Annapurna Yojana (Annapurna Bhandar), West Bengal

What is Annapurna Yojana?

Annapurna Yojana is a monthly cash assistance scheme of the Department of Women and Child Development and Social Welfare, Government of West Bengal. The scheme was notified in May 2026 and rolled out from 1 June 2026, and it pays Rs 3,000 per month to eligible women in the state through Direct Benefit Transfer into their Aadhaar-linked bank accounts.

Annapurna Yojana is widely called Annapurna Bhandar (অন্নপূর্ণা ভাণ্ডার) in Bengali, and readers searching under that name are looking at the same scheme. It succeeds and substantially enlarges Lakshmir Bhandar, the state's earlier women's assistance scheme: existing Lakshmir Bhandar beneficiaries move across automatically, without filing anything fresh.

According to the announcement carried on the government's own news service, the first instalment was credited on 3 June 2026 to more than 28 lakh beneficiaries, and the payment run of 1 July 2026 extended the scheme to a far larger group as verification caught up.

Key objectives

• Put a predictable monthly amount directly into a woman's own bank account, independent of any male household member.
• Widen the base of state cash support for women in the 25 to 60 age band, which is when household expenditure pressure is heaviest.
• Consolidate the earlier Lakshmir Bhandar caseload into a single, higher-value payment rather than running parallel schemes.

Main features

• Rs 3,000 a month, that is Rs 36,000 a year, per eligible woman.
• Paid by DBT into an Aadhaar-linked bank account in the woman's own name.
• Age band 25 to 60 years, with exclusions for income tax payers and government employees.
• Automatic migration of existing Lakshmir Bhandar beneficiaries.
• Verification by BDOs and SDOs, with the District Magistrate as the final sanctioning authority.

Who is eligible for Annapurna Yojana, and who is not eligible?

You can apply if:

• You are a woman and a permanent resident of West Bengal.
• You are aged between 25 and 60 years.
• You are not an income tax payer.
• You do not hold permanent government employment, and you do not draw a regular salary or pension from the state government, the central government, a statutory body, a panchayat, a municipality, a local body or a government-aided educational institution.
• You hold a bank account in your own name, seeded with your Aadhaar number, because the payment is made only by DBT.

You cannot apply if:

• You are below 25 or above 60 years of age.
• You file income tax returns as an income tax payer.
• You are a permanent government employee, or you receive a regular government salary or a government pension, including from government-aided educational institutions.
• You are not a permanent resident of West Bengal.
• Your record was flagged as deceased, shifted, deleted or absent during the SIR-2026 exercise. According to the government announcement, such entries are excluded, though a person with a pending appeal against that flag remains eligible until the appeal is decided.

Some aggregator sites list additional bars, such as households with more than three rooms or applicants holding a GSTIN. Those conditions are not confirmed in the government announcement seen for this guide, so treat them as unverified and check the printed form's declaration section, which states the exclusions that actually apply.

What documents are required for Annapurna Yojana?

Photocopies should be self-attested. Nothing needs to be notarised, and no gazetted officer's countersignature is required.

How to apply for Annapurna Yojana online

1. Open the state social security portal at socialsecurity.wb.gov.in, which routes to the state's Social Registry system for family-level data collection.
2. Select your district from the list shown on the entry screen.
3. Enter your registered mobile number and verify it with the one-time password sent to that number.
4. Complete the family-level data collection form, entering the applicant's name, age, Aadhaar number, EPIC number and address exactly as they appear on the documents.
5. Enter the bank account number and IFSC of the account held in your own name and confirm that it is Aadhaar-seeded.
6. Upload the scanned documents, Aadhaar, EPIC, bank passbook first page, residence proof and photograph.
7. Submit the form and save the acknowledgement number shown on screen. Every later status check needs it.
8. Wait for field verification by the Block Development Officer or Sub-Divisional Officer, followed by sanction by the District Magistrate.

How to apply for Annapurna Yojana offline

1. Collect the printed form from your Block Development Office, Sub-Divisional Office, municipal office, or from a government camp held in your area. Forms were released on 27 May 2026 and are available in Bengali, English and Hindi.
2. Fill the form in block letters in the language of your choice, taking the spellings directly from your Aadhaar and EPIC so that they match.
3. Attach self-attested photocopies of Aadhaar, EPIC, bank passbook, residence proof, and paste the photograph in the space provided.
4. Submit the completed form at the same office or camp and collect the receipt. Do not leave without it.
5. Follow up at the BDO office with the receipt number if you hear nothing after the verification cycle.

How much benefit does Annapurna Yojana provide?

Annapurna Yojana pays Rs 3,000 every month, a total of Rs 36,000 in a year, to each sanctioned beneficiary. The payment goes directly into the woman's own Aadhaar-linked bank account through Direct Benefit Transfer, with no intermediary and no cash counter.

Payment history so far:

• 3 June 2026, first instalment of Rs 3,000 credited; more than 28.25 lakh beneficiaries received it in that run.
• 1 July 2026, second instalment released, covering a much larger set of beneficiaries as verification of new enrolments completed.

There is no separate application for each month. Once a beneficiary is sanctioned, the instalment repeats automatically as long as the eligibility conditions continue to be met.

How to check your Annapurna Yojana application status

1. Return to socialsecurity.wb.gov.in, select your district and log in with the same mobile number used at the time of application.
2. Enter your acknowledgement number in the status section.
3. The status shows one of: submitted, under verification with the BDO or SDO, sanctioned by the District Magistrate, or rejected with a reason.
4. Offline applicants can take the paper receipt to the Block Development Office and ask for the status against the receipt number.
5. For a payment that has been sanctioned but not credited, check your bank passbook first, then confirm at the bank that your account is Aadhaar seeded, an unseeded account is the most common reason a sanctioned payment does not arrive.

Common reasons Annapurna Yojana applications are rejected

• Age outside 25 to 60 years on the date of application.
• Bank account not Aadhaar-seeded, so DBT cannot reach it even after sanction.
• Account not in the applicant's own name. A joint account with a husband or an account in a relative's name will not do.
• Name mismatch between Aadhaar, EPIC and the bank record. Fix the mismatch at the source document before reapplying.
• Income tax payer or government employee status declared or detected during verification.
• Record flagged in the SIR-2026 exercise as deceased, shifted, deleted or absent. If this is wrong, file the appeal; eligibility survives while the appeal is pending.
• Duplicate application filed both online and on paper, which puts both entries into review.

Key dates for Annapurna Yojana

• 19 May 2026 — the scheme notification was issued (as reported in the official announcement).
• 27 May 2026; printed application forms released at block and municipal offices.
• 1 June 2026: scheme rolled out; the 90-day enrolment window opened.
• 3 June 2026, first instalment credited to more than 28 lakh beneficiaries; online applications opened on the same date.
• 1 July 2026: second monthly instalment released.
• 25 August 2026, the reported end of the initial 90-day enrolment window. Confirm this on the official portal, since enrolment windows in West Bengal social security schemes are routinely extended by administrative order.

Where to get help

Annapurna Yojana is administered through the ordinary district administration, so the help route is the same: your Block Development Office in rural areas, your municipal office or Sub-Divisional Office in urban areas, and the District Magistrate's office as the sanctioning authority. The scheme sits with the Department of Women and Child Development and Social Welfare.

Only use portals ending in .gov.in: socialsecurity.wb.gov.in and socialregistry.wb.gov.in. A number of look-alike sites ending in .com, .co.in, .in and .online advertise "Annapurna Bhandar apply online" and are not government sites. Applying for Annapurna Yojana is free at every stage, and no official will ask for the OTP sent to your mobile number.