Charan Paduka Yojana

What is Charan Paduka Yojana?

Charan Paduka Yojana is a welfare scheme of the Chhattisgarh Forest and Climate Change Department, implemented through the Chhattisgarh State Minor Forest Produce (Trading and Development) Co-operative Federation. The scheme gives free footwear to people who collect tendu leaves, shoes to men, sandals to women.

The name translates literally as the "footwear scheme", and it is searched locally as Charan Paduka Yojna and in Hindi as चरण पादुका योजना.

Tendu leaf collection is one of the largest seasonal livelihoods in Chhattisgarh's forest districts. Collection happens in the hottest weeks of the year, before the monsoon, when families walk long distances through dry forest early in the morning to pluck leaves. Collectors have historically done this barefoot. Charan Paduka Yojana exists to address exactly that: thorn injuries, insect and snake bites, cuts that turn septic, and burns from ground heated to uncomfortable temperatures in May.

The scheme was first introduced in 2005 under the Raman Singh government. In 2008 its scope was widened, and women collectors began receiving sandals rather than shoes, because that was the footwear they said they would actually wear while working. The scheme later lapsed. The Vishnu Deo Sai government relaunched it on 29 June 2025 at Jamgaon in Durg district as one of the commitments made to forest-dependent households.

For the 2025-26 phase, the state set out to cover about 12.40 lakh tendu leaf collector families with an initial provision of around Rs 40 crore, and reports in January 2026 indicated a further Rs 50 crore sanctioned to extend coverage.

Who is eligible for Charan Paduka Yojana?

A collector qualifies if:

• The collector is a permanent resident of Chhattisgarh.
• The collector is registered as a tendu leaf collector with the State Minor Forest Produce Federation, through a primary Minor Forest Produce Co-operative Society in the collector's area.
• The collector has completed 18 years of age.

The registration is the pivot. In practice a household is entered on the rolls of the local primary society, collection bags are issued against that entry, and tendu leaf bundles are weighed and credited against it at the phad (collection depot). Everything downstream, the collection wages, the annual bonus, insurance cover and the Charan Paduka footwear — flows from being on those rolls.

A person is not eligible, cannot claim the footwear, if:

• The person is not registered as a tendu leaf collector, even if resident in a forest village and dependent on other minor forest produce.
• The person is below 18 years of age.
• The person is a resident of another state working seasonally in Chhattisgarh forests without local society registration.
• The household has already received a pair for the same collector in the same season. The benefit is one pair per registered collector per season, not one pair per person in the household.

Caste, income and landholding are not conditions. A large share of collectors are Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste households, but the scheme is defined by occupation, not by category.

What documents are required for Charan Paduka Yojana?

Collectors should keep the society-issued card safe through the year. Replacing a lost card before the season opens is far easier than arguing about entitlement at the distribution camp.

How to apply for Charan Paduka Yojana

Charan Paduka Yojana has no online application and no separate scheme form. The route runs entirely through the forest co-operative structure.

1. Get or renew your tendu leaf collector registration at the primary Minor Forest Produce Co-operative Society covering your village, before the collection season begins. Carry Aadhaar and a residence document.
2. Take part in the tendu leaf collection season, delivering leaves at your allotted phad so that the entries against your registration are current.
3. Attend the distribution camp announced by the society or the forest range office, carry your collector card and Aadhaar, and collect the footwear against signature or thumb impression on the distribution register.
4. If the camp is missed or your name is absent from the list, approach the society secretary and then the Range Officer of your forest range with your collector card to have the entry checked.

Distribution is generally organised range by range after the collection season closes, so the timing varies between districts. The society, the phad munshi and the range office are the people who know the local date.

What else comes with tendu collector registration?

Charan Paduka Yojana is one part of a wider package attached to registered tendu collectors in Chhattisgarh, and a reader looking only at the footwear often misses the rest:

• Collection wages paid per standard bag of tendu leaves, at the rate notified by the state for the season.
• Annual bonus from the sale proceeds of tendu leaves, distributed to collectors through the Federation and paid by DBT into the collector's Aadhaar-seeded bank account.
• Insurance and social security cover extended to registered collectors and their families under the Federation's schemes.
• Scholarship support for the children of collectors under Federation schemes.

Because all of these attach to the same registration, the practical advice for a collector household is the same in every case: keep the society registration live, keep Aadhaar and the bank account seeded, and keep the collector card.

Common reasons a collector misses the footwear

• Registration lapsed or was never made with the primary society.
• Collector card lost and not replaced before the distribution camp.
• Name spelling mismatch between the society roll and Aadhaar.
• Camp missed because the household had migrated for other work at the time.
• Size or stock shortage at the camp, where the range office is asked to arrange issue in a later round.
• Duplicate entry where two family members are recorded against one registration.

None of these are permanent exclusions. Each is resolved with the society secretary and, if needed, escalated to the Range Officer or the District Forest Officer.

Key dates for Charan Paduka Yojana

The collection season itself is the fixed point in the calendar. Tendu leaf plucking in Chhattisgarh runs for a short window in the pre-monsoon weeks, broadly through May and into June, and distribution of footwear is planned around it. A collector who wants the footwear in a given year needs the registration to be live before that window opens, not after.

Where to raise a Charan Paduka Yojana grievance

• The secretary of your primary Minor Forest Produce Co-operative Society.
• The Range Officer of your forest range.
• The District Forest Officer, and the district union of the Minor Forest Produce Federation.
• The Chhattisgarh Forest Department website at cgforest.com for departmental contacts and circulars.

The footwear is free. Any demand for money in exchange for a pair, or for adding a name to the distribution list, should be reported to the District Forest Officer.