Mukhyamantri Bal Seva Yojana (MBSY), 2021 -Uttar Pradesh

Policy Update
Shivali Yadav

Background

The second wave of COVID‑19 during the summer of 2021 altered the discussion surrounding India’s challenges. Previous waves had failed to draw attention to a group of victims that is seldom mentioned initially: abandoned children. In Uttar Pradesh, the densely populated state, a similar occurrence took place. Reports began to emerge regarding children who had lost one or both parents to the infection, many too young to grasp the situation and numerous without any family member ready or capable of taking them in.

The department’s report states that the pandemic affected children’s daily routines in various ways: schools shut down, anxiety increased, and in the most tragic instances, parents succumbed to the virus. Many children lacked close family connections and had no adults available to adopt them (Directorate of Women Welfare and Child Development, Government of Uttar Pradesh, n.d.). To address this issue, the government initiated the Mukhyamantri Bal Seva Yojana (MBSY) in 2021. This new program was originally designed for children affected by COVID to assist with their upkeep, educational, and healthcare requirements (Directorate of Women Welfare and Child Development, Government of Uttar Pradesh, n.d.).

What started as a measure to respond to the pandemic quickly expanded beyond just cases. The state government subsequently expanded the program to encompass at-risk children who lost parents or guardians for non-COVID reasons after 1 March 2020, as well as children facing particularly challenging circumstances, like those freed from child labor or begging. The expansion established two parallel tracks: a COVID category and a General category, each having distinct eligibility and benefit frameworks.

Functioning

MBSY revolves around two distinct categories, and it’s crucial to maintain their separation due to differences in eligibility criteria and the funding amounts provided. Mukhyamantri Bal Seva Yojana (COVID) is a program designed for children aged zero to eighteen who have lost one or both parents due to COVID-19. Mukhyamantri Bal Seva Yojana (COVID) provides assistance of four thousand rupees monthly for every child. The funds are given to the living parent or to anyone caring for the child for the child’s necessities. (Department of Women Welfare and Child Development, Government of Uttar Pradesh, n.d.).

Mukhyamantri Bal Seva Yojana (General) is a program for children below eighteen who have lost either both parents or one parent for reasons other than COVID-19, provided the loss occurred on or after March 1, 2020. Mukhyamantri Bal Seva Yojana (General) additionally includes children in precarious conditions, such as those saved from child labor or begging. Mukhyamantri Bal Seva Yojana (General) provides two thousand five hundred rupees monthly for every child. (Directorate of Women Welfare and Child Development, Government of Uttar Pradesh, no date). The Department of Women and Child Development oversees both Mukhyamantri Bal Seva Yojana tracks via its Mission Vatsalya Uttar Pradesh portal. Applications are processed by the district-level child protection system.

Operate in collaboration with the National Informatics Centre. Numerous district websites, like Meerut’s NIC portal, feature direct links and updates regarding the scheme. (National Informatics Centre, Meerut 2023). The program is also featured on myScheme, the platform for Indian government initiatives. MyScheme is operated by the Digital India Corporation, which is part of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. MyScheme collects the scheme along with central and state welfare programs for individuals who inquire based on eligibility. (MyScheme Government of India, n.d.).

Children covered under MBSY, particularly those studying in Class 9 and above or enrolled in vocational courses, are eligible for a one-time laptop or tablet to support continued education, and the scheme also extends support toward preparation for competitive national and state-level entrance examinations. Eligibility carries income and residency conditions broadly consistent with other state welfare schemes; applicant families must ordinarily fall under the Rs 3 lakh annual income threshold, though this condition is relaxed in cases where both parents have died, given the obvious severity of that situation. Families already covered under an equivalent central or state scheme for the same purpose are generally not permitted to draw a second, overlapping benefit under MBSY.

Disbursement runs through Direct Benefit Transfer, following the now-standard pattern across Uttar Pradesh’s welfare schemes, with funds released periodically; quarterly or half-yearly cycles have both been used in practice into the bank account of the surviving parent, guardian, or the child directly once of appropriate age.

Performance

Government-released figures on disbursement give a reasonable sense of how the scheme has actually moved on the ground. In one instalment cycle reported through official channels in late 2022, the state released the first half-yearly payment for 13,371 children who had lost parents or guardians during the pandemic, on top of two earlier quarterly instalments already paid out for the 2022–23 academic year at Rs 2,500 per month per child.

The same release round extended coverage to all children below 18 whose parents or guardians had died after 1 March 2020 due to causes other than COVID, and separately released funds for laptops to 2,217 students along with wedding grants for five women covered under related provisions (Government of Uttar Pradesh, cited in official press communiqué, 2022). The scheme has subsequently expanded considerably beyond the initial COVID-related caseload. The Uttar Pradesh Mukhyamantri Bal Seva Yojana portal currently lists 16,061 beneficiaries under the COVID category and 72,508 under the General category. (Figures accessed September 2026.)

