Mukhyamantri Divyangjan Vivah Protsahan Anudan Yojana

What is Mukhyamantri Divyangjan Vivah Protsahan Anudan Yojana?

Mukhyamantri Divyangjan Vivah Protsahan Anudan Yojana is a marriage incentive grant run by the Social Welfare Department, Government of Bihar, for couples where at least one partner is a person with disability. The scheme is also known locally as the Mukhyamantri Nishaktjan Vivah Protsahan Anudan Yojana, the older name carried over from the notification that created it, and readers often search for it as the Bihar Divyang Vivah Yojana.

Mukhyamantri Divyangjan Vivah Protsahan Anudan Yojana pays Rs 1 lakh where one partner has a disability certificate of 40 per cent or more, and Rs 2 lakh where both husband and wife are divyang. The grant is not handed over as loose cash. It is placed as a fixed deposit or national savings certificate in the couple's name with a lock-in of roughly three years, and the couple takes the maturity amount at the end of that period.

What the scheme is trying to do

• Remove the financial obstacle that stops marriages involving a person with disability from being solemnised at all.
• Give the newly married couple a capital base, for household essentials, for livelihood costs or for starting a small enterprise; rather than a one-month cash benefit.
• Protect that capital through a lock-in, so that the money reaches the couple and not a middleman or an extended family member.

The scheme is funded entirely by the Government of Bihar. Payment reaches the couple's account through Direct Benefit Transfer, and the fixed deposit is created from there.

Who is eligible for the divyang marriage grant?

A couple qualifies if:

• At least one partner holds a disability certificate of 40 per cent or more, issued by the competent medical board. Both partners may be divyang, in which case the grant doubles to Rs 2 lakh.
• At least one of the couple is a permanent resident of Bihar.
• The marriage is the first marriage for the partners.
• Both partners are of legal marriageable age at the date of the wedding.
• The application is filed within two years of the date of marriage.

A couple cannot apply if:

• Neither partner has a 40 per cent disability certificate. A certificate below 40 per cent is not eligible regardless of the condition described in it.
• The marriage is a remarriage. The grant is restricted to the first marriage, and applications for a second or subsequent marriage are not eligible.
• More than two years have passed since the wedding. This is a hard cut-off and cannot be condoned at district level.
• Neither partner is resident in Bihar.
• The disability certificate is from a private doctor or hospital rather than the competent medical authority.
• The couple has already drawn the grant once. The benefit is a one-time grant per couple.

No caste restriction applies, Mukhyamantri Divyangjan Vivah Protsahan Anudan Yojana is open to applicants of every community, and no income ceiling forms part of the published eligibility.

What documents are required?

Registering the marriage under the Bihar marriage registration rules is worth doing before you apply, because a registered certificate removes the most common query raised at the verification stage.

How to apply for Mukhyamantri Divyangjan Vivah Protsahan Anudan Yojana

1. Get the disability certificate checked first. Confirm that it states at least 40 per cent disability and that it was issued by the competent medical board. If your certificate has expired or is a temporary one, get a fresh assessment done at the district hospital before you start.
2. Register the marriage and obtain the marriage certificate. Where registration is still pending, obtain a marriage certificate signed by the panchayat mukhiya or ward member, which most districts accept as an interim document.
3. Collect the application form from the district Divyangjan cell of the District Social Welfare Office, or from the RTPS counter at your block office. The form is issued free of charge.
4. Fill in the form with the names of both partners exactly as printed on Aadhaar, the date of marriage, the disability certificate number and percentage, the residential address with block and panchayat, and the joint bank account number with IFSC code.
5. Attach self-attested copies of the disability certificate, marriage certificate, wedding photograph, both Aadhaar cards, residence certificate, age proof and the bank passbook.
6. Submit the file at the district Divyangjan cell or the RTPS counter and collect the dated acknowledgement with its application number. In districts where the service is enabled online, the same file can be submitted through serviceonline.bihar.gov.in and the acknowledgement is generated on screen.
7. Track the file using the application number, and follow up with the District Social Welfare Officer if there is no movement after about six weeks.

No fee is charged at any stage of the application, and no agent has authority to charge for filing it.

How is the grant paid?

Mukhyamantri Divyangjan Vivah Protsahan Anudan Yojana releases the sanctioned amount — Rs 1 lakh or Rs 2 lakh, after the district office completes verification of the disability certificate and the marriage. The amount is then placed as a fixed deposit or national savings certificate in the couple's name with a lock-in of about three years. The couple receives the deposit receipt, and the maturity proceeds, principal plus interest, become freely available at the end of the lock-in.

The lock-in is a deliberate design feature. It prevents the grant from being absorbed into wedding expenses or claimed by relatives, and it leaves the couple with usable capital at a point when they are more settled.

How do we check the status of the application?

1. Note the application number printed on the acknowledgement you were given at submission: nothing can be tracked without it.
2. For files submitted online, open serviceonline.bihar.gov.in, choose the application-status option and enter the application number.
3. For files submitted at the counter, ask at the district Divyangjan cell of the District Social Welfare Office, which holds the register of pending sanctions.
4. Once sanction is confirmed, check the credit in the joint bank account and collect the fixed deposit receipt from the district office.

Why applications get rejected, and how to fix them

• Disability below 40 per cent. There is no discretion here. If the assessment was old or partial, apply for a fresh assessment at the district hospital medical board.
• Application filed after two years from the wedding date. This cannot be regularised. Couples planning to apply should do so within the first year rather than waiting.
• No marriage certificate. Register the marriage, or obtain a mukhiya-issued certificate, and resubmit.
• Name mismatch between the Aadhaar card, the disability certificate and the bank account. Correct the record that is wrong before resubmitting; a mismatch blocks the transfer even after sanction.
• Individual accounts instead of a joint account. Open a joint account of the couple, since the deposit is created in both names.
• Remarriage. The scheme covers the first marriage only, and a declaration to that effect is part of the form.

Where do we complain if the grant is delayed?

• District Social Welfare Officer of the district where the file was submitted is the first authority.
• The district Divyangjan cell, which maintains the disability-related scheme registers.
• State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, Bihar, for cases where a disability certificate or a scheme entitlement has been wrongly refused.
• Directorate of Social Security, Social Welfare Department, Patna, for sanctioned files where the money has not been released.

Keep a photocopy of the complete file and the acknowledgement receipt. Almost every delay in this scheme traces back either to the disability certificate or to the marriage document, so a couple carrying clean copies of both is usually able to get the file moved at district level without escalating further.