Antyeshti Anudan Yojana

What is Antyeshti Anudan Yojana?

Antyeshti Anudan Yojana is a scheme of the Social Justice and Empowerment Department, Government of Rajasthan, that pays for the dignified last rites of people who die with nobody to claim them. Readers looking for it as Antyeshti Sahayata Yojana or the funeral assistance scheme will find the same programme; the department's own e-booklet lists it as Antyeshti Anudan Yojana.

The scheme was announced by the Chief Minister in the budget speech for 2017-18. The announcement was specific: where any unclaimed or destitute person dies in the state, the voluntary organisation that arranges a respectful cremation for that person will be given Rs 5,000 for the purpose.

It is important to understand what kind of scheme this is. Antyeshti Anudan Yojana is an institutional reimbursement scheme, not an individual benefit. The money does not go to a bereaved family. It goes to a registered voluntary organisation that has stepped in where there was no family, for an unidentified body, an abandoned elderly person, a destitute person who died on the street, or anyone whose relatives have not come forward.

Who can claim under Antyeshti Anudan Yojana?

A voluntary organisation can claim if:

• It has been selected by the district screening committee of the district in which it works.
• It has performed the last rites of an unclaimed or destitute deceased person in its area.
• It carried out the cremation immediately and at its own expense, before making any claim.
• It submits its demand in the prescribed format to the district office of the Social Justice and Empowerment Department.

These parties cannot apply:

• Individuals. A private person who performs a cremation, however charitable the act, is not a claimant under this scheme. The grant is payable only to a selected organisation.
• Bereaved families. Antyeshti Anudan Yojana does not fund a funeral where the family is present and known. The scheme's whole subject is the person nobody claims. A family in distress should look to other departmental and district-level relief routes rather than to this scheme.
• Organisations not selected by the screening committee, even if they carried out the cremation. Selection by the committee is the gate into the scheme.
• Unregistered groups. The scheme works through registered voluntary organisations vetted at district level.

How much does Antyeshti Anudan Yojana pay?

Rs 5,000 per cremation, paid as a reimbursement. There is no separate rate for different districts, and no additional allowance for transport or storage of the body published under this scheme. The organisation bears the cost first and recovers the Rs 5,000 afterwards.

Who selects the organisations?

Each district constitutes a district-level screening committee with five members:

The composition tells you how the scheme is meant to work in practice. The Superintendent of Police is there because unclaimed bodies come to notice through the police. The Chief Medical and Health Officer is there because a death in a government hospital or a body sent for post-mortem is a common route. The Treasury Officer is there because the reimbursement is a treasury payment. The department's own district officer runs the committee's business as Member Secretary.

How to apply and claim under Antyeshti Anudan Yojana

1. The voluntary organisation must first be selected by the district screening committee. Approach the Deputy Director or Assistant Director of the Social Justice and Empowerment Department at the district headquarters, who is the committee's Member Secretary, to be considered.
2. On learning of the death of an unclaimed or destitute person in its area, the selected organisation performs the last rites immediately and at its own cost. The scheme does not permit waiting for money before the cremation.
3. Keep the supporting record, the police record of the unclaimed body, the date and place of the cremation, and details of the rites performed.
4. Submit the demand in the prescribed format to the district office of the Social Justice and Empowerment Department.
5. The department reimburses Rs 5,000 to the organisation on the claim being accepted.

What counts as an unclaimed or destitute death?

The scheme's own wording is lawaris va nirashrit — unclaimed and destitute. In practice a district screening committee is dealing with a small number of recurring situations. An unidentified body recovered by the police, with no name and no relative traced. A destitute elderly person who died on a street, at a bus stand or in a shelter, with nobody to perform the rites. A patient who died in a government hospital whose family never came, so the body remains in the mortuary. A person whose relatives are traced but refuse to claim the body.

What these have in common is that no family is present to bear the cost or perform the rites, and that the cremation cannot be postponed. The presence of the Superintendent of Police and the Chief Medical and Health Officer on the committee reflects exactly these two routes, the police station and the hospital mortuary; through which such deaths come to official notice.

Why the scheme is structured this way

The design solves a real administrative problem. An unclaimed body cannot wait for paperwork, and there is nobody with the standing to file an application on the deceased's behalf. By pre-selecting organisations through a district committee and reimbursing them afterwards, the state removes the delay from the point at which speed matters, while keeping a check on who can draw the money.

It also means the scheme has no citizen application form and no online portal of its own. Antyeshti Anudan Yojana is not on the SJMS online application system alongside schemes such as Palanhar Yojana or Mukhyamantri Kanyadan Yojana, because it has no individual applicant. Anyone searching for an online Antyeshti application link is looking for something that does not exist under this scheme.

What families should look at instead

A family that has lost a member and needs immediate financial help is outside this scheme, but not outside the state's welfare system. The Social Justice and Empowerment Department runs the widow pension schemes. The Indira Gandhi National Widow Pension Yojana and the Mukhyamantri Ekalnari Samman Pension Yojana, which support a woman whose husband has died. Palanhar Yojana supports children who have lost parents. Where the death was of a registered construction worker, the Rajasthan Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board runs its own death and funeral assistance for registered members through the Labour Department, which is a separate department from the one that runs Antyeshti Anudan Yojana. Approach the district Social Justice and Empowerment office to be pointed to the right scheme.

Help and contacts

• Departmental helpdesk: 0141-2226638, weekdays 9:30 AM to 6:00 PM
• Email: support.sje@rajasthan.gov.in
• District contact and committee Member Secretary: Deputy Director or Assistant Director, Social Justice and Empowerment Department, at your district headquarters
• Head office: Ambedkar Bhawan, G-3/1, Rajmahal Residency Area, Jaipur
• Scheme listing: the department's e-booklet at sjmsnew.rajasthan.gov.in/ebooklet

The department has not published a rate revision above Rs 5,000, a separate scheme portal, or a dedicated helpline for Antyeshti Anudan Yojana. Where an organisation needs the current claim format or wants to be considered for selection, the district office is the only correct point of contact.