Government Hostel for Working Women / Girl Students, Puducherry

What is the Government Hostel for Working Women / Girl Students?

Government Hostel for Working Women / Girl Students is a facility of the Department of Women and Child Development, Government of Puducherry. The department states the objective plainly: to provide suitable, inexpensive and safe accommodation to women and girl students who are working away from home.

For a young woman who has taken a first job in Puducherry, or who has a college seat but no family in the city, the practical problem is not the job or the seat. It is finding a room that is safe, that a starting salary can cover, and that a landlord will rent to a single woman. The hostel scheme exists to remove that obstacle so that employment and education are not lost for want of a place to stay.

What the hostel provides

According to the department, each inmate gets a cot with mattress and lockable cupboards, and the hostel provides television, newspapers and magazines. Food is arranged at the hostel, and the cost of food is divided among the inmates, it is not built into the rent.

What it costs

The department's citizen charter sets out the charges as follows:

• Rs 1,500 per month for working women.
• Rs 1,000 per month for girl students.
• Rs 2,000 caution deposit.
• Rs 50 application fee.
• Cost of food divided among the inmates.

An older page on the departmental website, last updated in 2020, still lists Rs 650 per month for working women and Rs 500 per month for girl students with no caution deposit or application fee shown. The two figures appear on the same department's own material, so the sensible step is to confirm the current rate with the warden of the hostel you are applying to before budgeting.

Who is eligible for the hostel?

You can apply if:

• You are a woman employed in a government office, organisation or firm; or
• You are a girl student studying in a college; and
• You are living away from home for that work or study.
• For working women, the department states that the income of the working woman shall not exceed Rs 5,000 per month.

You cannot apply if:

• You are neither employed in a government office, organisation or firm nor a student in a college.
• As a working woman, your monthly income exceeds the stated ceiling.
• You cannot produce a pay certificate from your employer or a study certificate from your institution, these are the two documents the department names as certificates to be enclosed.

The income ceiling of Rs 5,000 a month sits oddly beside a rent of Rs 1,500 a month in the same charter, and the department has not published a revision of the ceiling alongside the revised rent. Applicants whose salary exceeds Rs 5,000 should ask the Deputy Director (Women Development) directly how the ceiling is being applied for the current year rather than assume they are excluded, and should also consider the Working Women-cum-Student Hostels run by the Puducherry Corporation for Development of Women and Differently Abled Persons, which are listed by the same department.

What documents are required?

How to apply for a place in the hostel

1. Identify the hostel you want. The department's own Hostel for Working Women is at Rajaji Nagar, Lawspet, Puducherry. Check vacancy with the warden before applying, since admission depends on a place being free.
2. Obtain your supporting certificate. A pay certificate from your employing organisation or firm if you are a working woman, or a study certificate from your college if you are a student.
3. Complete the application for hostel admission and attach the certificate, photo identity and passport size photographs.
4. Submit the application to the Deputy Director (Women Development), Department of Women and Child Development, Puducherry.
5. Pay the application fee and caution deposit as the department directs, the citizen charter lists Rs 50 and Rs 2,000 respectively.
6. Report to the warden on allotment, complete the inmate register formalities and settle the mess arrangement, since food costs are shared among inmates.

Which hostels are available in Puducherry?

The Department of Women and Child Development lists the institutions it runs and the ones run by the Puducherry Corporation for Development of Women and Differently Abled Persons (PCDW & HP):

Run by the department

• Hostel for Working Women, Rajaji Nagar, Lawspet, Puducherry, apply to the Warden.

Run by PCDW & HP

• Working Women-cum-Student Hostel, No. 77, Gnanapragasam Nagar Main Road, Saram, Puducherry - 605 013 to phone 0413-2244460.
• Working Women-cum-Student Hostel, No. 84, Sundaramastry Street, Kosapalayam, Puducherry — phone 0413-2245773.
• Further Working Women-cum-Student Hostels are listed by the department on the same page.

Applicants in Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam should approach the departmental office in their region first, since the hostels listed above are in the Puducherry region.

How to check the status of your application

There is no online tracker for hostel admission. Follow up with the Deputy Director (Women Development) at the Department of Women and Child Development, quoting the date of your application. The department's citizen charter names the Director, Department of Women and Child Development, as the officer to contact in case of delay, the charter gives the address as New Saram, opposite the LIC office, and the department's other pages list Sithankudi, Puducherry.

Common reasons an application is held up

• No vacancy. Admission is against available beds; a complete application does not create a place.
• Pay certificate or study certificate missing or issued informally rather than by the employer or head of institution.
• Income above the stated ceiling for working women, without a clarification from the Deputy Director.
• Caution deposit or application fee not paid, leaving the file incomplete.
• Applying to the wrong body: several Working Women-cum-Student Hostels are run by PCDW & HP rather than by the department directly, and admission to those is handled by the warden concerned.

Where to get help or raise a grievance

• Deputy Director (Women Development), Department of Women and Child Development, Puducherry. The officer who receives hostel applications.
• The Director, Department of Women and Child Development, Puducherry; phone 0413-2244785, email wcd@py.gov.in.
• Karaikal, the Child Development Project Officer; Mahe and Yanam. The Welfare Officer, as listed in the department's citizen charter for its other schemes.
• The department also runs a Women Help-line and a Child Help-line, both linked from wcd.py.gov.in, for safety-related emergencies.
• Written grievances may be filed on the central portal at pgportal.gov.in.

No agent or broker is involved in hostel admission, and the only payments due are the rent, the shared food cost, the caution deposit and the application fee stated by the department.