Centrally Sponsored Scheme for Implementation of the PCR Act, 1955 and the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989

What is this scheme?

The Centrally Sponsored Scheme for Implementation of the Protection of Civil Rights (PCR) Act, 1955 and the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 is a funding programme of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. According to the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, it provides central assistance to State governments and Union Territories so they can effectively enforce the two central laws that protect Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes from untouchability and atrocities.

This is not an individual benefit scheme. It is an institutional grant that flows from the Centre to the States. The States, in turn, spend the money on victim relief, enforcement machinery and awareness. A citizen never applies for "this scheme" directly; a victim instead applies to the local administration for relief, which the State pays out of these pooled funds.

The Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955 makes the practice of untouchability an offence. The SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 creates special categories of offences against members of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and prescribes enhanced punishments, special courts and mandatory relief to victims.

What does the scheme fund?

According to the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, central assistance under the scheme is used for the following broad heads:

• Relief and rehabilitation of atrocity victims; paid at the scale fixed in the Schedule to the SC/ST (PoA) Rules, ranging from Rs 85,000 to Rs 8,25,000 depending on the offence.
• Incentive for inter-caste marriages to encourage social integration.
• Strengthening the enforcement machinery — setting up exclusive special courts, appointing exclusive special public prosecutors, and running SC/ST protection cells and special police stations.
• Awareness generation, publicity, seminars and rights-awareness programmes so that victims know how to seek protection and relief.
• Travelling and maintenance allowance to victims and witnesses attending court.

The relief amount is released in stages. A part is paid when the FIR is registered, a further part when the chargesheet is filed, and the balance on conviction, as set out in the Rules.

Who is eligible for the scheme?

Because the scheme has two layers, eligibility works differently for each.

For the central grant (the scheme proper):

• State governments and Union Territory administrations are eligible to receive central assistance. They submit proposals and utilisation certificates to the Ministry.
• Individuals cannot apply for the central grant. There is no citizen-facing application form for the scheme itself.

For victim relief paid out of the scheme (who benefits):

• A person who belongs to a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe and who is a victim of an offence registered under the SC/ST (PoA) Act is eligible for relief.
• The dependants of a victim who has died are eligible where the Rules provide for it.

Who is not eligible for victim relief:

• A person who is not a member of a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe cannot claim relief under the PoA Act, because the Act protects only these communities.
• A claim that is not backed by an FIR registered under the Act is not eligible for relief under this scheme.

What documents are required?

How to apply under this scheme

Because this is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme, there are two distinct routes.

Route for a victim seeking relief (individuals):

1. Ensure an FIR is registered at the police station under the relevant sections of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
2. Approach the District Magistrate or Superintendent of Police office, which is responsible for sanctioning relief under the SC/ST (PoA) Rules.
3. Submit your caste certificate, FIR copy and bank details; the district administration processes the relief and credits it to your account in stages as the case progresses.

Route for a State/UT (the institutional grant):

1. The State Social Welfare or SC Welfare Department prepares an annual proposal with the plan of expenditure on enforcement, relief and awareness.
2. The proposal, along with utilisation certificates for earlier grants, is submitted to the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
3. The Ministry releases the central share of the approved expenditure to the State.

Funding pattern

According to the Department, the scheme operates on a shared-funding basis. For most States the Centre bears 50% of the expenditure over and above the State's committed liability, with a higher central share for North-Eastern States. Certain heads, such as the reimbursement for exclusive special courts, follow the norms notified from time to time.

Where to get help

• State SC/ST Welfare Department or the District Magistrate's office for victim relief and rehabilitation.
• Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, socialjustice.gov.in, for the scheme guidelines and State proposals.

Because relief is a legal entitlement under the SC/ST (PoA) Rules, no fee is payable to any agent or middleman for filing a relief claim. Victims should deal only with the police and the district administration.

How to check your application status

There is no central online tracker for this scheme, because the scheme itself is a Centre-to-State grant, not a citizen-facing application. Status checking works differently depending on which side of the scheme you are following.