These figures, while not exhaustive, point to a few operational features worth noting. First, the scheme has demonstrably reached children well beyond the initial COVID-specific caseload; the General category appears to be doing real work in bringing non-COVID orphaned and vulnerable children into the same support structure. Second, the laptop/tablet component, though smaller in scale than the monthly cash assistance, signals an attempt to address the digital divide that COVID-era school closures made starkly visible. Third, periodic batch disbursement rather than scattered individual payments suggests the department has settled into a fairly structured cycle of verification and release, which likely helps with monitoring but can also mean delays for children awaiting their turn in a particular release round.

The scheme’s dual-category structure has, on balance, worked as intended in keeping the pandemic-specific caseload distinct from the broader vulnerable-children caseload, even while running both through the same administrative and technological backbone. This has allowed the state to keep COVID orphans as a clearly tracked cohort while still not leaving out children whose parents died for other reasons after the reference date.

Emerging Issues

A few recurring difficulties show up when the scheme’s on-ground functioning is examined closely.

Identification and verification of eligible children can pose implementation challenges, particularly where families lack readily available documentation. Unlike a COVID death, which typically has documentary backing through hospital or death records tied to the pandemic period, deaths due to other causes can be harder to verify quickly, especially in rural households without ready access to death certificates or other supporting paperwork.

Guardianship verification adds another layer of complexity. Many affected children end up living with extended family grandparents, uncles, or older siblings and establishing legal guardianship or caregiver status for DBT purposes may involve additional documentation and verification, particularly where children are living with extended family members. particularly for families without prior experience navigating government portals.

There is also the question of continuity. A scheme built around monthly payments until a child turns 18 requires many years of sustained administrative follow-through, repeated verification, bank account maintenance, and periodic renewal for a single beneficiary. Any lapse in this chain, whether due to a change in guardian, a shifted address, or a missed renewal window, risks disrupting a child’s benefit at precisely the point they may need it most.

Finally, the distinction between the COVID and General categories, while administratively useful, creates its own confusion at the applicant level: many families are not immediately aware which track applies to their circumstances, or that a non-COVID orphaned child is equally eligible under the General category, which risks under-enrolment in that group specifically.

Way Forward

Strengthening MBSY going forward would likely mean investing in a few specific areas. Streamlining death-certification and guardianship-verification processes at the district level, perhaps through closer coordination with the civil registration system and local child welfare committees, could shorten the gap between a child becoming eligible and actually receiving their first instalment.

Sustained, multi-year case tracking for each beneficiary, ideally supported by a dedicated caseworker or child welfare officer assigned at the district level, would help ensure that a child does not simply disappear from the benefit rolls due to an administrative lapse somewhere in the eighteen-year window the scheme is meant to cover.

Clearer, more localised communication distinguishing the COVID and General categories through Anganwadi workers, school teachers, and local child welfare committees who are often the first point of contact for an affected family could help address the under-awareness that appears to affect General-category uptake in particular.

And as the pandemic recedes further into the past, the General category is likely to become the scheme’s more enduring component. Treating it with the same institutional seriousness as the original COVID track rather than as a secondary add-on will matter for how well MBSY continues to serve Uttar Pradesh’s most vulnerable children in the years ahead, long after COVID-19 itself has stopped being the reason a child needs this kind of support.

References

Directorate of Women Welfare and Child Development, Government of Uttar Pradesh. (n.d.). About Mahila Kalyan — Uttar Pradesh Mukhyamantri Bal Seva Yojna. Mission Vatsalya Uttar Pradesh. Retrieved from https://balvikas.missionvatsalyaup.in/
National Informatics Centre, Meerut, Government of Uttar Pradesh. (2023). Uttar Pradesh Mukhyamantri Bal Seva Yojana — Notice. Retrieved from https://meerut.nic.in/notice/uttar-pradesh-mukhyamantri-bal-seva-yojana/
myScheme, Digital India Corporation, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India. (n.d.). Uttar Pradesh Mukhyamantri Bal Seva Yojana (General). Retrieved from https://www.myscheme.gov.in/schemes/upmbsyg

About the Contributor:

Shivali Yadav is pursuing an M.A. in Liberal Studies at Govind Ballabh Pant Social Science Institute, Prayagraj, and is an IMPRI intern. Her work focuses on gender, education, youth, and public policy, with interests in educational equity and qualitative research.

Acknowledgement

The author sincerely thanks the reviewers and editorial team for their valuable comments, constructive suggestions, and guidance. Their feedback helped improve the clarity, structure, and analytical depth of this policy update.