More than 7 lakh out of school adolescent girls (11-14 years) benefitted under the scheme for Adolescent Girls in 2017-18

New Delhi: The Government is implementing Scheme for Adolescent Girls, a Centrally-sponsored scheme, to provide nutrition support for out of school adolescent girls (11-14 years). In addition, the scheme aims at motivating out of school girls in the age group of 11-14 years to go back to formal schooling or skill training under non-nutrition component of the scheme. The Scheme aims at all-round development of out-of-school Adolescent Girls of age 11-14 years and is implemented through the State Governments/UTs using ICDS infrastructure.

The scheme has two components Nutrition and Non Nutrition. Under the Nutrition component, each out of school Adolescent Girl of age 11-14 years is provided 600 calories, 18-20 grams of protein and micronutrients @ Rs. 9.5 per beneficiary per day for 300 days in a year. The non-nutrition component has an built-in factor to motivate out of school girls to go back to formal schooling or skill training. In addition, the scheme also aims at promoting awareness about health, hygiene, nutrition and facilitating access to learning about public services through various interventions such as guidance and counselling as well as skill training.  The guidelines of the Scheme are available on the website of MWCD.

A sum of Rs. 460 crore was allocated for the scheme for 2017-18 against which a sum of Rs. 450.66 were released to States/UTs benefitting 7.26 lakh out of school adolescent girls of age 11-14 years as reported by the States/UTs. In 2018-19, against the allocation of Rs. 500 crore, as of now a sum of Rs. 81.59 crore has been released to States/UTs.

The above Information was given by Minister of Women and Child Development, Stm Maneka Sanjay Gandhi in reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, today.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.