Scheme to Provide Financial Assistance to Registered Organizations / Government Organizations / Non-Government Organizations / Institutions for Running Residential Facilities / Half Way Homes for Persons with Disabilities (Goa)

What is this scheme?

Scheme to Provide Financial Assistance to Registered Organizations / Government Organizations / Non-Government Organizations / Institutions for Running Residential Facilities / Half Way Homes for Persons with Disabilities is a Government of Goa grant scheme aimed at the organisations that keep residential care for disabled people running in the state.

The design is institutional. The scheme does not pay a person with a disability, and it does not pay a family. It pays the body that runs the home, a registered society, a trust, a government organisation, an NGO or an institution, so that a residential facility or a half way home can continue to operate.

Residential care for persons with disabilities in Goa is, in practice, provided by a small number of long-standing organisations. The Directorate of Women and Child Development's own citizen charter publishes the addresses and telephone numbers of homes across Goa's talukas, including facilities for differently abled residents in Tiswadi and Bardez. The category of body this scheme addresses is exactly that kind of organisation.

What is a half way home?

The term matters for eligibility, so it is worth setting out. A half way home is a supported residential setting for a person who no longer requires institutional or hospital-based care but who is not yet able to live independently or to return to family care. It sits between the institution and the community. Residents typically live with some staff support while rebuilding daily living skills, work capacity and social contact.

Under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, which is the definition of disability the Goa Directorate of Social Welfare applies across its schemes, the state's obligations include supporting community living and the range of residential options that make it possible. A half way home is one of those options, and this scheme is Goa's funding instrument for organisations that maintain them.

What this page cannot tell you, and why

This entry has to be honest about the limits of the public record, because a guessed figure would be worse than none.

No rupee amount, per-resident rate, ceiling or budget for this scheme is published on any Government of Goa source reachable online. The Directorate of Social Welfare publishes its scheme categories; State Schemes covering senior citizens, business, education, housing, institutional schemes, schemes for NGOs and social justice schemes, plus Central Sector and Centrally Sponsored schemes, and the individual scheme lists under those categories. The institutional schemes lists name Babu Jagjivan Ram Chhatrawas Yojna, the National Action Plan for Drug Demand Reduction and Construction of Hostels for OBC Boys and Girls; the schemes for NGO list names Sahayata, Mukhyamantri Sahayata Nidhi Yojana, Ummid and the Palliative Care Scheme. A scheme note for half way homes for persons with disabilities does not appear in the published lists, and no notification for it is carried on socialwelfare.goa.gov.in or goa.gov.in.

This guide therefore describes the scheme's structure and the route to apply, and states clearly where the record is silent. Confirm the rate, the format and the current status with the Directorate of Social Welfare before relying on this scheme in a budget.

Which organisations can and cannot get this assistance?

An organisation can apply if:

• It is a registered organisation, a government organisation, a non-government organisation or an institution. The four categories named in the scheme's own title.
• It runs, or proposes to run, a residential facility or a half way home for persons with disabilities in Goa.
• It can show a managing body with defined powers, duties and responsibilities, and audited accounts. This is the consistent requirement across Goa's grant-in-aid schemes to institutions.
• Its residents are persons with disabilities as certified under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, which is the definition the Directorate of Social Welfare uses.

You cannot apply if:

• You are a person with a disability applying for yourself, or a family member applying on behalf of a relative. Individuals are not eligible for a personal benefit under this scheme. Goa runs separate individual assistance — a disability allowance for persons with disability as defined under the RPwD Act, 2016, and the Dayanand Social Security Scheme, whose beneficiary categories include persons with 90 to 100 per cent disability, and those are the correct routes for an individual.
• Your organisation is unregistered or is an informal group without a managing body.
• Your facility is a day centre, a school or a training unit rather than a residential facility or a half way home. The scheme is defined by residential provision.
• Your organisation cannot produce audited accounts.

How to apply for financial assistance for a half way home

Because no notification is published, these steps set out the practical route rather than a formal procedure.

1. Contact the Directorate of Social Welfare. The office is at 18th June Road, Panjim, Goa. Ask specifically for the scheme for financial assistance to organisations running residential facilities and half way homes for persons with disabilities, and for the current rate and application format.
2. Confirm which scheme category it sits under, Institutional Schemes or Schemes for NGO; since the Directorate organises its scheme lists that way and the correct desk depends on it.
3. Assemble the organisational papers: registration certificate, constitution and bye-laws, list of the managing body with their powers and duties, and audited statements of accounts.
4. Document the facility. Set out the premises, capacity, staffing pattern, the services provided and the daily routine of the residential facility or half way home. This is the substance of the application.
5. Document the residents. Prepare the list of residents with their disability certificates issued under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016.
6. Submit the application to the Directorate of Social Welfare in the format the Directorate prescribes, with the organisation's bank account details, since assistance is released to the organisation.
7. Keep the utilisation record current. Grant-in-aid to institutions in Goa is consistently renewed against utilisation certificates and audited accounts, so the next year's sanction depends on this year's record.

What related routes should an organisation know about?

