Financial Assistance for Education — Haryana Silicosis Board

What is the silicosis education assistance in Haryana?

Financial Assistance for Education is welfare scheme (vi) under the Haryana Silicosis Rehabilitation Policy, notified by the Haryana Labour Department on 4 January 2017. According to that notification, the state pays Rs 5,000 to Rs 12,000 annually, from Class 1 to a Master's degree, to the children of workers confirmed as suffering from silicosis by the Silicosis Diagnosis Board, Haryana.

The reasoning behind the scheme is direct. Silicosis is incurable and progressive; a worker in ILO category A, B or C usually cannot return to full earning. The policy notes that workers suffering from silicosis "mainly belong to socially economically challenged sections of our society". Without a dedicated education grant, the first casualty in such a household is a child's schooling. The annual grant is designed to keep children in class through the years when the family income collapses.

The Haryana Labour Welfare Board administers the scheme. The policy states that all implementation functions are performed by the Board, that the Board issues the silicosis identity card that anchors every claim, and that the Labour Commissioner, Haryana, as Welfare Commissioner, sanctions the expenditure. The corpus funding these payments is contributed 70 per cent by the Haryana Labour Welfare Board and 30 per cent by the Haryana Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board.

How much education assistance is paid, and for which classes?

The slabs step up as costs rise. A family with a child in Class 4 and another in first-year graduation can claim Rs 5,000 and Rs 12,000 in the same year, subject to the per-family limits below. The amount is credited to the applicant's bank account, so the account details on the form must be correct.

Who is eligible for the silicosis education assistance?

Your child can receive the assistance if:

• The parent is a worker confirmed as suffering from silicosis by the Silicosis Diagnosis Board, Haryana, and holds the silicosis identity card issued by the Haryana Labour Welfare Board.
• The worker was employed in a factory or at a construction site, the coverage the policy expressly sets.
• The child is studying anywhere from Class 1 to a Master's degree, including an ITI diploma.
• The child is within the family limit of up to two boys and up to three girls, irrespective of the order of birth.
• The child has passed the previous class and has an admission certificate for the next class.

You cannot apply if:

• The worker's silicosis has not been confirmed by the Silicosis Diagnosis Board. A diagnosis from a private hospital, on its own, does not create entitlement under this policy.
• The worker was employed outside factories and construction sites. The policy is explicit that it "is applicable only for the workers working in the Factories and at the construction sites".
• You are claiming for a third son or a fourth daughter. The two-boy and three-girl caps are hard limits.
• The child is not currently enrolled, or has repeated the class without fresh admission to the next one.
• The course is above a Master's degree level or falls outside the listed slabs.

Note that the caps are generous towards daughters by design: three girls against two boys, which is consistent with Haryana's broader policy stance on girls' education.

What documents are required?

Annexure-VII also asks whether assistance has been claimed for any other son or daughter, and for the name and address of the school or college. Answer the first question honestly — the Board cross-checks against its own records, and a false declaration risks the whole claim.

How to apply for the silicosis education assistance

1. Confirm the silicosis registration first. The worker must have been examined and confirmed by the Silicosis Diagnosis Board, Haryana, and hold a silicosis identity card from the Haryana Labour Welfare Board. If that has not happened, take the medical records to the Assistant Director, Industrial Health, and use the silicosis registration and login section on hrylabour.gov.in to start the process.
2. Download Annexure-VII, the Application for Children Education Assistance, from hrylabour.gov.in. The policy states the application performa can be downloaded there.
3. Fill the form with the applicant's name. The worker, or a family member where the worker has died; Aadhaar and Voter ID numbers, relationship with the deceased worker where applicable, address, identity card number, the name and date of birth of the child, the class for which assistance is sought, the name and address of the school or college, and the applicant's bank account with IFSC code.
4. Attach the documents, identity card, previous class result, admission certificate, date of birth proof, bank passbook copy, Aadhaar and Voter ID copies, and the death certificate where the worker is no longer alive.
5. Submit the application to the Assistant Director, Industrial Health of the jurisdiction concerned, who is the designated entry point under the policy for all silicosis welfare claims.
6. The Assistant Director forwards the claim to the Office of the Labour Commissioner-cum-Welfare Commissioner, Haryana, for sanction.
7. Repeat the claim each academic year after the child's results and the next admission are in hand.

