John F Kennedy rightly said, “Children are the world’s most valuable resource and its best hope for the future.”

Children are our greatest treasure and they mean world to us. They are the best asset of a family and a nation. They need to be cared for, heard, and nurtured for a healthy and happy childhood. Their dreams will become the future of the world. As a parent, we always want the sunshine on their dreams. But the biggest challenge in parenting is being equipped to satisfy their needs and necessities. We toil hard to fulfill their requests and dreams to the best of our efforts. But we must remember we aren’t alone in this. Our Indian government also cares for our children and takes a lot of effort to help with the future of our children.

Our Indian Government rightly believes that “children are the strongest pillars of our nation and investing in their health and wellbeing is a critical priority in nation-building efforts”. Hence, it has introduced many child welfare programs for children in society to get benefitted. Two major centrally sponsored child welfare programs are – Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme for the development of the child and the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) for the care and protection of the child in conflict with law and in need of care and protection. We will help you out with the recent prominent schemes which are more beneficial for the future generation

Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY)

Good health is the best asset we could give to the pillars of our country. Good health for the baby starts from the womb. For the child to be born healthy, it is important for the mother to be healthy too so she can pass her nourishment to the baby in the womb. Sometimes women lose their jobs because of pregnancy and struggle for the source of income for mother and child care.

Hence, the government introduced a maternity benefit program for pregnant and lactating mothers with no regular central or state government employment to get benefitted. This scheme provides a conditional cash transfer scheme for pregnant and lactating women for their first living child. The mothers need to register for the scheme within 150 days of LMP. Offline registrations can be done in the Anganwaadi or Child health care centers. Online registrations can be done through https://pmmvy-cas.nic.in with the help of the consulting hospital.
Benefits: Cash incentive of Rs 5000 in three installments – 1000 while registration, 2000 after 6 months of pregnancy with at least one pregnancy scan taken, and 2000 after childbirth and first immunization.

National Creche Scheme:

Child care or Day-care or Crèche facilities are a boon for many parents who wants to work after childbirth. They are many daycare facilities around the nation to take care of the children and engage them while their parents are away at work. However, most of the private-run facilities are expensive and make it impossible for parents with low income to avail.

Hence the government has brought a scheme that aims at providing day-care facilities to children (age group of 6 months to 6 years) of working parents under the name of “Rajiv Gandhi National Crèche Scheme”. Every mother who has worked for 15 days a month and 6 months a year can avail it. The family has to pay a nominal fee of Rs. 20 per month if below BPL, Rs.100 if the family’s total income is up to 12,000, and Rs.200 if the family’s total income is greater than Rs.12000.

Benefits: Daycare Facilities, growth monitoring, health check-up, and immunization. Sleeping facilities for infants, early stimulation for children below 3 years, and pre-schooling for kids between 3-6 years age. They also provide nutritional food.

POSHAN Abhiyaan:

Our perseverance at work is for the sustenance of life and to earn our daily bread. Kids need a well-balanced and wholesome food to meet their body and energy requirements. Few economic crises cause a denial of a nutritious meal for children. To reduce poverty and hunger in our country a flagship program of holistic nutrition was initiated by our government. The principal goal is to improve the nutritional status of children (0-6 years), adolescent girls, pregnant women, and lactating mothers. All the beneficiaries of Anganwadi scheme are benefitted through this by registering at poshanabhiyaan.gov.in.

Benefits: Improved nutrition to reduce stunting, malnourishment, anemia and low birth weight in children. It includes antenatal care, optimal breastfeeding assistance and complementary feeding care. It also focuses on monitoring girl children’s education, diet, marriage age and hygiene.

Schemes for the Girl Children:

In our country, still, woman development is yet an underachieved phenomenon even in the 20th century. Society has a huge responsibility to make a big difference in the lives of every daughter, sisters, and mother around the world — and right in our own neighborhoods. Hence it is essential to take extra attention on nurturing and uplifting them. The education and health of a girl child is very important for our nation to make it flourish. There is no stronger pillar to a nation than a strong, free, and educated woman. A developed system that successfully provides care to women and girl children will help in the development of our country.

