Within months of its launch, Uttar Pradesh’s Scheme for Adolescent Girls (SAG) has reached out to about 3.50 lakh girls aged between 11 and 14 years against a target of five lakh.
The scheme is primarily providing them with a supplementary diet.
The broad objectives of the SAG scheme in UP is to improve the nutritional, health and development status of girls and promote awareness about health, hygiene, nutrition and family care.
The scheme also provides them opportunities for learning life skills, going back to schools, helps them in gaining a better understanding of the social environment and take initiatives to become productive members of society.
Under the SAG, currently covering 53 districts, food containing grains like millet, wheat, corn, black gram and desi ghee is being provided to the girls as supplementary diets. Besides, girls in 22 districts are being provided with daliya and laddoo premix every month. In addition, the girls are also being given pills of iron, calcium, folic acid and vitamin C.
During the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions, the scheme is being carried out with the help of self-help groups (SHGs) which are facilitating door-to-door services with the help of Anganwadi workers. They have been distributing dry ration like rice, pulses, lentils, skimmed milk powder, desi ghee to the girls.
Besides this, over 1.67 lakh Anganwadi centres and over 22,000 mini Anganwadi centres of 987 schemes under the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) are being successfully operating in the state, focusing on the all-round development of kids aged between six months and six years, pregnant women and midwives through various programmes.