Over 7 lakh girls benefited by the Scheme for Adolescent Girls (SAG) under which supplementary nutrition is given to out-of-school girls from the age group of 11 to 14 years across the country, Rajya Sabha was informed today.
The SAG was introduced in 2010-11 on a pilot basis in 205 districts which was extended to additional 303 districts in 2017-18 and the remaining districts were covered from April 1, WCD Minister for State Virendra Kumar today said in a written response.
The scheme had two components of 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 at Rs 9.5 per beneficiary per day for 30 days in a year.
The non-nutrition component had a built-in factor to motivate out-of-school girls to go back to formal schooling or skill development.
7,26,902 adolescent girls had benefited by the scheme and about 3,96,805 beneficiaries were from Bihar, 1,25,452 beneficiaries were from Madhya Pradesh and 2,337 from Tamil Nadu, Kumar said in response to the question if steps had been taken to provide supplementary nutrition to adolescent girls under any centrally sponsored scheme across the country, particularly in Tamil Nadu.