Scheme for Award of Scholarships to School or College-Going Children of Employees/Industrial Employees in Various Establishments

What is the Goa Labour Welfare Board scholarship scheme?

Scheme for Award of Scholarships to School or College-Going Children of Employees/Industrial Employees in Various Establishments is a welfare scheme of the Goa Labour Welfare Board, which functions under the Department of Labour and Employment, Government of Goa. The scheme provides financial assistance for the education of children of workers employed in establishments covered by the Goa, Daman and Diu Labour Welfare Fund Act, 1986.

The scheme exists because the Labour Welfare Fund is built out of contributions tied to those establishments, and one of its recognised uses is supporting the education of workers' children. The scholarship is graded by the stage of education the child has reached, running from Rs 2,000 at Class 5 to Rs 20,000 for higher technical courses and doctoral research.

Main features

• Five scholarship groups, from Rs 2,000 to Rs 20,000 per year.
• Paid once a year in a single instalment, not monthly.
• Disbursed by Electronic Clearing Service to the parent's bank account.
• Applications go through the employer or the head of the institution, not directly from the family.
• A hard annual deadline of 30 September.

How much does the scholarship pay?

The frequency of disbursal is annual and the whole amount is paid in one instalment. The mode of disbursal is ECS to the bank account of the parent, which is why the parent's account details, and not the student's, are what the Board needs.

Where a student already receives a scholarship or stipend from another source, the Fund grants only the extent to which its scholarship exceeds that other award. A student holding a Rs 3,000 stipend elsewhere and eligible for the Rs 10,000 Group 4 scholarship therefore receives the difference, not both in full.

Who is eligible for this scholarship?

The scheme tests two people: the worker and the child.

The worker can apply if:

• He or she is a regular worker.
• He or she has been employed in an industrial establishment for at least six months.
• The establishment is covered under the Goa, Daman and Diu Labour Welfare Fund Act, 1986.
• The work is skilled or unskilled, manual or clerical labour, other than in a position of supervision or management.
• Total salary income does not exceed Rs 20,000 per month, including all allowances and perks but excluding bonus.

The child qualifies if:

• The child is enrolled in a recognised institution in India.
• The child is pursuing general or technical education, including medical, engineering and agricultural studies.
• The child qualified for promotion in the last annual examination with at least 45 per cent marks.

You are not eligible if:

• The worker holds a supervisory or managerial position, which places the post outside the definition of a worker for this Fund.
• The worker has completed fewer than six months in the establishment, or the establishment is not covered by the 1986 Act.
• Salary exceeds Rs 20,000 a month including allowances and perks.
• The child scored under 45 per cent or is repeating a class.
• The child, after passing one stage of education, is studying in the same stage in a different subject, for example I.S.C. after I.A., B.Com after B.A., or an M.A. in one subject after an M.A. in another. Such a student cannot apply.
• The child, after completing an education career in one professional line, is continuing in a different professional line — for example LL.B. after B.T., or a B.Ed. after another professional degree.

Research and higher learning in the same academic or professional line stay eligible. A PhD or M.Phil after a post-graduate course, and an M.D. or M.S. after M.B.B.S., are specifically protected in the scheme note.

Who gets preference in the Goa Labour Welfare Board scholarship?

Ten per cent of the total number of scholarships fixed for each group is reserved for:

• Children of workers whose income from all sources does not exceed Rs 3,500 per month.
• Children belonging to Other Backward Communities.
• Physically handicapped children.

The reservation is group-wise rather than pooled, so the quota applies inside Group 1 through Group 5 separately.

What documents are required?

How to apply for the Goa Labour Welfare Board scholarship

1. Download the prescribed application form from the official website of the Department of Labour and Employment, Goa, at labour.goa.gov.in, or collect it from the Goa Labour Welfare Board office.
2. Fill in all mandatory fields, paste the passport-sized photograph where the form requires it, and self-attest the copies of all supporting documents.
3. Obtain the certificate from the employer. The owner, manager, contractor, director, proprietor, partner or agent of the establishment. If both parents are employed in industrial establishments, get two such certificates.
4. Obtain the certificate from the head of the child's institution and attach the last annual examination mark sheet.
5. Sign the declaration and undertaking printed with the form.
6. Submit the completed form through the employer, or through the head of the educational institution where the child studies, addressed to the Secretary, Goa Labour Welfare Board, 4th Floor, Shram Shakti Bhavan, Patto Centre, Panaji, Goa 403001.
7. Ensure the application reaches the Secretary on or before 30 September. Since the form travels through an intermediary, start at least three to four weeks earlier.

Key dates

The single date that matters is 30 September every year. Applications are not accepted directly from parents at the counter in the ordinary course; they must be routed through the employer or the institution head. Families who fill the form in late September regularly miss the deadline because the employer's certificate and the institution's certificate both take time to obtain. Applying soon after the annual results are declared, rather than at the end of September, is the practical way to stay inside the window.

Why applications get rejected

• Application reached after 30 September, most often because it was left with the employer or the school office too late.
• Employer certificate missing or unsigned by an authorised person of the establishment.
• Only one employer certificate submitted where both parents work in industrial establishments.
• Establishment not covered by the Goa, Daman and Diu Labour Welfare Fund Act, 1986.
• Worker in a supervisory or managerial role, which puts the applicant outside the definition of a worker for the Fund.
• Salary above Rs 20,000 a month once allowances and perks are added.
• Marks below 45 per cent or the child repeating a class.
• Lateral course change that repeats the same educational stage or crosses into a different professional line.
• Parent's bank details missing or wrong, which stalls the ECS credit even after sanction.

Where to get help

The scheme is administered by the Secretary, Goa Labour Welfare Board, 4th Floor, Shram Shakti Bhavan, Patto Centre, Panaji, Goa 403001. Contact details for the Commissioner of Labour and Employment, under whom the Board functions, are published on the department page at goa.gov.in and in the Labour Department's Citizen's Charter. The prescribed form and the scheme note are both free downloads on labour.goa.gov.in, and no fee is payable for applying.

How to check your application status

There is no online tracking portal for this scholarship, so status checking works through the same offline channels the application travels through.

1. Ask the employer or institution first. Since the form is submitted through the employer or the head of the child's institution rather than directly by the family, that intermediary is usually the first point to check whether the form was forwarded to the Goa Labour Welfare Board and on what date.
2. Contact the Board office directly. Call or visit the Secretary, Goa Labour Welfare Board, 4th Floor, Shram Shakti Bhavan, Patto Centre, Panaji, Goa 403001, and quote the worker's name, the establishment's name, and the academic year the application was submitted for. Keeping a photocopy of the submitted form with its date of dispatch makes this call faster, since the Board has no applicant-facing reference number system.
3. Check with the Department of Labour and Employment, Goa. If the Board office does not have an immediate update, the parent department's office under the Commissioner of Labour and Employment, listed on goa.gov.in, can be approached for the same query.
4. Watch the parent's bank account. Because the scholarship is disbursed once a year by Electronic Clearing Service straight to the parent's bank account, an unexplained ECS credit around the disbursal period is itself confirmation that the application was sanctioned. There is no separate approval letter to expect before that credit.
5. Follow up again if the academic year is closing without a credit. Since the whole amount is paid in a single yearly instalment and there is no interim status update, a family that has heard nothing by the time the next academic year's admissions begin should treat that as a signal to revisit the employer's records and confirm the form actually reached the Board's office, since applications lost in transit between the employer and the Board leave no other trail.