Filing separate forms for each child in the same visit is normal practice and saves repeat trips. Keep a stamped acknowledgement for each application.

What else the family can claim at the same time

The same policy carries seven other benefits, and a family dealing with silicosis should check every one of them rather than claiming education assistance alone:

• Rehabilitation assistance of Rs 5,00,000 as a one-time payment to the affected worker after confirmation by the Silicosis Diagnosis Board.
• Silicosis rehabilitation pension of Rs 4,000 per month for a worker in ILO category A, B or C, for life.
• Family pension of Rs 3,500 per month after the worker's death, to the widow, widower, or one living parent if the worker was unmarried.
• Assistance on death of Rs 1,00,000 to the widow, widower or nominee.
• Funeral assistance of Rs 15,000.
• Kanyadaan assistance of Rs 51,000 on the marriage of up to three daughters.
• Financial assistance of Rs 11,000 on the marriage of up to two sons.

Treatment itself is separate and free. Workers registered under the Employees' State Insurance Act, 1948 are treated at ESI hospitals; workers not registered under it get free treatment, investigations and medicines from the Health Department in district hospitals and medical colleges, with the Labour Department reimbursing anything that has to be bought from the open market.

Why education assistance claims get rejected, and how to fix them

• Silicosis not confirmed by the state Diagnosis Board, which is the single most common reason claims fail across every benefit in this policy.
• Admission certificate missing. A fee receipt is not the same thing; ask the school office for a certificate of admission to the next class.
• Previous class result not attached, or a result showing the child did not pass.
• Family limit already exhausted; assistance already drawn for two sons or three daughters.
• Bank details mismatched with the applicant's name, which stops payment after sanction.
• Claim submitted to the wrong office. The Assistant Director, Industrial Health of the jurisdiction where the worker was employed is the correct entry point, not the education department or the district social welfare office.

Where to get help

• Shramik Helpline, Labour Department Haryana: 1800-180-2129 or 0172-2971057, 8 am to 8 pm, Monday to Saturday
• Haryana Labour Welfare Board: 0172-2560015, toll free 1800-180-4818
• Labour Department head office: 30 Bays Building, Sector 17, Chandigarh 160017, phone 0172-2701373
• HLWB and HBOCW Board office: Bays No. 29-30 (Pocket-II), Sector 4, Panchkula 134112

No fee is charged for filing or processing a silicosis education assistance claim. Where a family believes a claim has been wrongly delayed or rejected, the escalation route is a written representation to the Labour Commissioner-cum-Welfare Commissioner, Haryana, quoting the worker's silicosis identity card number.

How to check your application status

The Financial Assistance for Education claim is a paper application filed in Annexure-VII, so there is no dedicated online tracking dashboard for this specific benefit. Status has to be confirmed through the office that handles the claim or through the department's general channels.

1. Check with the Assistant Director, Industrial Health, first. This is the office where the Annexure-VII form was submitted, and it is also the office that forwards the claim onward, so it holds the most current status. Quote the worker's silicosis identity card number and the date the form was submitted when asking.
2. Ask whether the claim has moved to the Labour Commissioner-cum-Welfare Commissioner, Haryana. Sanction for the expenditure is issued from that office, so a claim can sit at either stage depending on how far it has progressed.
3. Use the silicosis registration and login section on hrylabour.gov.in. This login is built around the worker's silicosis identity card and registration, so it is useful to confirm that the underlying silicosis confirmation and identity card record are in order, even though it is not a form-by-form tracker for the education assistance claim itself.
4. Call the Shramik Helpline on 1800-180-2129 or 0172-2971057 (8 am to 8 pm, Monday to Saturday) if the office visit is not possible, and have the identity card number and the child's class ready before calling.
5. Call the Haryana Labour Welfare Board on 0172-2560015 or the toll-free number 1800-180-4818 as a second point of contact, since the Board issues the identity card that anchors the claim and can confirm whether it is on record as active.
6. Watch the bank account tied to the application for the credit itself. Since the policy does not commit to a fixed disbursal date, a credited amount matching the class-wise slab is the most reliable confirmation that the claim was sanctioned and paid.

Keep the stamped acknowledgement from the Assistant Director's office for every academic year's claim; without it, follow-up calls have nothing to reference and take longer to resolve.