded against attendance.
2. Verify the child's Poshan Tracker entry — name, date of birth and attendance should be visible in the worker's app.
3. Ask on which four days milk is served at your centre, so absence on those days is not mistaken for non-delivery.

Common problems and how to fix them

• Milk not served for several weeks. Supply gaps in remote blocks are the usual cause. Raise it with the ICDS Supervisor for the sector, then the Child Development Project Officer for the block.
• Child aged 3 but not being served. Check that the date of birth in the Poshan Tracker entry is correct; a wrong date keeps a child in the under-3 category and on take-home ration.
• Child moved to a new village. Get the entry transferred to the new anganwadi centre rather than opening a second registration, which the tracker flags as a duplicate.
• Milk quality complaint. Report it immediately to the anganwadi worker and the Supervisor, and ask for the supply batch to be checked with the dairy federation. Do not let a child drink milk that smells or tastes off.
• Child cannot tolerate milk. Inform the worker in writing so the child is excluded from serving and, where possible, given the centre's regular supplementary nutrition instead.

Where to raise a grievance

• Anganwadi worker at the centre; first point of contact for missed servings.
• ICDS Supervisor for the sector.
• Child Development Project Officer (CDPO) for your block. CDPO contact lists are published as downloadable PDFs on wecd.uk.gov.in.
• District Programme Officer (DPO) for the district, whose contact list is published on the same portal.
• Department of Women Empowerment and Child Development, Uttarakhand, Dehradun, through the contact page at wecd.uk.gov.in.

For school-level milk, the same complaint goes to the school head teacher and then to the Block Education Officer, since that component runs through the Education Department's mid-day meal machinery rather than through ICDS.