Indira Gandhi National Widow Pension Scheme (Sikkim)

What is the Indira Gandhi National Widow Pension Scheme in Sikkim?

Indira Gandhi National Widow Pension Scheme, generally shortened to IGNWPS, is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme implemented in Sikkim by the Women, Child, Senior Citizen and Divyangjan Welfare Department through its NSAP Division. According to the department's pension portal at pensionscheme.sikkim.gov.in, the scheme pays Rs 2,000 per month to a widow aged 21 years and above whose household is Below Poverty Line.

IGNWPS has been running in Sikkim since 2014, under the Rules for the Sikkim Social Assistance Pension Schemes, 2014. The department notes that the Rs 2,000 monthly pension consists of the Central and State governments' shares, Sikkim adds a state top-up to the Government of India assistance, so a beneficiary receives one combined credit rather than two separate payments.

The purpose is narrow and practical. A widow in a BPL household in Sikkim who has no earnings of her own has, before this pension, no regular cash of her own. Rs 2,000 a month, paid directly into her own bank account, is money that does not pass through anyone else's hands.

Key features

• Monthly pension of Rs 2,000, or Rs 24,000 a year.
• Minimum age 21 years.
• Restricted to Below Poverty Line households.
• Applicant must have no source of income.
• Paid by Direct Benefit Transfer, never in cash.
• Ceases on remarriage, from the date of the remarriage.

Sikkim also runs a separate Sikkim Unmarried Women Pension Scheme at Rs 2,000 a month for unmarried women aged 45 and above, on the same portal. Readers sometimes confuse the two: IGNWPS is for widows, the other for never-married women.

Who is eligible for the widow pension in Sikkim?

You can get the pension if all of these are true:

• You are a domicile of the State of Sikkim, with a Sikkim Subject Certificate, Certificate of Identification or Residential Certificate.
• You are a widow, evidenced by your husband's death certificate bearing your name as the legal wife or widow.
• You have attained the age of 21 years or more.
• Your household is in the Below Poverty Line category.
• You have no source of income, and you are not a recipient of a salary, pension or family pension from the Central Government or any other state government.
• You hold a bank account, the portal specifies one opened under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, that can receive DBT credits.

You cannot apply, or you are not eligible, if:

• You are below 21 years of age.
• You have remarried. The department states that if the beneficiary remarries, the pension shall cease to be drawn from the date of her remarriage, and a remarried applicant cannot enter the scheme in the first place.
• You draw a salary, pension or family pension from the Central Government or another state government. A widow already receiving her late husband's government family pension is not eligible.
• Your household is not on the BPL list.
• You cannot establish Sikkim domicile.
• You have another source of income.

The family-pension exclusion is the one that catches most applicants. A widow receiving a government family pension is provided for through that channel, and IGNWPS is meant for widows with nothing.

What documents are required for IGNWPS in Sikkim?

The two certificates at the top of that table are worth getting right before you start. A death certificate issued in the husband's name alone, without the widow's name recorded on it, is routinely returned for correction, and obtaining the non-marriage certificate through the panchayat takes its own few days.

How to apply for the Sikkim widow pension online

1. Open the official pension portal at pensionscheme.sikkim.gov.in.
2. Click Create Account, fill in the mandatory registration details, username, gender, first name, last name, email, mobile number and password; enter the captcha and click Register. Login credentials are sent to the registered email ID or mobile number.
3. Return to pensionscheme.sikkim.gov.in, click Apply now and log in through the Sikkim single sign-on at sso.sikkim.gov.in.
4. Select the Indira Gandhi National Widow Pension Scheme and complete every mandatory field of the application.
5. Upload the death certificate, non-marriage certificate, residence certificate, BPL ration card, age proof, Aadhaar and bank passbook in the prescribed file size and file type.
6. Submit the application and save the system-generated application number shown on screen. It is your only acknowledgement.

How to apply for the Sikkim widow pension offline

1. Approach your Gram Panchayat, Municipality or Municipal Corporation office, consult the designated authority about the procedure and the local departmental office, and collect the application form.
2. Fill in all mandatory fields and attach self-attested copies of the death certificate, non-marriage certificate, SSC/COI/Residential Certificate, BPL ration card, age proof, Aadhaar and bank passbook.
3. Submit the completed form to the designated receiving authority and ask for a dated acknowledgement.

The offline route is still the more common one in Sikkim's rural wards, and the panchayat is also where the non-marriage certificate is usually obtained, so the two errands can be combined.

What happens after you apply?

The department follows the same sequence for every social assistance pension in Sikkim:

1. On receipt of the application in the prescribed form, the application is scrutinised by the Selection Committee.
2. Approval is accorded by the Secretary of the department.
3. A copy of the order for grant and payment of pension is endorsed to the District Collectors, Sub-Divisional Magistrates, Gram Vikash Adhikari and Panchayats where the applicant resides, and to the applicant herself.
4. The pension is distributed through the Direct Benefit Transfer system, or any other system decided by the sanctioning or competent authority from time to time.

That endorsement chain is useful to know. If your SMS never arrives, the Panchayat and the Gram Vikash Adhikari hold a copy of the sanction order and can tell you whether your name is on it.

How do you check your widow pension status in Sikkim?

The department conveys the status — approval or rejection: to the applicant through an SMS. There is no separate public tracking screen for these pensions. Three practical points follow:

• Keep the system-generated application number safe.
• Keep the registered mobile number active and in your own possession.
• If no message arrives within a reasonable period, take the application number to the district office of the Women, Child, Senior Citizen and Divyangjan Welfare Department, or ask the Gram Vikash Adhikari whether the endorsement has been received.

Once the pension is running, check your passbook for the Rs 2,000 DBT credit each month. A missing month is far more often a bank problem than a cancellation.

Why widow pension applications get rejected in Sikkim

• Death certificate does not name the legal wife or widow, so the relationship cannot be established from the document.
• Non-marriage certificate missing.
• Applicant below 21 years of age.
• Household not on the BPL list.
• Applicant draws a government salary, pension or family pension, which is an explicit disqualification.
• Domicile not established; no SSC, COI or Residential Certificate.
• Bank account dormant, closed or not matching the Aadhaar name, so the DBT credit fails even after sanction.

Almost all of these are correctable. A death certificate can be amended by the registering authority to record the widow's name. A dormant Jan Dhan account can be reactivated at the branch. A BPL listing error is raised through the panchayat.

Key dates and how long the pension lasts

IGNWPS in Sikkim is open all year and the department has announced no fixed last date. Applications are taken as they come and sanctioned on a rolling basis. There is no yearly re-application: once the Secretary sanctions the pension, the Rs 2,000 continues while eligibility holds.

The one event that ends it definitively is remarriage. The pension ceases from the date of remarriage. Continuing to draw it after remarrying creates a recovery liability, so the change should be reported to the district welfare office rather than left unreported.

Where to raise a grievance

• Gram Panchayat, Municipality or Municipal Corporation office, the first stop and the office that receives the endorsed sanction order.
• Gram Vikash Adhikari, for follow-up on a pending or unpaid case.
• Sub-Divisional Magistrate and District Collector: both receive copies of the sanction order.
• Women, Child, Senior Citizen and Divyangjan Welfare Department, Gangtok: contact details listed on sikkim.gov.in, for cases the district cannot resolve.

Applying for IGNWPS is free. No agent can charge a fee for adding your name to the widow pension list, and no department official will ever ask for your OTP, ATM PIN or internet banking password.