Family Counselling under Grant-in-Aid to the Pondicherry State Social Welfare Board, Puducherry

What is Family Counselling under Grant-in-Aid to the Pondicherry State Social Welfare Board?

Family Counselling is a component of the Grant-in-Aid to the Pondicherry State Social Welfare Board scheme, administered by the Department of Social Welfare, Government of Puducherry. The grant funds family counselling centres that offer free, face-to-face counselling to individuals, couples and families in distress.

The Puducherry State Social Welfare Advisory Board started the family counselling centre in June 1993 in the Union Territory, and around four such centres have functioned since. The Government of Puducherry's own planning document states the objective in the centre's own words: "to enable the individual to know himself/herself and to solve his/her own problems through face-to-face relationship with the counsellor".

The stated objectives of the service, as recorded on the Directorate of Social Welfare's material, are:

• enhancement of the quality of life of the individual and the family;
• strengthening and supplementing family life where particular needs have been identified;
• providing rehabilitative situations when a family's adaptive capacities are weakened;
• preparing individuals and families for developmental life tasks through services aimed at preventing problems and crises.

Scale is modest and the government has been open about it. Official planning records show counselling for 225 cases in 2006-07, an anticipated 250 cases in 2007-08, and about 220 family cases handled in a reported year. The budget outlay for the family counselling centre component in the same period ran at roughly Rs 6.2 to Rs 6.5 lakh a year. This is a small, staff-intensive service rather than a mass benefit scheme, and readers should not expect a statewide network.

Two distinct things sit inside one scheme name, and confusing them wastes time:

• For an individual or family in distress, this is a free walk-in service. No application, no form, no eligibility test.
• For a voluntary organisation, this is a grant-in-aid scheme with registration, audit and utilisation requirements.

Who can use family counselling, and who is not eligible for the grant?

Any resident of Puducherry can use the counselling service if:

• They are facing marital discord, family conflict, desertion, domestic violence, dowry harassment or a dispute over children.
• They are willing to attend a face-to-face session with the counsellor.
• They approach a centre during its working hours. There is no income test, no caste condition and no requirement to be married.

Who cannot apply for the grant-in-aid component:

• Individuals are not eligible to apply for the grant. The grant-in-aid goes to the Puducherry State Social Welfare Board and to recognised voluntary organisations, not to persons.
• Unregistered groups cannot receive grant-in-aid. The Directorate's standard conditions require registration under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, or as a public trust, or as a charitable company, and ordinarily three years of continuous existence with a sound financial position.
• Organisations that are run for private profit or that are sectarian in whom they serve are not eligible.

The counselling itself is a service, not a cash benefit. No money is paid to any individual under this scheme, and anyone promising a payout for attending counselling should be treated with suspicion.

What documents are needed?

An individual walking into a counselling centre does not need to carry anything. Turning up is enough.

How to access family counselling in Puducherry

1. Identify the nearest centre. Contact the Directorate of Social Welfare, Saradhambal Nagar, Ellaipillaichavadhy, Puducherry on +91-413-2205871, or the Department of Women and Child Development on 0413-2244785, and ask for the family counselling centre serving your area.
2. Visit the centre during working hours and explain the situation to the counsellor at the intake desk. No appointment letter or referral is needed.
3. Attend the counselling session. The counsellor records the case, hears both sides where both parties are willing to attend, and works towards a settlement or a referral.
4. Follow the referral if one is made. Where the case involves a criminal offence, the counsellor will direct you to the police; where it involves maintenance or custody, to the legal services authority or the court; where it involves welfare support, to the relevant department scheme.
5. Return for follow-up sessions if the counsellor schedules them. Family cases are rarely resolved in one sitting.

How does a voluntary organisation apply for the grant?

1. Register the organisation under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, as a public trust, or as a charitable company, and maintain that registration.
2. Build a record of three years of continuous existence with audited accounts showing a sound financial position.
3. Prepare the proposal setting out the counselling centre's staffing, premises, catchment area and estimated cost.
4. Attach the registration certificate, memorandum and bye-laws, audited accounts, annual report and utilisation certificate for any earlier grant.
5. Submit the application to the Directorate of Social Welfare, Puducherry, or the Social Welfare Department sub-office in Karaikal, Mahe or Yanam, and collect the acknowledgement.

Grant-in-aid to NGOs is processed once a year by the Directorate, and year-wise release lists are published on its website under State GIA and Central GIA.

What does the counselling service actually deliver?