Scheme for Adolescent Girls (SAG):

Developing an adolescent into a caring, responsible, and independent child is a huge task on parents. It is an age of dramatic changes encountered by both parents and kids. The focus of SAG is a greater responsibility of facilitating, educating, and empowering adolescent girls and making them self-reliant individuals. It motivates the drop out of school girls to go back to their formal schooling or vocational /skill training.

Anganwadi centers are the focal point for these services. They identify out-of-school girls in the age group of 11+ to 14 years and advise them to register themselves under the scheme for availing the services.

Benefits: Provision of macronutrients and micronutrients, health check-up, mainstreaming girls into the school system, Iron and Folic Acid supplementation, life skill education etc…

Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP)

To bring about a change in society over the view on girl child the Indian government launched this program with the objective of addressing the declining Child Sex Ratio (CSR) and other issues related to women empowerment. Any family with a girl child below the age of 10 years is eligible to avail of this scheme and should be a Sukanya Samriddhi Account (SSA) holder in any bank. This scheme is applicable only to kids of Indian origin and not for NRIs. To get enrolled under the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme, one needs to visit the specific bank where the scheme is available and open a savings account for the child’s name by manually filling the application form of BBBP or Sarva Shiksha Abhyaan and submit the relevant documents to the bank.

Benefits: Prevents illegal gender-biased selective abortions and girl child mortality. It aims at the protection of girl child in infancy and education of the girl child.

Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana

Those little pennies saved from household expenditures often come as a surprise during the most unprecedented times in a family. One such scheme to encourage saving for the girl child’s future is introduced by the Indian government. It is a small deposit scheme exclusive for the girl child, meant to meet the expenses of the child education and marriage. A girl child not more than 10 years of age, can avail this scheme, however, a grace period of one year is granted. Submission of age proof documents of the child is mandatory. Another way to avail this program is to open an account on behalf of your daughter if you are a biological parent or her legal guardian.

Benefits: Flexible deposit option up to Rs. 1.5 lakh annually which can be availed across India at any bank or post office.

Balika Samriddhi Yojana

This scholarship scheme is designed to provide financial support to young girls and their mothers who are below the poverty line. Few eligibility requirements for this scheme are, the post-birth grant which are given to the mothers of the new-born girl child. The girl child should belong to a family below the poverty line belonging to both urban and rural areas. The girl should be born on or after 15th August 1997. Only up to two girl children in a family can avail the benefits under this scheme regardless of the total number of girl children in the family. The child must fill in an application which can be obtained either from Anganwadi workers or health functionaries and submitted to respective functionaries from where the application forms are obtained.

Benefits: Cash benefit of Rs. 500 provided to mother of the girl child, annual scholarship from Rs. 300 to Rs. 1000 (till 10th standard) for girl children.

CBSE Udaan Scheme

Girls’ education goes beyond getting girls into school. It is also about completing all levels of education with the skills to effectively compete and adapt to the changing society. With this aim, the CBSE Udaan scheme was launched to increase the enrolment of girls into prestigious engineering and technical colleges across India.

A girl student studying in class 11 Science stream can avail this scheme benefits. The child must be a resident of India and should pursue girl class 11 from any Kendriya Vidyalaya (KV) or Navodaya or Government schools recognized by any Board or CBSE affiliated private schools in India. They need to belong to the science stream to avail this scheme. The applicants must have the highest scores of marks in their 10 and 11th standard. The candidates belonging to SC, ST, OBC and PWD category get a reservation of 15%, 7.5%, 27% and 3% seats, respectively. Also, the annual family income of the applicant must not be more than INR 6 Lakh.

Benefits: Course material for girl students in 11th and 12th standard, Virtual contact classes on weekends, Peer learning and mentoring opportunities for meritorious girl students, constant monitoring and tracking of students’ progress.

A country can develop only when its citizens are skillful and have equal opportunities. Welfare schemes are announced from time to time for the progress and development of the citizens from all walks of life. The ultimate development of a nation is significantly dependent on the economic development of the citizens.