• Accreditation under the Goa Non-Governmental Organisations Accreditation Guidelines, 2014. Granted by the Goa Non-Governmental Organizations Accreditation Committee through the Directorate of Women and Child Development, valid for three years and renewable. It requires a permanent office in Goa, five years of continuous work in the field with documentary proof, and registration as a society, trust or Section 25 non-profit company. Organisations promoted by a single business house for CSR activities are not eligible. Accreditation is what lets an NGO work with government-run institutions and collaborate with other departments, corporations and local bodies.
• Scheme for Welfare of Children in Need of Care and Protection, for organisations housing destitute and orphaned children up to 18 years, at Rs 400 per child per month in own premises and Rs 500 per child per month in rented premises, through the Directorate of Women and Child Development.
• Ummid, Sahayata and the Palliative Care Scheme. The Directorate of Social Welfare's named schemes for NGOs, worth checking for overlap.

Where do I contact the department?

The Directorate of Social Welfare, Government of Goa, is at 18th June Road, Panjim, Goa. Its website, socialwelfare.goa.gov.in, publishes the Citizen Charter, the scheme lists, the list of beneficiaries, the NGO section and the contact page.

For a person with a disability seeking individual assistance rather than an organisation seeking a grant, the same Directorate is the right office, and the required papers for its disability schemes typically include the disability certificate, a 15-year residence certificate, Aadhaar and a bank passbook copy.

Key facts to remember

• This is an institutional grant scheme of the Directorate of Social Welfare, Government of Goa, for organisations running residential facilities and half way homes for persons with disabilities.
• Registered organisations, government organisations, NGOs and institutions are the four eligible categories.
• Individuals and families cannot apply for a personal benefit.
• No rupee amount is published on a reachable Government of Goa source, and none is quoted here: confirm the rate with the Directorate.
• A half way home is a supported residential step between institutional care and independent or family living.
• Disability is certified under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016.
• Applications go to the Directorate of Social Welfare, 18th June Road, Panjim, Goa.
• Individual applicants should look at Goa's disability allowance and the Dayanand Social Security Scheme instead.

How to check your application status

Since no online notification or portal-based tracking system for this scheme is published on socialwelfare.goa.gov.in, an applying organisation has to follow up offline rather than through a status-tracking dashboard.

• Call or visit the Directorate of Social Welfare at 18th June Road, Panjim, Goa, and ask for the desk handling Institutional Schemes or Schemes for NGO, whichever category the application was filed under. Quote the organisation's name, the date of submission and, if one was issued, the diary or receipt number given at the time of filing.
• Keep the acknowledgement slip or receipt the Directorate issues when the application is submitted. This is the only reference an office typically has to locate a file quickly; without it, staff have to search by organisation name and date, which is slower.
• Follow up in writing if a visit or call does not get a clear answer. A letter on the organisation's letterhead, addressed to the Director of Social Welfare, referencing the application date and the residential facility or half way home concerned, creates a paper trail that helps if the file needs to be escalated later.
• Expect the process to take longer around the financial year end and after a change in the officer handling NGO grants, since state grant-in-aid files are frequently reassigned and can be misplaced during handovers. A second follow-up a few weeks after the first is normal, not a sign that the application has been rejected.
• Ask specifically whether the file is complete or pending a document, since grant-in-aid applications at this Directorate are commonly held up for a missing audited statement or an outdated list of the managing body rather than being formally rejected. A "pending" file usually just needs one more paper submitted.

Because assistance is released to the organisation's bank account rather than paid to an individual, the clearest sign that an application has been sanctioned is the credit itself, so the organisation's accountant should also watch the bank statement alongside the office follow-up.

Common reasons for rejection

• The facility is a day centre, school or training unit, not a residential facility. The scheme funds bodies that provide overnight, residential care. Applications from organisations running only day programmes for persons with disabilities do not fit the scheme's own definition and get turned back at the first review. The fix is to apply under a scheme meant for day or training centres instead, not this one.
• The organisation is not registered, or its registration has lapsed. A society, trust or institution whose registration certificate has expired, or that has never been formally registered, cannot be treated as the legal body the grant is paid to. Renewing the registration before applying, and attaching the current certificate, avoids this.
• No audited accounts, or accounts that are several years out of date. Grant-in-aid to institutions in Goa is consistently checked against audited statements. An application with unaudited or very old accounts is usually sent back for the current year's audit before it is considered further.
• The list of the managing body is missing or does not show defined powers and duties. The Directorate wants to see who runs the organisation and on what authority. A bare list of names without designations, powers and responsibilities is treated as incomplete.
• Residents are not certified as persons with disabilities under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016. If the disability certificates on file are old-format certificates issued under the earlier 1995 Act and have not been updated, or if some residents have no certificate at all, the application can be questioned on eligibility grounds. Getting residents' certificates issued or reissued under the 2016 Act in advance avoids this.
• The application was addressed to the wrong desk or filed under the wrong scheme category. Because this scheme is not separately listed on the published Institutional Schemes or Schemes for NGO pages, applications sometimes go to the wrong section of the Directorate and sit unprocessed rather than being formally rejected. Confirming the correct category and officer before filing, as described in the "How to apply" steps above, prevents this kind of delay.
• The previous year's utilisation certificate was not submitted. For an organisation that has received assistance before, a pending utilisation certificate from an earlier grant is a common reason a fresh application is held up, since renewal is tied to accounting for the last sanction.