Funeral Assistance Scheme for Unorganized Workers (Except Construction Workers), Gujarat

What is the Funeral Assistance Scheme for Unorganized Workers?

The Funeral Assistance Scheme for Unorganized Workers, often referred to in Gujarat as the Antyeshti Sahay Yojana, is a death-benefit scheme of the Labour, Skill Development and Employment Department, Government of Gujarat, administered through the state's rural and unorganised workers welfare board. The scheme pays a single amount of Rs 10,000 to the legal heir of a worker from the unorganised sector who has died, to meet the immediate cost of funeral rites.

The scheme has been running since 2011. Its logic is that an unorganised worker, a farm labourer, a domestic worker, a hawker, a rickshaw driver, a loading worker, leaves behind no gratuity, no provident fund and no employer to turn to. The family faces a cash cost within twenty-four hours of the death. A fixed, quickly released Rs 10,000 is designed to meet exactly that moment.

The word "unorganized" in the title is doing real work, and so is the phrase "except construction workers". Gujarat runs separate welfare boards for different classes of workers. Registered construction workers holding an e-Nirman card are covered by the Gujarat Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board and claim their own funeral assistance there. This scheme is for everyone else in the unorganised sector.

Scale of the scheme

Gujarat disbursed over Rs 7.14 crore to 7,145 heirs in 2025-26, the highest annual payout since the scheme was launched, and has paid more than Rs 13.73 crore to 26,657 beneficiaries over the period reported. Those numbers matter for a reader deciding whether to bother applying: this is a scheme that actually pays, at scale, several thousand times a year.

Who is eligible for funeral assistance?

A claim can be made if:

• The deceased was an unorganised-sector worker in Gujarat holding an e-Shram card.
• The deceased was aged between 16 and 70 years at the time of death.
• Family income is within Rs 1.20 lakh a year for a rural family or Rs 1.50 lakh a year for an urban family.
• The applicant is the legal heir of the deceased — normally the spouse, and otherwise a child or parent, established by ration card, pedhinamu or an heirship certificate.
• The application is made within three months of the death.

Who cannot apply, or is not eligible:

• Heirs of registered construction workers holding an e-Nirman card. They are covered by the Gujarat Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board's own funeral assistance, and cannot claim twice.
• Scheduled Caste beneficiaries covered under the separate welfare route, who are directed to their own departmental scheme.
• Families whose income exceeds the Rs 1.20 lakh rural or Rs 1.50 lakh urban ceiling.
• Cases where the deceased was under 16 or over 70.
• Claims filed after three months from the date of death. This is the single most frequent ground of rejection, and it is rarely relaxed.
• Cases where the deceased held no e-Shram registration, since e-Shram is the evidence of unorganised-sector status.

How much does the scheme pay?

The assistance is Rs 10,000, paid once per death, directly to the heir's bank account. The amount was raised from Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000, so older guides and printed forms quoting Rs 5,000 are out of date.

The benefit is not proportionate to the actual funeral expenditure and no bills need to be produced. It is a flat grant, which is why it can be released relatively quickly compared with reimbursement schemes.

What documents are required?

Get the death certificate first. Everything else can be assembled in parallel, but the income certificate from the Mamlatdar's office can itself take days, so start it the same week.

How to apply for funeral assistance

1. Obtain the death certificate from the municipal or gram panchayat registrar of births and deaths. Take several certified copies.
2. Apply for a fresh family income certificate at the Mamlatdar's office or through the Digital Gujarat service centre, showing income within the Rs 1.20 lakh rural or Rs 1.50 lakh urban ceiling.
3. Download or collect the prescribed application form for funeral assistance from the welfare board's website or from the labour office counter.
4. Fill the form with the deceased worker's details, e-Shram number, date of death, and the claimant's relationship and bank account details.
5. Attach the document set: death certificate, e-Shram card copy, Aadhaar of both, income certificate, heirship proof and bank passbook copy.
6. Submit the completed set at the office of the Assistant Labour Commissioner or Deputy Labour Commissioner having jurisdiction over the district, and obtain an inward receipt with a number on it.
7. Follow up within the three-month window if any document is queried, so that the corrected file still falls inside the deadline.

Can I apply online?

Gujarat's Sanman portal at sanman.gujarat.gov.in is the state's single window for labour department welfare schemes and is the right place to check whether an online application route is currently open for this scheme, since the department has been migrating schemes to it progressively. The physical route to the Assistant or Deputy Labour Commissioner remains the route the department publishes for this benefit, and for a family in the days after a death it is usually the faster and more certain one, because the clerk can tell you immediately what is missing.

How do I check the status of the claim?

1. Keep the inward number on the receipt given when the form was submitted. Without it, tracing a file is slow.
2. Telephone or visit the same Assistant or Deputy Labour Commissioner's office and quote the inward number and the deceased worker's name.
3. Where the claim was filed through Sanman, sign in with the mobile number used and open My Applications.
4. Check the claimant's bank passbook for the credit. Payments arrive as a DBT credit and an SMS is not guaranteed.

Why claims get rejected, and how to fix them

• Filed after three months. Nothing else in the file matters if the deadline has passed, so submit even an incomplete set inside the window and complete it afterwards.
• No e-Shram registration for the deceased. If the worker never registered, this scheme cannot be claimed; check whether another board covered them.
• The deceased held an e-Nirman card, making it a construction worker claim under a different board.
• Income certificate above the ceiling, or an old certificate that has expired. Obtain a fresh one.
• Heirship not established, particularly where more than one person claims. An heirship certificate or pedhinamu settles it.
• Age outside 16 to 70 as shown on Aadhaar or the death certificate.
• Wrong bank details, causing the DBT to fail after sanction. Verify the IFSC against the passbook, not from memory.

Where do I raise a grievance?

Escalate within the labour department hierarchy. The Assistant Labour Commissioner for the district handles the file; the Deputy Labour Commissioner is the next level; the Labour Commissioner, Gujarat at Gandhinagar is the final departmental authority. Quote the inward number, the deceased worker's name and the date of submission in every letter.

Applying is free. No fee is payable to any office, and no agent has authority to charge a family a commission on a Rs 10,000 death benefit.