Antya Sanskar Sahay Yojana

What is Antya Sanskar Sahay Yojana?

Antya Sanskar Sahay Yojana is a welfare scheme of the Department of Tribal Welfare, Government of Goa, whose full official title is "Grant of Financial Assistance for Performance of Funeral and Religious Ceremonies of Scheduled Tribe families under Antya Sanskar Sahay Yojana Scheme". The Directorate of Tribal Welfare in Panaji runs it, and it exists to make sure that no Scheduled Tribe family in Goa has to borrow money at the moment of a death in order to carry out the last rites.

The scheme pays up to Rs 20,000, or the actual cost of the funeral and religious ceremonies, whichever is less. The wording matters: this is a reimbursement against real expenditure, not a flat cash grant. A family that spends Rs 12,000 and can prove it receives Rs 12,000; a family that spends Rs 35,000 receives the Rs 20,000 ceiling.

Antya Sanskar Sahay Yojana has been running since the original notification No. DTW/STAT/PC/2012-13/55 dated 3 October 2012, and has been revised three times since, on 21 May 2015, on 14 June 2018, and most recently by notification No. DTW/SAT/PC/2021-22/64/4307 dated 5 December 2022, published in the Official Gazette Series I No. 36 of 8 December 2022. The 2022 amendment is the one that matters most to an applicant, because it widened the list of documents accepted as proof of relationship with the deceased.

Who is eligible for Antya Sanskar Sahay Yojana?

You can claim if:

• The deceased person or the applicant belongs to a Scheduled Tribe family recognised in the State of Goa. Goa's notified Scheduled Tribes include the Gawda, Kunbi, Velip and Dhangar communities.
• The annual family income of the deceased or of the applicant does not exceed Rs 3,00,000.
• You have actually incurred the expenditure on the funeral and religious ceremonies and hold the vouchers or receipts.
• You are applying within 12 months of the death.

The special case for a non-tribal applicant. If the applicant is not from a Scheduled Tribe but the deceased was, the applicant must establish the first relationship with the deceased person, that is, being the nearest kin. In that situation the claim must be made within 12 months from the occurrence of the death in the family of the kin.

You are not eligible if:

• Neither the deceased nor the applicant belongs to a Scheduled Tribe in Goa.
• The annual family income is above Rs 3,00,000.
• The death occurred more than 12 months before the application, in which case the claim window has lapsed.
• You cannot produce a document establishing your relationship with the deceased, or cannot produce any evidence of the expenditure incurred.

What documents are required for Antya Sanskar Sahay Yojana?

The proof-of-relationship rule used to be narrower. Sub-clause (d) of Clause 3 was amended on 5 December 2022 to read that any document proving relationship with the deceased, such as a ration card, election card, birth certificate, marriage certificate or Aadhaar card, is acceptable. If an office asks you for a single specific document, this is the clause to cite.

How to apply for Antya Sanskar Sahay Yojana

1. Collect the death certificate from the village panchayat or municipality first. For a Christian Scheduled Tribe family, obtain the death and burial certificate from the parish and the local body.
2. Obtain the Scheduled Tribe caste certificate and the income certificate from the competent authority, usually the Mamlatdar of your taluka, if you do not already hold valid copies.
3. Visit the Directorate of Tribal Welfare, Shram Shakti Bhavan, 5th Floor, Patto, Panaji, Goa 403001, and collect the prescribed application proforma, or print it from the departmental website.
4. Fill in every mandatory field in the application form, paste the passport-size photograph signed across, and self-attest the copies of all the supporting documents.
5. Attach the vouchers and receipts for the funeral and religious ceremony expenditure. This is the single item that decides your sanctioned amount, so attach the complete set.
6. Submit the form with the documents to the concerned officer at the Directorate and ask for an acknowledgement of receipt.
7. Follow up with the Directorate on the sanction. The Monitoring Committee headed by the Secretary of Tribal Welfare considers cases and orders release.

How much does Antya Sanskar Sahay Yojana pay, and how?

The ceiling is Rs 20,000 per death. The payable amount is the lower of the ceiling and the actual documented cost of the funeral and religious ceremonies. Payment is made to the applicant's bank account, which is why the bank passbook copy is a mandatory attachment rather than an optional one.

