Ujjawala Scheme (Haryana)

What is the Ujjawala scheme in Haryana?

Ujjawala is a central scheme of the Ministry of Women and Child Development, implemented in Haryana through the state Women and Child Development Department at Bays 15-20, Sector 4, Panchkula. Ujjawala was notified in December 2007 as a comprehensive scheme for the prevention of trafficking and for the rescue, rehabilitation, re-integration and repatriation of victims of trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation. The Haryana state DBT portal still lists "Ujjawala Facilities to Beneficiaries" against the Women and Child Development Department, which is how the scheme appears in state records.

Ujjawala is not a cash-transfer scheme. Ujjawala pays a registered organisation to run a service. A protective and rehabilitative home, an awareness drive, a rescue network, a half-way home or a repatriation channel, and the woman or child who has been trafficked receives that service free of cost. A reader searching for "Ujjawala yojana" expecting a bank transfer will not find one; what exists is a bed, food, a doctor, a lawyer and a trade course.

Since 2022 Ujjawala no longer runs under its own name at the national level. The Ministry of Women and Child Development merged Ujjawala with Swadhar Greh to create Shakti Sadan, an integrated relief and rehabilitation home under the Samarthya sub-scheme of Mission Shakti, with the revised norms taking effect from 1 April 2022. According to the Mission Shakti portal, the erstwhile Swadhar Greh scheme for women in difficult circumstances and the Ujjawala home for prevention of trafficking now operate as one Shakti Sadan scheme. Homes sanctioned earlier as Ujjawala projects continue as Shakti Sadans.

Who is covered by Ujjawala in Haryana?

A woman or child is covered if:

• She has been trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation and has been rescued by the police, an anti-human-trafficking unit or a court-ordered raid anywhere in Haryana.
• She is a cross-border victim awaiting repatriation to her country of origin.
• She is vulnerable to trafficking and lives in an area where a sanctioned project runs community vigilance groups or Balika Sanghas.
• She is a child victim placed in a home under an order of the Child Welfare Committee.

Who cannot apply, and what the limits are:

• An individual cannot apply for Ujjawala as a personal benefit. There is no form, no portal login and no application fee, because entry to a home follows a rescue or a statutory referral.
• A woman facing domestic violence, desertion or destitution without any trafficking element is not eligible for an Ujjawala bed as such; her route is Shakti Sadan on the erstwhile Swadhar Greh side, a One Stop Centre, or the Mahila Ashram at Karnal or Rohtak run by the Haryana WCD Department.
• An unregistered organisation, a profit-making body, or an agency with under three years of experience after registration is not eligible to run a project.
• A man who has been trafficked is not covered by Ujjawala, which is written for women and children.

What does an Ujjawala home provide?

According to the scheme guidelines, a protective and rehabilitative home is budgeted for 50 residents and must provide:

The sanctioned staff for one home includes a project director, two social workers, a clinical psychologist, a clerk-cum-accountant, two guards, a part-time doctor and a part-time psychiatrist.

How much does the Ujjawala grant come to?

The 2007 guidelines fix five component budgets, and an agency may seek one or more of them:

• Prevention: Rs 1,66,500 a year, covering community vigilance groups, Balika and Balala Sanghas, two-day sensitisation workshops, street theatre and printed awareness material in the local language.
• Rescue: Rs 23,500 a year for information gathering, incentives to informers, transport of the rescued victim to a shelter, initial documentation, and immediate relief such as food and medical aid.
• Rehabilitation, Rs 17,36,500 recurring in Grade A cities and Rs 16,76,500 in the rest of India, plus Rs 1,50,000 non-recurring for furniture and equipment. Haryana falls in the second category.
• Re-integration; Rs 1,14,500 recurring plus Rs 10,000 non-recurring for a half-way home for 10 to 15 women, seed money of Rs 5,000 per woman, and travel and follow-up visits.
• Repatriation — Rs 35,000 a year, for cross-border cases only.

Adding these, a full project works out to about Rs 22.36 lakh a year in Grade A cities and Rs 21.76 lakh elsewhere, including the non-recurring share. An agency may move up to 10 per cent of sanctioned funds within and between components.

How to apply for an Ujjawala project in Haryana

Only an organisation applies. The route, as set out in the guidelines, is:

1. Confirm eligibility. The agency must be registered under the Societies Registration Act or a trust deed, must not work for the profit of any individual, should normally have three years of experience after registration, must be financially sound, and must already have the facilities, resources and personnel to run the project.
2. Prepare the proposal in Annexure I, giving details of the agency in Part A, the project in Part B and the enclosures in Part C. Attach the registration certificate, bye-laws, audited accounts and a rent assessment certificate from the state PWD if rent is claimed.
3. Submit it to the Haryana Women and Child Development Department at Bays 15-20, Sector 4, Panchkula 134112, which inspects the project site and fills the pre-sanction appraisal report in Annexure II Part A.
4. The state government records its recommendation in Annexure II Part B, confirming that the agency has the capability and that the project area is justified, and forwards the file.
5. The proposal reaches the Joint Secretary (CP), Ministry of Women and Child Development, Shastri Bhavan, New Delhi 110001 by registered post, speed post or courier.
6. A Project Sanctioning Committee decides, chaired by the Secretary, Ministry of Women and Child Development, and including the state WCD Secretary of the concerned state.
7. The grant is released in two instalments. The second and later instalments follow only after the agency has spent the earlier instalment and filed a utilisation certificate signed by a chartered accountant or a government auditor.

