Grant-in-Aid Scheme to Provide Financial Assistance to the Mahila Mandals

What is the Goa Mahila Mandal grant-in-aid scheme?

The Grant-in-Aid Scheme to Provide Financial Assistance to the Mahila Mandals is run by the Directorate of Women and Child Development, Government of Goa. It gives a registered Mahila Mandal, a village or neighbourhood women's association: money to run training and orientation programmes for its members, so that those members can start earning through self-employment.

The scheme's stated objective is to provide financial assistance to Mahila Mandals for training and orientation of their members, for the purpose of generating their own activity for self-employment. It is a small scheme by budget and a consequential one in effect, because in most Goan villages the Mahila Mandal is the only standing women's institution capable of organising a tailoring, food processing or handicraft course.

What the scheme pays

According to the Directorate's published state schemes document, the assistance is layered:

• Rs 20,000 as an annual grant-in-aid to a registered Mahila Mandal for successful functioning in the State of Goa.
• Rs 5,000 sanctioned per course for purchase of raw materials, to every Mahila Mandal conducting an activity for self-employment.
• Rs 5,000 paid per course as a fixed honorarium to the master trainer or instructor.
• Resource persons, master trainers and instructors may be provided by the Directorate for each course of activity, through the CDPOs.
• Actual travelling allowance incurred by the master trainers or instructors, where they travel in a taluka outside their own jurisdiction.

A Mandal that runs, say, three courses in a year therefore sees Rs 20,000 as annual grant plus Rs 15,000 in raw material grants, with the Directorate separately paying the trainers.

Who is eligible for the Mahila Mandal grant?

A Mahila Mandal can apply if:

• It has valid registration with the competent authority in Goa. This is the first and non-negotiable condition.
• It submits a project report specifying the activities or training proposed and a list of prospective beneficiaries with their educational details.
• There are a minimum of 20 members for the training or orientation programme.

The Directorate's amended text records that the compulsion of 2 years' registration is deleted, so a newly registered Mandal does not have to wait two years before applying — a change that opened the scheme to Mandals formed in the last few seasons.

Who cannot apply:

• An individual woman. The scheme funds the Mandal as an institution. A woman seeking assistance in her own name should look at Griha Aadhar, which pays Rs 1,500 per month to a married woman aged over 18 who has been a resident of Goa for the last fifteen years and whose combined household gross income does not exceed Rs 3,00,000 a year.
• An unregistered group of women, however active. Registration with the competent authority is the gateway.
• A Mandal with fewer than 20 members for the training component.
• A Mandal that has not submitted a utilisation certificate for an earlier course. The scheme states that grant-in-aid for the next course shall not be sanctioned in that event.
• Any body that is not a Mahila Mandal or, under the amended SWAWLAMBHAN form, a Women's Self Help Group. A mixed-gender village association or a general NGO is not covered here; NGOs working in women and child welfare should look at the Goa Non-Governmental Organisations Accreditation Guidelines, 2014 instead.

What documents are required?

How to apply for the Mahila Mandal grant-in-aid

1. Confirm the Mandal's registration is current with the competent authority in Goa, and obtain a copy of the certificate.
2. Hold a meeting and decide the course. Each Mahila Mandal can identify and opt for only one training programme at a time, so the choice matters. Pick the trade your members can actually sell into locally.
3. Prepare the project report setting out the activity or training, the duration, the trainer and the intended use of the raw material grant, and attach a list of at least 20 prospective beneficiaries with their educational details.
4. Assemble the accounts. Statements of accounts for the last two years, an audit report where applicable, and the utilisation certificate for any earlier grant.
5. Submit the application through the Mukhya Sevika at village level, in the prescribed format, to the Child Development Project Officer (CDPO) of the concerned block. The prescribed format is Annexure-I to the scheme.
6. Fix and notify the training schedule. The date, place and timing of the training programme must be fixed by the Mahila Mandal before the training commences, and the same must be informed to the Directorate of Women and Child Development.
7. Run the course. Training must be not less than 4 hours a day, for a course of 5 days to 15 days. Maintain regular attendance of participants.
8. Close the file. Submit the utilisation certificate within a week of completing the training programme, along with properly recorded bills and vouchers, to the CDPO through the Mukhya Sevika. The CDPO countersigns the utilisation certificate and submits it to the Director.

