Jharkhand Sports Excellence Cash Award Scheme to Coaches

What is the Jharkhand Sports Excellence Cash Award Scheme to Coaches?

Jharkhand Sports Excellence Cash Award Scheme to Coaches is the arm of the state cash award system that recognises the coach rather than the athlete. It is run by the Directorate of Sports and Youth Affairs under the Department of Tourism, Art, Culture, Sports and Youth Affairs, Government of Jharkhand.

The logic is straightforward. When a Jharkhand archer, hockey player or athlete wins at a national or international meet, the state pays the athlete a cash award, and it pays a separate award to the person who trained them. The Directorate publishes two different application formats side by side, one "Format for Cash Award Application for Players" and one "Format for Cash Award Application for Coaches", which is the clearest evidence that these are parallel, independently claimed benefits rather than a single award shared between athlete and coach.

The scheme currently runs on Sankalp No. 03 dated 11 March 2024, listed on the Directorate's website as "Cash Award: NEW REVISED". The word revised matters: the sankalp replaced the earlier rate structure, so figures circulating on unofficial scholarship and scheme websites from before March 2024 no longer reflect what the state actually pays.

The Directorate itself was set up to build a sports ecosystem across Jharkhand; creating infrastructure, running competitions from block to international level, and supporting athletes through a group of schemes that includes the Sports Welfare Fund, stipends, the ex-sportsperson pension, sports training centres, talent hunt, grants to sports clubs for hockey and football, and the Khelo India and Fit India programmes. The coaches' cash award sits inside that group as the recognition instrument aimed at the training side rather than the playing side.

Who is eligible for the coaches' cash award?

You can apply if:

• You coached a Jharkhand sportsperson who won a medal or a recognised placing at a competition covered by the sankalp.
• You can produce the athlete's medal or position certificate issued by the organising federation for that event.
• You can show the coaching relationship, certification from the association, academy, training centre or department under which you trained the athlete for the relevant period.
• You are a resident of Jharkhand and hold Aadhaar and a bank account in your own name.
• You apply against a live notice, in the prescribed coaches' format, with the enclosures listed in it.

You are not eligible and cannot apply if:

• You did not coach the athlete for the qualifying period, or the association will not certify the coaching relationship.
• The athlete's achievement was at a competition outside the levels listed in the sankalp, or the event was not held under a recognised federation.
• You are claiming for an achievement for which the award has already been paid to another coach. The award is not payable twice for the same performance.
• You are a coach with no Jharkhand connection, since this is a state scheme for Jharkhand's own sporting ecosystem.
• You file on the players' format instead of the coaches' format, or file outside the notice window.

Being on the Directorate's contractual coaching rolls is a different matter entirely. The Directorate recruits contractual sports coaches by separate advertisement, for example the badminton coach recruitment advertised on 11 December 2025, and that is a job, not an award.

How much is the cash award?

The award is graded by the level of the competition and the medal won. A coach whose athlete won at an international event is on a higher slab than one whose athlete won at national or state level.

The operative slab table is the one attached to Sankalp No. 03 dated 11 March 2024. This guide deliberately does not reproduce a rupee figure, because the rates were revised in 2024 and the numbers still circulating on non-government websites are the pre-revision ones. Download the sankalp from the Notices, Resolutions or Circulars section of sports.jharkhand.gov.in and read the amount off the annexure, or ask the District Sports Officer to show it to you.

The award is a one-time payment for a specific achievement, not a recurring allowance. It is distinct from the Jharkhand Sportsperson Pension Scheme, which pays a lifelong monthly pension to retired distinguished athletes and is governed by its own resolutions, most recently Sankalp No. 29 dated 27 February 2026.

What documents does a coach need?