Under the current Mission Shakti architecture, states also submit annual proposals for Shakti Sadans through the Mission Shakti portal, so a new applicant in Haryana should check the Shakti Sadan route rather than the old Ujjawala one.

How does a rescued woman actually reach a home?

1. The rescue happens, through a police raid, an anti-human-trafficking unit operation, a court direction, or a call to the 181 women helpline or 1098 Childline.
2. Immediate relief is given; food, shelter, toiletries, clothing, trauma counselling and medical aid during the interval between rescue and production before the authorities.
3. The victim is produced before the competent authority. A Child Welfare Committee for a child, or a magistrate for an adult.
4. The order places her in a home, after which admission is recorded and her care plan, schooling or vocational training begins.
5. Reintegration follows, a half-way home stay if she is earning, seed money, escorted travel back to her home town, and at least two follow-up visits.

No fee is payable at any stage, and no document that the survivor does not possess can be demanded as a condition of shelter.

Why do Ujjawala projects get rejected or discontinued?

• The proposal was sent directly to the Ministry without being routed through the Haryana government, so no appraisal report exists.
• The agency has fewer than three years of experience after registration.
• Audited accounts or the utilisation certificate for the previous instalment were not filed, which blocks the next release.
• Rent was claimed without a rent assessment certificate from the state PWD.
• The state monitoring committee, chaired by the Secretary in charge of Women and Child Development, reported unsatisfactory performance. Grant continuation depends on that report, and projects are reviewed after three years of implementation.
• Unspent grant was not refunded, or assets bought from the grant were disposed of without prior sanction.

Monitoring, oversight and key dates

Ujjawala carries a two-level monitoring structure. At state level, the Secretary in charge of Social Welfare or Women and Child Development chairs a monitoring committee that must meet at least twice a year. At central level, the Ministry reviews each centre once a year. Periodic inspections and independent evaluations by reputed institutions, panchayati raj institutions and district-level bodies are also provided for.

Key dates to remember: the scheme was notified in December 2007; Mission Shakti norms, which absorbed Ujjawala into Shakti Sadan, took effect on 1 April 2022; and every sanctioned project is reviewed after three years of implementation.

Where to complain or get help

• Women Helpline 181; round the clock, run by the Haryana WCD Department.
• Childline 1098, for any child in danger, including a trafficked child.
• Directorate of Women and Child Development, Haryana, Bays 15-20, Sector 4, Panchkula 134112, phone 0172-2560349.
• WhatsApp helpline 9478913181, listed by the Haryana WCD Department.
• District Child Welfare Committee and the district anti-human-trafficking unit, for a specific case already in the system.

No agent can charge money to get a survivor admitted to a home, and no government officer will ask for a payment. If someone demands a fee, report it to the 181 helpline or the district Protection Officer.

How to check your application status

Ujjawala has no beneficiary-side status check, because no individual survivor ever files an application: a woman or child enters a home through police rescue, a Child Welfare Committee order, or a referral, not through a submitted form. What can be tracked is the status of an NGO's project proposal and grant release, and that tracking happens offline, through the same channel the proposal travelled.

For an implementing agency, status has three distinct stages to follow up on:

1. Proposal stage. After submitting Annexure I to the Haryana Women and Child Development Department at Bays 15-20, Sector 4, Panchkula, the agency should confirm in writing (or by visiting the department) that the site inspection has been done and that the pre-sanction appraisal report (Annexure II Part A) has actually been forwarded to the Ministry of Women and Child Development, rather than assuming it has moved on its own. A proposal that sits at the state department without a forwarded appraisal report will show no progress at the central end no matter how often the agency contacts Delhi.
2. Sanction stage. Once the file reaches the Joint Secretary (CP), Ministry of Women and Child Development at Shastri Bhavan, New Delhi, the agency can follow up by letter or a call to the ministry's Ujjawala/Mission Shakti desk, quoting the date and reference number the proposal was dispatched under, asking whether the Project Sanctioning Committee has taken it up.
3. Grant instalment stage. After sanction, each instalment depends on the previous one being accounted for. An agency waiting on its second or later instalment should check, with its own accounts section first, whether the utilisation certificate for the earlier instalment has actually been signed by a chartered accountant or government auditor and dispatched, since an unfiled utilisation certificate is the single most common reason a released grant sits unpaid for the next round. If the certificate has gone out and the instalment still has not arrived, the agency should follow up with the Haryana WCD Department, which can check the file's position with the Ministry on the agency's behalf.

Because projects sanctioned as Ujjawala now run inside the Shakti Sadan structure under Mission Shakti, an agency should also check its project's status through the state's annual Mission Shakti proposal cycle, since that is the live channel the Ministry currently uses for sanctions and releases, even for homes that continue to be called Ujjawala homes on the ground.

For a survivor's own case rather than an agency's grant, the only "status" that applies is the case status with the Child Welfare Committee or the court that ordered her admission, and that is checked through the committee, the magistrate's court, or the district Protection Officer handling the case, not through the scheme.

There is no SMS alert, no portal login, and no toll-free tracking number specific to Ujjawala grant status. The Women Helpline 181 and the Directorate of Women and Child Development, Haryana (0172-2560349) can point an agency or a concerned party to the right office, but neither operates a case-tracking system of its own for this scheme.