Mukhyamantri Bal Poshan Yojana - Uttarakhand

What is Mukhyamantri Bal Poshan Yojana?

Mukhyamantri Bal Poshan Yojana is a state nutrition scheme of the Government of Uttarakhand aimed at pre-school children. Mukhyamantri Bal Poshan Yojana improves the health of children aged 3 to 6 years by giving them additional protein-rich food at their Anganwadi centre on fixed days of the week, over and above the supplementary nutrition already served under the Integrated Child Development Services. The Department of Women Empowerment and Child Development runs it through the same Anganwadi network that delivers the rest of the state's child nutrition programme.

The scheme, often written in Hindi as Mukhyamantri Bal Poshan Yojana, sits in a family of Uttarakhand nutrition initiatives, alongside Mukhyamantri Mahila Poshan Yojana for women and Amrit Anchal for milk supply, that the department introduced to attack the state's stubborn malnutrition and anaemia figures. Uttarakhand's problem is not only how many children come to an Anganwadi centre, it is what the food on the plate contains. Hill diets are cereal-heavy and often short on animal protein, so a child can be fed and still be undernourished. Mukhyamantri Bal Poshan Yojana targets exactly that gap by adding a protein item on specified days.

Main features

• Covers children in the 3 to 6 years age group.
• Delivered at the Anganwadi centre, not as a take-home ration or cash transfer.
• Adds protein-rich food on two fixed days each week, with an egg-free alternative such as fruit or banana-based food for children who do not take eggs.
• Free of cost; no fee may be charged from parents.
• Registration is at the Anganwadi centre, with no online form.

Who is eligible for Mukhyamantri Bal Poshan Yojana?

Your child is eligible if:

• The child is aged 3 years or above and below 6 years.
• The family lives in Uttarakhand, in the area served by the Anganwadi centre.
• The child is registered at a government Anganwadi centre and attends it.

Your child is not eligible and cannot be enrolled if:

• The child is below 3 years, that age group is covered by the take-home ration and other components of Anganwadi services, not by this scheme.
• The child is 6 years or older, by which age the child has moved to primary school and comes under the school midday meal instead.
• The child is not enrolled at an Anganwadi centre. Enrolment is the single condition parents most often miss; the food is served at the centre, so a child who is not on the centre's register does not receive it.
• The family does not reside in the Anganwadi centre's service area, in which case the child should be registered at the correct centre for their locality.

There is no income test, caste condition or category restriction. Mukhyamantri Bal Poshan Yojana is a universal scheme for the age group within the Anganwadi system, which is why the practical question for a parent is registration rather than qualification.

What does the child actually receive?

Mukhyamantri Bal Poshan Yojana adds a protein-rich item to the Anganwadi menu on two specified days a week. The item most commonly named in descriptions of the scheme is an egg, with a fruit-based or banana-based alternative provided on the same days for children whose families do not eat eggs. The days are fixed by the department so that supply, storage and cooking can be planned by the Anganwadi worker, and so that parents know when to send the child.

Two points are worth being clear about. First, this is an addition, not a replacement. The regular hot cooked meal and supplementary nutrition served at the Anganwadi centre continue on all working days; the Bal Poshan item comes on top of that on its two days. Second, this is not a cash scheme. No money is transferred to a bank account, and there is no separate DBT payment attached to it, so a parent should not expect a credit or look for a payment status page.

The nutritional logic behind the design is that an egg is a cheap, complete protein with vitamin A, vitamin B12 and iron in a form a small child absorbs well, and that two servings a week measurably improve protein and micronutrient intake in a diet built mainly on rice, wheat and mandua.

What documents are required?

Parents who do not yet have a birth certificate should still approach the Anganwadi worker. The worker can record the child on the basis of available proof and help the family obtain the certificate, rather than turning the child away from nutrition support.

How to apply for Mukhyamantri Bal Poshan Yojana

1. Find the Anganwadi centre for your area. Every ward and village in Uttarakhand is attached to an Anganwadi centre. The Anganwadi worker, ASHA worker or gram panchayat can tell you which one serves your address.
2. Ask for the registration form. Collect the child registration form from the Anganwadi worker at the centre. There is no online portal for this scheme and no fee for the form.
3. Fill in the child's details and attach proof. Give the child's name, date of birth, parents' names and address, and attach the birth certificate and residence proof, plus Aadhaar if available.
4. Submit the form at the centre. The Anganwadi worker enters the child in the centre register and, where the system is in use, in the Poshan Tracker application.
5. Send the child to the centre on the scheme days. The additional food is served at the centre on the two fixed days each week, so attendance on those days is what converts registration into benefit.

How do I check whether my child is enrolled?

The Anganwadi centre's own register is the record that matters. Ask the Anganwadi worker to show you the entry for your child, with the date of registration and the age recorded. Growth monitoring, weight and height recorded every month, is maintained in the same register, and a parent is entitled to see the child's growth chart. If the entry is missing or the age is recorded wrongly, the worker can correct it at the centre.

If the centre is not serving the additional food on the specified days, or the egg-free alternative is not being provided for a child who needs it, raise it first with the Anganwadi worker and then with the supervisor, who visits centres in the sector, before escalating.

Why do children miss out on the benefit?

• Child never registered at the Anganwadi centre. The most common reason by a distance. The scheme reaches children through the centre's register.
• Age recorded incorrectly, so a three-year-old is shown as two and left out of the pre-school group.
• Irregular attendance, since the food is served at the centre and not delivered home.
• Family moved to a new locality without re-registering at the Anganwadi centre serving the new address.
• Supply interruption at the centre, which is a delivery problem to be raised with the supervisor or CDPO, not an eligibility problem.

Help and grievance redressal

• Anganwadi worker at your centre, the first point for registration, corrections and complaints about food not being served.
• Supervisor for the sector — visits centres and can resolve issues the worker cannot.
• Child Development Project Officer (CDPO), your block. The block-level authority for Anganwadi services and this scheme.
• District Programme Officer (DPO); district-level escalation; contact lists for CDPOs and DPOs are published on wecd.uk.gov.in.
• Department of Women Empowerment and Child Development, Uttarakhand; wecd.uk.gov.in also carries a feedback form.

Registration and the food are both free. No Anganwadi worker or official may charge a parent for enrolling a child or for the meal, and any such demand should be reported to the CDPO for the block.