Kishori Shakti Yojana: A Scheme to Empower Adolescent Girls

Name of the scheme: Kishori Shakti Yojana

Purpose: The main purpose of this scheme is to is a means to empower adolescent girls, so as to enable them to take charge of their lives.

• To improve the nutritional and health status of girls in the age group of 11-18 years
• To provide the required literacy and numeracy skills through the non-formal stream of education, to stimulate a desire for more social exposure and knowledge and to help them improve their decision making capabilities.
• To train and equip the adolescent girls to improve/ upgrade home-based and vocational skills.
• To promote awareness of health, hygiene, nutrition and family welfare, home management and child care, and to take all measure as to facilitate their marrying only after attaining the age of 18 years and if possible, even later.

Target group:

• All eligible girls in the age group of 11-18 years, irrespective of income levels of the family, are eligible to receive assistance under the scheme.
• Preference is given to younger girls, in the age group of 11-15 years, and belonging to poor families.
• 20 girls in the age group of 11-18 years are identified from all the eligible girls in this age group in the Anganwadi Centres.
• These 20 girls are enrolled for a period of six months in the balika mandals. In each ICDS project, only 10%of the total Anganwadi Centres are selected on rotation to serve as balika mandals.

Action Plan:

An action plan for implementation of KSY is to be prepared each year as per instructions issued by the Govt. of India.

Period of Active Enrolment:

• The need is to provide non–formal education, develop literacy skills and improve the home based skills among adolescent girls.
• The period of an adolescent girls active enrollment in the Balika Mandal would vary from the one adolescent girl to another, depending upon her previous educational background, her power to grasp, her possessions of a home based skill and allied factors.

FUNDS:

• Under this scheme, funds are being provided by Govt. of India for implementation while the state Govt. is bearing expenditure for supplementary nutrition.
• So far as assistance for intervention from Govt. of India is concerned, it is limited to the approved amount of Rs 1.10 lac per ICDS project per annum only.

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