Deepawali Cash Gift Scheme (Puducherry Unorganised Labourers' Welfare Society)

What is the Deepawali Cash Gift Scheme?

Deepawali Cash Gift Scheme is a festival benefit paid by the Puducherry Unorganised Labourers' Welfare Society, a body constituted by the Labour Department, Government of Puducherry, under the Societies Registration Act in 2001 to look after workers who fall outside organised employment.

According to the Labour Department's published list of benefits extended by the Society, the Society issues Deepawali gift coupons of Rs 500 as a cash gift on the occasion of the Deepavali festival. The amount is credited to the worker's bank account through Direct Benefit Transfer rather than handed over as a physical coupon.

Rs 500 is a modest sum, and it is honest to say so. What makes it worth understanding is that it is a membership benefit. It reaches whoever is on the Society's live register at the time of the festival. For a self-employed tailor, an auto driver or a washerman, the same membership that delivers the Diwali gift is also the door to maternity benefit, funeral assistance and, in past years, the Aam Aadmi Bima Yojana insurance cover the Society arranged with LIC of India for its enrolled workers.

Why the Society exists

The Labour Department's own account is clear about the purpose. To cater to the welfare of unorganised workers, the Department constituted the Puducherry Unorganised Labourers Welfare Society under the Societies Registration Act in 2001. The Society has branch offices at Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam, has enlisted 28 categories of unorganised workers for enrolment, and receives grant-in-aid from the Government of Puducherry. At the point the department last published the figure, 26,094 enrolled workers were covered under the Aam Aadmi Bima Yojana scheme of LIC, and the registration count stood at 26,674.

Who is eligible for the Deepawali cash gift?

You can receive it if:

• You are a citizen of India and a resident of the Union Territory of Puducherry, including Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam.
• You are aged 18 to 59 years. The Society's stated enrolment band.
• You are enrolled with the Puducherry Unorganised Labourers' Welfare Society and hold its beneficiary identity card.
• You have paid the registration fee of Rs 25 and are current on the annual subscription of Rs 100.
• You work in one of the 28 enlisted categories of unorganised work.

The enlisted categories include taxi and auto drivers, workers in shops and catering establishments, carpenters, nathaswara vidwans, hair dressers, tailors, cycle rickshaw drivers, cobblers, washermen, goldsmiths, blacksmiths, brass vessel workers, sculptors, loading and unloading workers, tree climbers, pottery workers, coir workers, toddy and neera tappers, bullock cart drivers, thatchers, cooks, hawkers, newspaper vendors and workers engaged in brick and tile manufacturing, among others.

You cannot receive it if:

• You are not enrolled with the Society. There is no route to the gift without membership.
• Your annual subscription has lapsed and the membership is not live at the time of the festival.
• You are under 18, or you are applying for fresh enrolment after crossing 59.
• You are not a resident of Puducherry.
• Your name appears on the Society's published list of non-genuine members, which the department has issued region-wise after verification drives.

Construction workers are covered by a different body. If you work in building or other construction, the Puducherry Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board is your welfare institution, and it issues a Diwali gift coupon of Rs 2,000 to its own beneficiaries.

What documents are required to enrol?

How to apply for the Deepawali cash gift

1. Enrol with the Society if you are not already a member. Collect the registration form from the Puducherry Unorganised Labourers' Welfare Society under the Labour Department, or from its branch offices at Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam.
2. Attach the full document set — photograph, age proof, employer's experience certificate, blood group proof, bank passbook copy with IFSC, ration card, Aadhaar and voter identity card copies.
3. Pay the registration fee of Rs 25 and the annual subscription of Rs 100, and collect the receipt. Keep the receipt: every later claim asks for an up-to-date renewal receipt.
4. Collect your beneficiary identity card from the Society.
5. Renew the Rs 100 subscription every year, well before Deepavali, so that your name is on the live register when the festival list is drawn up.
6. Keep your bank account details current with the Society. The Rs 500 is credited by DBT and a stale or closed account is the usual reason a member misses the credit.

How to check whether you received the Deepavali gift

The simplest check is the bank account. Beyond that, the Labour Department has historically published region-wise Deepavali cash gift beneficiary lists for Puducherry, Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam on the Society's page of the departmental website. If your name is missing from the list for your region, take your identity card and the latest renewal receipt to the Society office and ask for the record to be checked.

The Society has also published lists of non-genuine members for Puducherry, Karaikal and Yanam following verification. A worker whose name appears there should approach the Society with proof of trade and residence to have the entry reconsidered.

Common reasons a member misses the credit

• Lapsed subscription. The Rs 100 renewal is annual and easy to forget; a lapsed member is not on the live register.
• Wrong or closed bank account. DBT credits bounce and are not automatically reissued.
• Aadhaar not seeded to the bank account named in the Society's record.
• Name struck off after verification as a non-genuine member.
• Enrolment applied for but never completed, so no identity card was issued.

What else the Society pays

• Maternity benefit of Rs 4,000. The member or the member's spouse is eligible, for not more than two children. Documents needed are the application, a copy of the PULWS beneficiary identity card, the up-to-date renewal receipt, the hospital discharge slip, a bank passbook copy with IFSC code, ration card and Aadhaar copies, and the child's original birth certificate.
• Medical termination of pregnancy assistance of Rs 250, for the member or spouse, on not more than two occasions.
• Funeral assistance of Rs 7,000 to the nominee of a deceased member, against the application, original death certificate, identity card copy, Aadhaar copies of the beneficiary and nominee, cremation certificate, attested ration card copy, the nominee's bank passbook copy with IFSC code and the renewal receipt.

Where to get help or raise a grievance

• Commissioner of Labour, Labour Department Complex, Vazhudavur Road, Gandhi Nagar, Puducherry - 605 009 to phone 0413-2279211, email lc.pon@nic.in.
• Branch offices of the Society operate at Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam; the officers in charge there handle enrolment, renewal and claims locally.
• The Labour Department states that for redressal of grievances, complaints and suggestions the public may contact the Labour Officer in person on any working day.
• Written grievances can be lodged on the central portal at pgportal.gov.in.

Enrolment costs Rs 25 plus the Rs 100 annual subscription and nothing more. No agent is required, and no one should be paid to "get your name on the Diwali list".