How to apply for the cash award as a coach

1. Watch the notice board at sports.jharkhand.gov.in. Applications are invited by notice rather than being open all year — the most recent invitation, "Notice for Cash Award Players & Coaches to 2025", was published on 2 March 2026.
2. Download the correct format. The Directorate publishes a "Format for Cash Award Application for Coaches" separately from the players' format. Using the wrong one is a rejection waiting to happen.
3. Read Sankalp No. 03 dated 11 March 2024 to confirm that the athlete's achievement falls within a covered level and to see the applicable slab.
4. Assemble the enclosures, the athlete's certificate, the coaching certification from the association or academy, your Aadhaar and residence proof, and a copy of your bank passbook.
5. Get the application forwarded by the District Sports Officer or the recognised state association for the discipline, which is the normal route for verification.
6. Submit the complete application to the Directorate of Sports and Youth Affairs, Gate No. 29, Birsa Munda Football Stadium, Morabadi, Ranchi - 834008, within the date given in the notice, and keep a receipt or dispatch record.
7. Follow up on 0651-2400740 or at kheljharkhand@gmail.com if there is no communication after the sanction list for the year is issued.

How is the athlete's side handled?

Jharkhand also runs sportspersons.jharkhand.gov.in, a registration portal and achievement dashboard maintained by JSAC. Athletes register there, and the dashboard records medal-wise achievement by year, district, discipline and level, district, state, national and international, for archery, hockey, football, athletics and other sports. A coach preparing a cash award application will usually find the trained athlete's achievement already recorded there, which makes the claim easier to substantiate.

The portal is not, however, the cash award application channel. The award itself is claimed on the printed prescribed format submitted to the Directorate.

Why applications get rejected

• Wrong format used. The players' format filed instead of the coaches' format.
• Coaching relationship not certified by the association, academy or centre, leaving the Directorate with no way to verify who actually trained the athlete.
• Event not covered by the levels listed in the current sankalp.
• Application filed outside the notice window.
• Reliance on pre-2024 rates, leading to a claim that does not match the revised sankalp.
• Incomplete enclosures, most often a missing federation certificate or an unsigned bank passbook copy.

Where to get help

• Directorate of Sports and Youth Affairs: 0651-2400740
• Email: kheljharkhand@gmail.com
• Address: Gate No. 29, Birsa Munda Football Stadium, Morabadi, Ranchi - 834008
• District Sports Officer (DSO) of your district, the DSO list is published on sports.jharkhand.gov.in and the DSO is the first point of contact for forwarding and follow-up.
• Notices, Circulars, Notifications and Resolutions sections of sports.jharkhand.gov.in: where the cash award sankalp, the annual notice and the application formats are all published.

Applying for the cash award is free. No official, association office-bearer or agent is entitled to a share of the award, and any such demand should be reported in writing to the Director of Sports.

How to check your application status

This is an offline scheme with no online tracking dashboard, so status checking works through direct follow-up rather than a portal login.

• Confirm your application was received before checking on approval. When you submit the coaches' format at the Directorate office in Ranchi, or forward it through your District Sports Officer, ask for a dated receipt or an acknowledgement of the diary/inward number. Without that number, the Directorate has no easy way to locate your file if you call later.
• Follow up with the District Sports Officer first. The DSO who forwarded your application is usually the fastest point of contact, since your file typically passes through their office before it reaches the Directorate.
• Call the Directorate helpline at 0651-2400740 and quote your name, the athlete you coached, the competition and year, and the diary number if you have one. Ask specifically whether your file is under verification, listed for the current sanction list, or returned for a correction.
• Email kheljharkhand@gmail.com if the phone line is unreachable, with the same details in writing so there is a record of your query.
• Watch the Notices, Circulars and Resolutions section of sports.jharkhand.gov.in for the year's approved sanction list. Cash awards are cleared in batches once the Directorate compiles and approves the list for a competition year, not case by case as each form arrives, so an approval often becomes visible there before any individual call confirms it.
• Visit the Directorate office in person at Gate No. 29, Birsa Munda Football Stadium, Morabadi, Ranchi - 834008, if repeated calls do not get a clear answer. Carry a copy of your submitted application and receipt.
• Expect no SMS or email auto-alerts. Because the process runs on paper files and periodic sanction lists rather than a tracked online workflow, silence for a few weeks after submission is normal and is not by itself a sign of rejection; it only becomes worth escalating once a sanction list for that competition year has already been published without your name on it.