Integrated Social Security Scheme - Women in Distress (Ladakh)

What is the Women in Distress pension in Ladakh?

Integrated Social Security Scheme Women in Distress is a monthly pension of Rs 1,000 run by the Department of Social & Tribal Welfare, Union Territory of Ladakh, for women who are widowed, divorced or deserted and have no source of income.

According to the department's pension page, Ladakh operates its social security pensions through two parallel tracks. The centrally sponsored track sits under the National Social Assistance Programme and includes the Indira Gandhi National Widow Pension Scheme, which covers BPL widows aged 40 to 79 years at Rs 1,000 per month and has 445 sanctioned beneficiaries in Ladakh. The Union Territory's own track is the Integrated Social Security Scheme, whose Women in Distress category covers a wider set of circumstances and has 2,308 sanctioned beneficiaries.

That difference in scope is the whole point of the state scheme. The central widow pension recognises only widowhood, and only between the ages of 40 and 79. The Ladakh Women in Distress category recognises three situations, widowhood, divorce and desertion, and its published condition is the absence of income rather than an age band. A woman deserted by her husband in her thirties, with no earnings of her own, has no claim under the central scheme but is precisely the person the Union Territory category is written for.

Where this pension sits in the department's list

• Old Age Pension, Rs 1,000 per month, men 60 and above, women 55 and above, 3,866 beneficiaries.
• Women in Distress: Rs 1,000 per month, widowed, divorced or deserted women without income, 2,308 beneficiaries.
• Physically Challenged Persons: Rs 1,000 per month, 40% or more disability with no income, 2,857 beneficiaries.

Who is eligible for the Ladakh Women in Distress pension?

You can get this pension if:

• You are a woman resident of the Union Territory of Ladakh.
• You are widowed, divorced or deserted by your husband.
• You have no source of income of your own.
• You can produce proof of your status, age, income and address.

You cannot apply, or are not eligible, if:

• You are not a woman, the category is defined by gender and there is no male equivalent under this head.
• You have a regular source of income, from employment, business, rent or a family pension. The department's stated condition is that the applicant is without income.
• You are married and living with an earning husband, or you have remarried since being widowed or divorced.
• You are already sanctioned under the Indira Gandhi National Widow Pension Scheme for the same period. Both schemes pay Rs 1,000 a month and are alternative routes, not additive ones.
• You cannot establish residence in Ladakh.

The department does not publish a rupee income ceiling for this category. It publishes the qualifying test as being a widowed, divorced or deserted woman without a source of income, and the District Sanctioning Committee applies that test on the documents placed before it. A Below Poverty Line ration card is normally treated as sufficient evidence of the income condition.

What documents does the Ladakh Women in Distress pension need?

The department's requirement is stated in one line: the applicant must complete the form and enclose "proof regarding age, income, status and address". For this category, status is the document that decides the case.

Desertion is the hardest of the three statuses to evidence, because unlike death or divorce it produces no certificate on its own. The accepted practice is a written certification from the Tehsildar or the village Sarpanch stating that the woman has been deserted and is living without support.

How to apply for the Women in Distress pension in Ladakh

1. Collect the application form from the Tehsil Social Welfare Officer (TSWO) or the District Social Welfare Officer (DSWO). The department confirms these forms are supplied free of cost.
2. Fill in your personal details — name, age, village, tehsil, district, and name the ground on which you are applying: widowed, divorced or deserted.
3. Attach proof of status first, then age, income and address, followed by Aadhaar and a copy of your bank passbook.
4. Submit the application to your Tehsil Social Welfare Officer and take an acknowledgement.
5. The TSWO consolidates the tehsil list of eligible applicants and forwards it to the District Social Welfare Officer.
6. The District Sanctioning Committee takes the decision: chaired by the Director, Social Welfare, UT Ladakh, with the DSWO as Member Secretary and the Assistant Commissioner (Development) and the Chief Medical Officer as members.
7. Confirm your bank account details after sanction so the monthly Rs 1,000 is credited by Direct Benefit Transfer.

An online route is also linked. The department's pension page carries a "Click here to avail the scheme" link to the e-Seva Ladakh portal at eseva.ladakh.gov.in. In practice the tehsil office remains the working channel across Leh and Kargil districts.

How the money is paid and what keeps it flowing

Rs 1,000 per month is credited to the beneficiary's own bank account. The single most common reason a sanctioned woman receives nothing is that the account named in the file belongs to a son, brother or father rather than to her. Direct Benefit Transfer will only credit the account of the sanctioned beneficiary, so opening a basic savings account in her own name and giving the passbook copy to the TSWO resolves most stalled payments.

Once sanctioned, the pension continues without a fresh yearly application. The beneficiary is expected to report any change in the qualifying ground; remarriage, or the start of a regular income; to the Tehsil Social Welfare Officer.

Common reasons this pension is refused, and how to fix them

• Status not proved. A verbal claim of desertion with no certificate from the Tehsildar or Sarpanch is the leading cause of rejection. Fix: obtain the certificate and resubmit through the same tehsil file.
• Income certificate contradicts the claim, for example showing regular wages. Fix: get a corrected certificate or explain the discontinued income in writing.
• Age proof missing, which matters where the case may instead be routed to the central widow pension for a woman aged 40 to 79.
• Duplicate claim where the applicant already draws the Indira Gandhi National Widow Pension.
• Address proof from outside Ladakh, or a ration card in a husband's district after separation. Fix: obtain a Ladakh resident certificate in your own name.
• Bank account in someone else's name, which does not reject the case but blocks the transfer.

Who to contact in Ladakh

• Directorate of Social Welfare, Ladakh: Council Secretariat, Kurbathang Plateau, Kargil 194103. Phone 7889765635, email directorsocialwelfareladakh@gmail.com.
• Office of the Secretary, Social Welfare, Ladakh: Civil Secretariat, Leh

194101. Phone 01982-258365.

• Your District Social Welfare Officer, who is Member Secretary of the sanctioning committee and holds the tehsil-forwarded file.

Applications and sanctions under this pension carry no charge at any stage.