Samajik Sewa Bhatta Scheme — Sikkim

What is the Samajik Sewa Bhatta Scheme?

Samajik Sewa Bhatta is a monthly pension paid by the Culture Department, Government of Sikkim to traditional faith healers who serve their communities. The name translates roughly as "social service allowance", and readers searching for it in Nepali transliteration will find it written as Samajik Sewa Bhatta or simply as the "Jhakri pension".

The scheme is governed by Notification No. 01/CD/2022 dated 7 June 2022, issued from Manan Bhawan, Gangtok 737101 and published in the Sikkim Government Gazette Extraordinary of Tuesday, 7 June 2022. That notification was issued in supersession of the older Notification No. 1/CA&HD dated 6 September 2008, which is the date on which the bhatta was first created. So the scheme is not new. It has run since 2008, but the terms readers should rely on today are the 2022 ones.

According to the notification, the State Government notified that the Samajik Sewa Bhatta (Pension) provided to various traditional faith healers "like Dhami, Jhakri, Bijuwa, Bhungthing, Mangpa, Phedengba, Paw, Baidang, Janapa, Yeba, Yema, Sambas and Pheriwala" in the State, through the Culture Department, shall be at the rate of Rs 1,500 per month.

Key features

• Rs 1,500 per month, paid into the healer's own bank account.
• Administered by the Culture Department, not by a welfare or pension department. This matters, because applications sent to the wrong department are the commonest procedural mistake.
• A hard ceiling of 1,500 beneficiaries across the whole of Sikkim.
• The scheme extends to the whole of Sikkim, rural and urban.
• Sudeni Bhatta, the allowance formerly paid to traditional birth attendants; has been removed from the scheme.

The purpose is cultural as much as it is financial. Dhami, Jhakri, Bijuwa, Bhungthing, Mangpa and the other named practitioners carry oral traditions, ritual knowledge and healing practices that exist in no written form. A small, regular payment recognises that work as a social service and keeps the practice economically viable in villages where it would otherwise die out with the current generation of practitioners.

Who is eligible for the Samajik Sewa Bhatta?

You can claim the bhatta if all of these are true.

• You are a practising traditional faith healer belonging to one of the thirteen categories named in the notification: Dhami, Jhakri, Bijuwa, Bhungthing, Mangpa, Phedengba, Paw, Baidang, Janapa, Yeba, Yema, Sambas or Pheriwala.
• Your Gram Panchayat or Ward Councillor will certify in writing that you are indeed a traditional faith healer. If you live in an urban area, a police verification report takes the place of that certificate.
• You hold a Sikkim Subject Certificate or Certificate of Identification, along with an Aadhaar card, a voter ID card and a bank passbook.
• You can obtain an income certificate from your Block Development Officer, Sub-Divisional Magistrate or District Collector.
• You can supply a photograph of yourself in full faith or traditional healer attire, which the notification lists as a required document.
• There is space within the ceiling of 1,500 beneficiaries.

You cannot apply, or are not eligible, in these situations.

• You practise Sudeni Bhatta, that is, you are a traditional birth attendant conducting home deliveries. The 2022 notification expressly excludes Sudeni Bhatta from the list of Samajik Sewa Bhatta schemes with immediate effect. The stated reason is that childbirth through home delivery is no longer prevalent in the villages, because 100 per cent institutional delivery has been achieved through Accredited Social Health Activists working under the Health and Family Welfare Department.
• You are not a resident of Sikkim and cannot produce a Sikkim Subject Certificate or Certificate of Identification.
• Your local Panchayat or Ward Councillor will not certify your practice, and in an urban area you have no police verification report to offer instead. The scheme has no self-declaration route.
• You practise a healing or ritual tradition that is not among the thirteen named categories. The notification lists them by name and the list is the operative test.
• The 1,500-beneficiary ceiling is full and no vacancy exists. This is a cap on the scheme, not a judgement on the applicant, and an application can be pressed again when the position changes.

Notification No. 01/CD/2022 sets no age limit, no minimum years of practice and no explicit income cut-off, although it does require an income certificate from the BDO, SDM or District Collector as part of the application.

What documents are required for the Samajik Sewa Bhatta?