If you are a victim tracking your relief payment:

1. Contact the police station where the FIR under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act was registered and ask for the case status. The relief schedule is tied to case milestones, so the FIR number is your reference for every follow-up.
2. Visit or call the office of the District Magistrate or Superintendent of Police that sanctioned the first instalment of relief. District administrations maintain their own registers of relief cases and can tell you which stage your payment has reached (FIR stage, chargesheet stage or post-conviction stage).
3. Ask specifically whether the chargesheet has been filed, since the second instalment of relief is normally released only after that step, and whether the case has reached trial, since the final instalment follows conviction.
4. If your bank account details changed or a payment appears delayed after a stage is complete, raise this directly with the district Social Welfare Officer or SC/ST Protection Cell, since the payment order and the disbursement are handled locally, not by the Ministry.
5. For the inter-caste marriage incentive, follow up with the same district Social Welfare Department office where the application was submitted; there is no separate online portal for this component either.

If you are a State or UT department tracking the central grant:

1. The nodal department (State SC/ST Welfare or Social Justice Department) should check with its own finance section on whether the utilisation certificate for the previous instalment has been accepted by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, since the next release depends on that acceptance.
2. Correspondence with the Ministry on grant releases is handled through the concerned desk in the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment (socialjustice.gov.in); the Ministry does not publish a public tracking number for individual State releases.

Because no helpline number is centrally published for this scheme, the practical channel for any status query, whether from a victim or a State functionary, is the office that actually sanctioned or is processing the payment: the District Magistrate/SP office for victim relief, or the Ministry desk for State grants. Written follow-up (an application or letter citing the FIR number or the State's proposal reference) tends to get a faster, recorded response than a verbal enquiry alone.

Common reasons for rejection

Because victim relief is a legal entitlement fixed by the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Rules rather than a discretionary benefit, outright rejection is less common than delay or partial payment. Even so, claims can be denied or held back for specific, avoidable reasons.

• No FIR registered under the SC/ST (PoA) Act. If the incident was recorded as a general criminal complaint or under ordinary IPC/BNS sections instead of the specific atrocity sections, the case does not qualify for relief under the Act. The fix is to ensure at the time of filing that the FIR explicitly invokes the relevant sections of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act; if the police have registered it incorrectly, this can be raised with the Superintendent of Police or through a complaint to the SC/ST Protection Cell so the sections are corrected.
• Caste certificate does not establish that the victim is Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe. Relief is available only to SC/ST victims, and if the caste certificate on record is outdated, illegible, or issued for a caste not on the State's SC/ST list, the claim can be held up. The fix is to obtain a current caste certificate from the competent revenue authority before or alongside the relief claim.
• Claim does not match the offence categories in the Rules Schedule. The relief scale in the SC/ST (PoA) Rules lists specific offences and corresponding amounts; if the FIR sections do not correspond to any listed category, the district administration may sanction a lower amount or none at all. The fix is to have the investigating officer confirm which Schedule category the registered offence falls under, since this determines both eligibility and the amount.
• Incomplete bank account details. Since relief is paid directly into the victim's account, an incorrect account number, a closed account, or a mismatch between the name on the FIR and the name on the bank account can stall disbursement even after sanction. The fix is to submit a current, active account passbook copy and confirm the account is in the same name as the victim named in the FIR.
• Missing documentation for the inter-caste marriage incentive. This component requires the marriage certificate and caste certificates of both spouses; without proof that one spouse belongs to a Scheduled Caste, the application does not qualify for the incentive. The fix is to attach both spouses' caste certificates along with the registered marriage certificate at the time of application, not afterward.
• Delay treated as rejection. Because relief is released in stages linked to the FIR, chargesheet and conviction, a case that has not yet reached the chargesheet or trial stage will not receive the later instalments, which can be mistaken for rejection. The fix is to track the case's own progress through the police and courts, since the relief timeline follows the case timeline rather than a fixed processing period.
• State-level fund or proposal issues (for the institutional grant). A State's own claim for central reimbursement can be delayed if its utilisation certificate for the previous release is pending or incomplete. This does not affect an individual victim's entitlement, which the State is expected to pay regardless, but it can affect how quickly the State recovers its share from the Centre. The fix, from the State's side, is to submit utilisation certificates promptly so the next instalment of central assistance is not held up.

In every one of these situations, the underlying legal entitlement to relief does not disappear; the practical remedy is almost always to correct the documentation or the FIR sections at the district level rather than to file a fresh claim.