Conditions the Directorate enforces

The scheme's terms and conditions are specific, and a Mandal that ignores them finds the next grant blocked:

• The amount sanctioned must be utilised for the sanctioned purpose only, and utilisation certificates must be submitted to the CDPO for countersignature.
• The grant cannot be claimed as a matter of right.
• Financial assistance is sanctioned on a first come, first served basis and subject to the Government's decision.
• Only one training programme at a time per Mandal or Self Help Group.
• Training duration: not less than 4 hours a day, course length 5 to 15 days.
• No additional liability of house rent, electricity bill or water bill is borne by the Government under the scheme.
• Regular attendance of participants must be maintained by the Mandal.
• The utilisation certificate within a week of course completion is the condition on which the next course depends.

The "first come, first served" rule is the practical one to plan around. Applications filed early in the financial year, when the Directorate's allocation is intact, fare better than identical applications filed in the last quarter.

What kinds of activity qualify

The scheme sanctions Rs 5,000 per course for raw materials for any gainful self-employment activity, with the eligible activities listed in an annexure to the scheme. In practice, Goan Mahila Mandals have used the scheme for tailoring and garment making, food processing and bakery, pickle and masala making, coir and cane craft, beauty and wellness training, and traditional craft work. Ask your CDPO for the current annexure before committing to a trade, since the list is what the Directorate sanctions against.

Where this scheme sits among Goa's women's schemes

A woman who wants money in her own hand is looking at Griha Aadhar. A group of women who want to be trained and equipped to earn together is looking at this scheme.

Whom to contact

• Directorate of Women and Child Development, Government of Goa, Panaji Website: dwcd.goa.gov.in
• Child Development Project Officer (CDPO) of your block. The designated official for this scheme and the correct first point of contact.
• Mukhya Sevika at village level, through whom the application is routed.
• Online service listing: goaonline.gov.in, Women and Child Development department services.
• Childline / women and child helpline: 1098

Where a sanctioned grant has not reached the Mandal's account, take the file reference to the CDPO first. The Directorate releases payments to the block, and most delays reported by Goan Mandals resolve at that level rather than at Panaji.

How to check your application status

This scheme runs offline, through the block-level CDPO office and the village Mukhya Sevika, so there is no online tracking ID or portal dashboard to log into. Status checking works through direct follow-up:

1. Keep the acknowledgement or file reference given at the time the application was handed to the Mukhya Sevika or CDPO office. Government offices in Goa generally note an inward number against the application; ask for it if it was not given, since without it a status query has nothing to search against.
2. Follow up with the Mukhya Sevika first. She is the point of contact who carried the file forward and will usually know whether it has left the village level.
3. Then check with the CDPO of the block. The CDPO's office holds the file once it has moved past the village stage, decides on sanction, and is also the office that later countersigns the utilisation certificate. Most Mandals get a clearer answer here than anywhere else, since the CDPO knows whether the file is pending scrutiny, forwarded to the Directorate, or sanctioned.
4. Escalate to the Directorate of Women and Child Development in Panaji only if the CDPO cannot confirm status, or if it has been sanctioned but the amount has not been credited to the Mandal's bank account. Payments are released by the Directorate to the block, so a credited-but-not-received grant is usually a block-level delay rather than a Panaji one, and the CDPO is still the faster place to start.
5. Use the Childline / women and child helpline at 1098 if the Mandal cannot get a response through the CDPO route, or to ask which office currently holds the file.
6. Check the goaonline.gov.in listing for the WCD03 service for the department's current published contact and service details, since offline file movement is not tracked there but the listing itself sometimes carries updated CDPO contact information.

Because sanction is "first come, first served" and subject to the Government's decision rather than a right, a Mandal should treat silence past a few weeks as a cue to follow up in person rather than wait indefinitely for a written response.

Common reasons for rejection

• The Mandal's registration has lapsed or cannot be verified. Valid registration with the competent authority is the first condition the scheme checks. Fix: renew registration before applying, and attach a current copy of the certificate rather than an old one on file.
• Fewer than 20 members listed for the training component. The scheme sets a floor of 20 members for the training or orientation programme, and a shorter list is turned down outright. Fix: confirm the beneficiary list actually has 20 names with educational details before submission, not just 20 general members of the Mandal.
• No utilisation certificate submitted for an earlier grant. The scheme explicitly states that the next course will not be sanctioned until the previous utilisation certificate is in. This is the single most common reason a repeat applicant gets stuck. Fix: close out the previous course's utilisation certificate, bills and vouchers with the CDPO before filing a fresh application.
• More than one training programme proposed at a time. A Mandal is limited to one course at a time; a project report bundling two or more activities together gets sent back for correction. Fix: pick one activity per application cycle and apply for the next only after the first is closed.