Because it is a per-death benefit and not a recurring one, there is no monthly instalment, no renewal and no annual re-application. A family that suffers a second bereavement files a fresh claim with a fresh set of documents.

Who decides the claim?

Clause 7 of the scheme, as substituted by the December 2022 notification, sets out the Monitoring Committee:

• Secretary of Tribal Welfare — Chairman
• Director of Tribal Welfare, Member
• Deputy Director of Tribal Welfare, Member Secretary

The Committee scrutinises the caste, income and relationship documents and the expenditure vouchers before sanctioning release.

Why Antya Sanskar Sahay Yojana claims get rejected

• The 12-month window has passed. This is the most common and least recoverable failure. File as soon as the death certificate is in hand.
• Income certificate above Rs 3,00,000. The certificate must be current and must relate to the family of the deceased or the applicant.
• No acceptable relationship document. Since December 2022 a ration card, election card, birth certificate, marriage certificate or Aadhaar card all qualify, so this is usually fixable on the spot.
• Missing or partial vouchers. Where receipts are incomplete, the sanctioned amount is cut down to what is proved rather than the full Rs 20,000.
• Caste certificate issued outside Goa. The scheme is for Scheduled Tribe families in the State of Goa, and the certificate must come from the Goa competent authority.

Help and grievance redressal

• Directorate of Tribal Welfare, Shram Shakti Bhavan, 5th Floor, Patto, Panaji, Goa 403001
• Phone: 0832-2438024 and 0832-2438052
• Email: dir-tw.goa@nic.in
• Website: tribalwelfare.goa.gov.in

If a claim is delayed, quote the notification number DTW/SAT/PC/2021-22/64/4307 dated 5 December 2022 and ask for the status before the Monitoring Committee. No fee is charged for the application, and no agent is authorised to collect money for filing it on your behalf.

How to check your application status

Antya Sanskar Sahay Yojana has no online tracking portal, so status checking is offline and depends on the acknowledgement you received at the time of submission.

1. Keep the acknowledgement receipt safe. When you hand in the application at the Directorate of Tribal Welfare, ask the receiving clerk to note the date of submission and an inward or diary number on your copy. This number is what the office uses internally to trace your file, so quote it in every follow-up.
2. Wait for the Monitoring Committee cycle. Claims are not sanctioned individually on the day they arrive. They are placed before the Monitoring Committee, chaired by the Secretary of Tribal Welfare with the Director and Deputy Director as members, which meets periodically to scrutinise pending files together. A claim filed just after a meeting will naturally wait longer than one filed just before the next one, so a gap of a few weeks before you hear anything is normal and not by itself a sign of a problem.
3. Call the Directorate directly for a status update. Ring 0832-2438024 or 0832-2438052 and give the inward number, the applicant's name, and the date of the death. The office can tell you whether the file is still under scrutiny, listed for the next Committee meeting, sanctioned and pending payment, or returned for a missing document.
4. Write to the email if you need a record of the query. dir-tw.goa@nic.in can be used to ask for a written status update, which is useful if you later need to show that you followed up within a reasonable time.
5. Visit in person if there is no response. For a claim pending more than a couple of months with no phone update, go to the Directorate at Shram Shakti Bhavan, 5th Floor, Patto, Panaji, and ask to see the file register against your inward number. Carry your acknowledgement receipt and a copy of the application.
6. Check your bank account for the credit. Once the Committee sanctions a claim, the amount is credited directly to the bank account listed on the passbook copy submitted with the application. There is no separate sanction letter mailed to applicants in every case, so the credit itself is often the first confirmation of approval.
7. Escalate with the notification number if delay continues. If the claim has been pending well beyond a normal cycle, quote notification No. DTW/SAT/PC/2021-22/64/4307 dated 5 December 2022 when writing or speaking to the Directorate, and ask specifically whether the file has been listed before the Monitoring Committee.

There is no SMS or portal-based tracking for this scheme at present, so the acknowledgement number and direct contact with the Directorate remain the only reliable ways to follow up.