Tailoring Training to SC/BC Widows, Destitute Women and Girls, Haryana

What is the tailoring training scheme for SC and BC women in Haryana?

Tailoring Training to Scheduled Caste and Backward Class widows, destitute women and girls is a one-year vocational training programme run by the Directorate of Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes, part of the Department of Social Justice, Empowerment, Welfare of SC and BC and Antyodaya, known as the SEWA department of the Government of Haryana.

The department states the aim plainly: to enable Scheduled Caste widows, girls and destitute women to take up self-employment. The scheme works on a simple chain. A woman with no independent income joins a free one-year tailoring course at the nearest Kalyan Kendra, the departmental community welfare centre. She is paid a small stipend so that attending class does not cost her family money. She is given cloth and thread every month so that she can practise without buying material. At the end of the year she is handed a new sewing machine free of cost, which turns the skill into a livelihood she can run from her own home.

The scheme is small and old-fashioned in scale, and that is its strength. It does not require literacy, a smartphone or a course fee, and it reaches exactly the women whom larger skilling missions tend to miss: widows in villages, girls who left school early, and women living without family support.

What does a trainee receive?

Over a full year the cash and material together are worth Rs 10,800: Rs 7,200 as stipend and Rs 3,600 as raw material. The department explains the purpose of the stipend as making trainees capable of earning their own livelihood, which is why it is paid during training rather than after it.

The sewing machine is conditional on completing the course. A trainee who leaves after six months keeps whatever stipend she has drawn but does not get the machine.

Who is eligible for tailoring training in Haryana?

You can join if:

• You belong to a Scheduled Caste or a Backward Class community in Haryana.
• You are between 14 and 45 years of age.
• Your annual family income does not exceed Rs 2.5 lakh.
• You are a resident of Haryana and can attend the Kalyan Kendra covering your area.
• You are a widow, a destitute woman, or an unmarried girl from an eligible household. The scheme names all three groups.

You are not eligible if:

• You are outside the Scheduled Caste and Backward Class categories.
• You are below 14 or above 45 years of age.
• Your annual family income is Rs 2.5 lakh or more.
• You are not a resident of Haryana.
• You have already completed the course and received a sewing machine under this scheme. The machine is given once.
• You cannot attend regularly. Attendance is the basis on which the stipend is paid and the machine is released.

Seats are limited by design. Each community centre takes 20 trainees from the Scheduled Caste community and 5 from the Other Backward Classes, a batch of 25. Where more eligible women apply than there are seats, widows and destitute women are the priority groups named in the scheme.

What documents are required?

Keep an extra photocopy set. Kalyan Kendras maintain paper admission registers, and a complete file handed over on the first visit avoids a second trip.

How to apply for the tailoring training scheme

1. Find the Kalyan Kendra that covers your village or ward. Ask at the office of the District Welfare Officer of the Welfare of SC and BC department, or at the panchayat or municipal office. Not every village has a centre, and the Kendra serving your area may be in a neighbouring village.
2. Ask when the next batch begins. Because a batch runs for a full year and holds only 25 trainees, admission opens roughly once a year at each centre.
3. Collect your documents — caste certificate, Aadhaar, age proof, income certificate or Family ID income record, residence proof, bank passbook, and the widow or destitution proof if you are claiming under those categories.
4. Visit the Kalyan Kendra in person with the originals and one photocopy set and fill in the admission form given there.
5. Give your bank account details for the monthly stipend, which is paid by Direct Benefit Transfer. An Aadhaar-seeded account in your own name avoids payment failures later.
6. Attend regularly for the full year. Attendance records support both the stipend and the release of the sewing machine at the end.
7. Collect the sewing machine on completion of the one-year course, against the completion record maintained by the centre.

There is no published online application form for this scheme, so a visit to the Kendra or the District Welfare Officer is the working route. Applicants who cannot travel should send a family member to establish the batch dates first, then attend in person for the admission itself, since identity verification is done face to face.

How do you check whether your admission or stipend has gone through?

Admission is recorded in the Kalyan Kendra's own register rather than on a state portal, so the instructor or the centre in-charge is the first person to ask. For the stipend, check the credit in your own bank passbook each month. Where a month's stipend has not arrived, the two usual causes are an attendance shortfall recorded at the centre and a bank account that is not Aadhaar-seeded.

If the centre confirms your attendance and the money still has not come, take the matter to the District Welfare Officer with your passbook and the centre's attendance record.

Why does an application or a stipend get refused?

• Seats are full. With 20 SC and 5 OBC seats a batch, a late application simply waits for the next cycle.
• Caste certificate does not match the seat pool applied for.
• Age outside the 14 to 45 band on the date of admission.
• Family income above Rs 2.5 lakh on the income certificate or in the Family ID.
• Irregular attendance, which suspends the stipend and can cost the trainee the sewing machine at the end.
• Bank account not Aadhaar-seeded or not in the trainee's own name, so the Direct Benefit Transfer fails.
• Documents incomplete at admission, particularly the widow or destitution proof where the claim rests on that category.

An honest note on what this scheme is and is not

Tailoring Training is a small, narrowly targeted scheme, and it should be judged on that basis. Rs 600 a month is not a wage, and a single sewing machine is not a business. What the scheme does provide is a year of structured training at no cost, a reason and a small cushion to keep attending, and a machine of one's own at the end. Women who intend to build on it usually pair it with a self-help group loan or one of the state's self-employment loan schemes for Scheduled Caste and Backward Class beneficiaries once the training is complete.

Where do you get help?

• District Welfare Officer, Welfare of SC and BC department, in your district. This is the correct office for admission, stipend and sewing machine questions.
• The Kalyan Kendra in-charge, for attendance, batch dates and course matters.
• Antyodaya SARAL helpline: 0172-3968400, 7 am to 8 pm, Monday to Saturday, for general Haryana government service queries and grievances.
• Email: saral.haryana@gov.in

Admission and training are free. No one may charge a fee for a seat, for the stipend or for the sewing machine.