Clause 3 of the 2022 notification lists the documents in seven sub-clauses.

How to apply for the Samajik Sewa Bhatta in Sikkim

1. Get the practice certificate first. Approach your Gram Panchayat or Ward Councillor and ask for a certificate stating that you are a traditional faith healer. If you live in a municipal or urban area, apply instead for a police verification report to the same effect. Without one of these two documents the application cannot move.
2. Collect the identity and income papers. Take attested copies of your Sikkim Subject Certificate or Certificate of Identification, Aadhaar card, voter ID card and bank passbook, and obtain an income certificate from the concerned Block Development Officer, Sub-Divisional Magistrate or District Collector.
3. Take the two photographs the notification asks for. Two ordinary passport-size photographs, and separately a photograph of yourself in full faith or traditional healer attire. Applicants routinely forget the second one, and it is the document that most directly evidences the claim.
4. Write the application on plain paper, addressed to the Secretary, Culture Department, Government of Sikkim, Manan Bhawan, Gangtok 737101. State your name, village or ward, the healing tradition you practise and the list of documents enclosed.
5. Submit the application with all enclosures to the Culture Department, and keep a receipt or a dated acknowledgement. You can also route it through your Block Development Office if that is more practical than travelling to Gangtok.
6. Follow up on the Culture Department's number, +91-3592-202746, quoting the date of submission, and check the department's notifications page at culture.sikkim.gov.in for any revised instruction.

How is the bhatta paid, and how do I keep it running?

The bhatta is a monthly payment of Rs 1,500 made into the bank account whose passbook you submitted with the application — which is why clause 3(g) requires a copy of the passbook "reflecting the account details of the applicant".

The single continuing obligation is the life certificate every six months, obtained from the concerned Block Development Officer, Sub-Divisional Magistrate or District Collector. Two life certificates a year, roughly every six months, is the rhythm the notification sets. Nothing else has to be re-submitted; you do not re-apply for the scheme each year.

If a payment stops, check three things in this order: whether the current six-monthly life certificate was submitted, whether the bank account is still active and correctly recorded, and whether the department has issued a fresh notification. A dormant or closed bank account is a common cause, because the pension is credited electronically.

How do I check the status of my application?

There is no online status portal for the Samajik Sewa Bhatta. The Culture Department has not published a tracking system, and pensionscheme.sikkim.gov.in. The state's online pension portal, carries the Women and Child Welfare Department's schemes, not this one.

In practice, three checks work:

1. Call the Culture Department on +91-3592-202746 and quote the date you submitted the application and the name it was filed under.
2. Ask at your Block Development Office, which issues both the income and the life certificates and usually knows which local healers are on the list.
3. Watch the notifications page at culture.sikkim.gov.in, where the department publishes its circulars, the 2022 Samajik Sewa Bhatta notification itself is posted there.

Why applications are rejected, and how to fix them

• Sent to the wrong department. Several scheme directories list Social Justice or Social Welfare as the nodal department. The operative notification is issued by the Culture Department, and the application must be addressed to its Secretary.
• No Panchayat or Ward Councillor certificate, and no police verification report for an urban applicant. Nothing else substitutes for proof of practice.
• The traditional-attire photograph is missing. It is a named requirement in clause 3(d), not an optional extra.
• No income certificate from the BDO, SDM or District Collector.
• The applicant is a Sudeni, whose bhatta was discontinued in June 2022.
• The 1,500-beneficiary ceiling is full. The remedy here is to keep the application on record and re-apply when the department invites fresh cases.

Who to contact

• Culture Department, Government of Sikkim: Manan Bhawan, Gangtok, Sikkim 737101; telephone +91-3592-202746.
• Notifications and circulars, culture.sikkim.gov.in/visitor/notifications, where the Samajik Sewa Bhatta notification of 21 February 2025 is listed for download.
• Your Block Development Officer, Sub-Divisional Magistrate or District Collector, for the income certificate and the six-monthly life certificate.

No fee is payable to apply for the Samajik Sewa Bhatta, and no agent can charge for adding a name to the list. Every document the scheme needs is issued by a government office at ordinary certificate rates.