The service is advice, mediation and referral — not adjudication and not money. The Government of Puducherry's planning record notes that the family counselling centres run by the department "have given valuable suggestions, advice and guidance" to the cases brought before them.

In practice a counselling centre can:

• hear both parties in a marital dispute and attempt a settlement before the matter reaches court;
• refer a case of violence to the police or to a protection officer;
• connect a deserted woman or a widow to the department's welfare schemes, such as marriage allowance for a widow's daughter or educational allowances for the children of widows;
• refer a child at risk to the child welfare machinery, including Childline and the Child Welfare Committee.

What it cannot do is order maintenance, grant custody, register a divorce or pay compensation. Those are functions of the courts and of other departments.

Where else can I get help in Puducherry?

• Directorate of Social Welfare, Puducherry: +91-413-2205871, email socwel[at]py[dot]gov[dot]in.
• Department of Women and Child Development, Puducherry: 0413-2244785, email wcd[at]py[dot]gov[dot]in. The department also operates a One Stop Centre in Puducherry district for women affected by violence.
• Puducherry Police Women Counselling Centre, which handles cases with a criminal or safety dimension.
• CPGRAMS at pgportal.gov.in for a written grievance about a department's handling of a case.

Counselling at a government-funded family counselling centre is free. No counsellor, clerk or agent is entitled to charge for a session, for registering a case or for arranging a settlement, and any such demand should be reported to the Director of Social Welfare.

How to check your application status

There is no online tracking portal for either half of this scheme, so status has to be checked in person or by phone, and the two halves work differently.

If you are an individual who has approached a counselling centre:

• There is no application to track. Your case is entered in the centre's register at intake, and the counsellor who is handling it is your point of contact for what happens next.
• To know whether a follow-up session has been scheduled, or whether a referral (to police, to the legal services authority, or to a welfare scheme) has been acted on, contact the same centre directly rather than the Directorate's head office.
• If you cannot reach the centre or your case seems to have stalled, call the Directorate of Social Welfare, Saradhambal Nagar, Ellaipillaichavadhy, Puducherry on +91-413-2205871, give the counsellor's name and the date you registered, and ask for an update.

If you are a voluntary organisation that has applied for the grant-in-aid:

• Grant-in-aid to NGOs is processed once a year by the Directorate of Social Welfare. There is no case-tracking number; the practical way to check progress is to contact the Directorate's grant-in-aid section directly and quote the date and reference of your submitted proposal.
• The Directorate publishes year-wise release lists of grant-in-aid disbursed to organisations under State GIA and Central GIA on its official portal (socwelfare.py.gov.in). Once a grant cycle closes, check whether your organisation appears on that year's release list as confirmation that the grant was sanctioned and paid.
• If a submitted proposal has been pending well beyond a normal annual cycle with no response, a written follow-up to the Directorate, or a grievance filed on CPGRAMS (pgportal.gov.in), is the appropriate escalation route rather than repeated phone calls.

Common reasons for rejection

Individuals are never rejected from counselling itself since there is no eligibility test to fail, but a grant-in-aid proposal from a voluntary organisation can be turned down or held back for reasons the Directorate applies consistently across its grant-in-aid schemes.

• Organisation not registered under an accepted legal form. The grant is only available to bodies registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, as a public trust, or as a charitable company. A group operating informally, or registered under an unrelated framework, will not clear the first check. Fix: complete registration under one of these forms before applying, and keep the registration current.
• Less than three years of continuous existence. The Directorate's standard condition expects an established track record, not a newly formed body. Fix: build and document at least three years of continuous, verifiable activity before applying; a fresh organisation should wait rather than apply prematurely.
• Weak or unaudited financial position. Proposals without audited accounts, or with accounts that show financial instability, are treated as too risky to fund. Fix: maintain properly audited annual accounts every year, not only in the year of application.
• Missing utilisation certificate from an earlier grant. An organisation that received grant-in-aid previously and has not submitted the utilisation certificate for that money is routinely held back from a fresh grant until the earlier account is closed. Fix: submit the utilisation certificate for every prior grant promptly, well before applying again.
• Organisation run for profit or sectarian in whom it serves. The scheme excludes bodies operating for private profit and those that restrict their services to one community or sect. Fix: an organisation of this kind is not eligible under this particular scheme and should look elsewhere rather than reapply with the same structure.
• Incomplete proposal papers. A proposal missing the memorandum and bye-laws, the registration certificate, the annual report, or a clear costing of the counselling centre's staffing and premises is commonly sent back for completion rather than considered on merit. Fix: assemble every listed document before submission and have a second person check the file against the Directorate's checklist.