Manav Garima Yojana (Developing Castes Welfare) — Minority Beneficiaries

What is Manav Garima Yojana under the Developing Castes Welfare directorate?

Manav Garima Yojana is a self-employment scheme run by the Director, Developing Castes Welfare, Social Justice and Empowerment Department, Government of Gujarat, from Block No. 4, 3rd Floor, Dr Jivraj Mehta Bhavan, Gandhinagar. Under it, beneficiaries drawn from the state's socially and educationally backward classes, economically backward classes, minority communities and nomadic and denotified castes are given tool kits for various trades free of cost, so that they can take up a small independent business, earn a livelihood and stand on their own feet economically.

The scheme's Gujarati name, Manav Garima Yojana, translates as the human dignity scheme, and the design follows from that: the department does not hand over cash but the working equipment of a trade. The kit a tailor, cobbler, carpenter, barber, potter, mason or vegetable seller needs to start earning.

This page covers the version run by the Developing Castes Welfare directorate, which is the route used by minority applicants. A separate Manav Garima scheme for Scheduled Caste applicants runs through the Director, Scheduled Caste Welfare, on the same portal.

Who is eligible for Manav Garima Yojana?

You can apply if:

• You are an original native of Gujarat.
• You belong to a minority community, or to the socially and educationally backward classes, economically backward classes, or nomadic and denotified castes covered by the directorate.
• Your family's annual income is not more than Rs 6,00,000, the same figure for rural and urban areas.
• You are not less than 18 and not more than 60 years old on the date of the advertisement.
• You give your own or a family member's mobile number and keep it working, since the department contacts applicants on it.

Applicants from nomadic and denotified castes, and the extremely backward castes within the socially and educationally backward classes, are exempt from the income limit.

You cannot apply if:

• You or any member of your family has already received this kind of assistance from this department or from any other department of the Government of Gujarat in an earlier year.
• Another member of your family is claiming in the same round, the benefit is available to only one person per family, only once.
• You are under 18 or over 60 on the advertisement date.
• Your family income exceeds Rs 6,00,000 a year and you are not in an exempt category.
• You give someone else's mobile number, or the same number is used on more than one application. Such applications are cancelled outright.
• You submit an incomplete form or upload incomplete documents. These are automatically treated as rejected.

What documents are required?

All of these are uploaded on the portal. The public notice states clearly that hard copies are not to be given at the office, and that originals are to be shown only when a district officer or staff member asks for them.

How to apply for Manav Garima Yojana online

1. Open esamajkalyan.gujarat.gov.in, the Social Justice and Empowerment Department's e-Samaj Kalyan portal, and check that the Manav Garima window for the current year is open. In 2023-24 the window ran from 15 May 2023 to 14 June 2023.
2. Click Register yourself and create a citizen account with your name, mobile number and email, then verify it.
3. Log in and update your profile with personal, family, address and bank details.
4. Choose Manav Garima Yojana under the Director, Developing Castes Welfare, and open the application form.
5. Fill every field and upload all the required documents in the formats the portal accepts. Nothing is to be submitted on paper.
6. Review the form once, then submit it and save the application number shown on the screen.
7. Keep watching the portal for your application status, and keep the mobile number you entered switched on.

After submission, the district officer — the district deputy director or district social welfare officer (Developing Castes); approves eligible applications. Approved applications then go into a computerised draw, and only applicants picked in the draw are given the tool kits.

How are beneficiaries selected, and what does the draw mean?

Approval and selection are two separate stages. Approval is a document check by the district office and the power to approve rests with the district officer, whose decision cannot be claimed against. Selection is by computerised draw among the approved applications, because the number of tool kits sanctioned each year is smaller than the number of eligible applicants. The department publishes the draw file and the list of selected beneficiaries on the portal, so an applicant can check by name and application number.

An important precedent worth knowing: applications from 2021-22 and 2022-23 that district officers had approved but which were not picked in the draw were carried forward to 2023-24 in the applicants' interest, and those applicants were told they need not apply again.

How do you check your application status?

Log in to esamajkalyan.gujarat.gov.in with the credentials you registered with and open your application; the portal also carries a View Application Status link on the home page. The published draw list is the second place to check. For anything the portal does not answer, the district deputy director or district social welfare officer (Developing Castes) office holds the file, and the directorate at Gandhinagar can be reached on +91 79 23253245.

Why are applications rejected, and how do you avoid it?

• Incomplete form or missing uploads. The notice says such applications are automatically cancelled. Complete every field before pressing submit.
• Shared or borrowed mobile number. One application per mobile number, and it must be yours or a family member's. Multiple applications from one number are cancelled.
• Family already benefited. If you or a family member took a similar benefit from any Gujarat government department earlier, the application will not stand.
• Income above Rs 6,00,000. Attach a current income certificate; an old certificate showing a different figure causes avoidable queries.
• Age outside 18 to 60. Age is counted on the advertisement date, so a candidate turning 18 later in the year has to wait for the next round.
• Category certificate not matching the claim. A minority applicant needs a valid certificate of the community claimed, issued by the competent authority.

What are the key dates?

Manav Garima is an annual, window-based scheme, not an all-year one. The 2023-24 public notice was signed at Gandhinagar on 12 May 2023 and opened applications from 15 May 2023 to 14 June 2023. A prospective applicant should therefore watch the news and notifications section of esamajkalyan.gujarat.gov.in around April and May, keep the income, caste and age documents ready in scanned form in advance, and apply in the first days of the window rather than the last, since portal load rises sharply near the closing date.

Where do you complain or get help?

Take a question about your own application first to the district deputy director or district social welfare officer (Developing Castes) for your district, which is the office named in the public notice as the source of detailed information. State-level grievances go to the Director, Developing Castes Welfare, Block No. 4, 3rd Floor, Dr Jivraj Mehta Bhavan, Gandhinagar, telephone +91 79 23253245. The notice records that where any question arises about assistance under Manav Garima Yojana, the decision of the Director, Developing Castes Welfare, Gujarat State, Gandhinagar, is final. No agent or middleman can get a name added to the list, and the scheme charges no application fee at any stage.