Adolescence is a crucial phase in the life of woman. At this stage, she stands at the threshold of adulthood. This stage is intermediary between childhood and womanhood and it is the most eventful for mental, emotional and psychological well being. The life-cycle approach for holistic child development remains unaddressed if adolescent girls are excluded from the developmental programmes aimed at human resource development. The Adolescent Girls (AG) Scheme, implemented by the Ministry of Women and Child Development under Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 (earlier Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS)), primarily aims at breaking the inter-generational life-cycle of nutritional and gender disadvantage and providing a supportive environment for self-development. Objective The key objective of the scheme is to facilitate, educate and empower AGs so as to enable them to become self-reliant and aware citizens. The scheme has the following objectives. Enable the AGs for self-development and empowerment. Improve their nutrition and health status.iii) Promote awareness about health, hygiene, nutrition Support out of school AG to successfully transition back to formal schooling or bridge learning / skill training. Upgrade their home-based skills and life skills. Provide information/guidance about existing public services such as Primary Health Centers, Rural Hospitals/CHCs, Post Office, Bank, Police Station, etc. Coverage Under the Scheme for Adolescent Girls, the targeted beneficiaries are Adolescent Girls in the age group of 14 to 18 years across all the districts of Northeast Region and Aspirational Districts of other States. Scheme for Adolescent Girls was sanctioned in the year 2010 and was implemented in 205 districts across the country. Later, the expansion and universalisation of the Scheme for Adolescent Girls was done in additional 303 districts in 2017-18 and the remaining districts in 2018-19 with the simultaneous phasing out of Kishori Shakti Yojana (KSY). Scheme components There are two major components under the Scheme ‐ Nutrition Component and Non Nutrition Component. Nutrition Component Supplementary nutrition containing 600 calories, 18-20 grams of protein and micronutrients will be provided to adolescent girl in the age group of 14 to 18 years in the form of Take-Home Ration (THR) for 300 days in a year. THR will be prepared duly fortified with micro-nutrients as per nutritional standards. To address the issue of THR being used by other family members, age-specific processed mixture of various food ingredients shall be labelled in a way that will ensure consumption by targeted beneficiaries. Last-mile tracking mechanism shall be undertaken through Poshan Tracker. Non Nutrition Component With regard to providing services under the non-nutrition component, convergence with the line Ministries will be the key for achieving holistic and overall development of the adolescent girls under the non-nutrition component. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Iron and Folic Acid (IFA) supplementation Health check-up and Referral service Nutrition & Health Education (NHE) Ensure Promotion of Menstrual Hygiene among Adolescent Girls Ensure active participation of AGs to deal with issues and needs of adolescents and the services available through Peer Educator Programme Health check‐up and Referral services Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Providing Skill Training to AGs Ministry of Education Providing Skill Training to AGs Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports Youth Leadership and Personality Development Training Development and Empowerment of Adolescents (Life Skills Education, Counselling, Career Guidance, etc.) For the complete scheme guidelines, click here. Source : Ministry of Women and Child Development