West Bengal Artisans Financial Benefit Scheme, 2024

What is the West Bengal Artisans Financial Benefit Scheme, 2024?

West Bengal Artisans Financial Benefit Scheme, 2024 is a state grant scheme for traditional artisans, notified by the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise and Textiles Department on 7 March 2024. The scheme runs for five years from that date and is designed to put working capital and working tools directly into the hands of craftspeople instead of routing support only through intermediaries.

According to the department's notification, the objective is to give the artisans of Bengal systematic financial support for procurement of modern tool kits, provisioning of working sheds and access to digital markets and e-commerce. The scheme targets about 1 lakh artisans and 200 industrial cooperative societies every year, with an expected annual outlay of about Rs 200 crore.

West Bengal has a very large traditional craft base; Bankura terracotta, Krishnanagar clay dolls, Purulia chhau masks, Murshidabad ivory-style carving, Nadia and Birbhum kantha, Bardhaman brassware, cane and bamboo work across the northern districts. Most of these artisans work as single-person units with tools that are decades old. The 2024 scheme is aimed at exactly that gap.

What the scheme actually funds

• Modern tool kits and equipment; purchase and repair.
• Work sheds and fixed assets for artisan cooperative societies.
• Digital marketing and e-commerce onboarding, so that products reach buyers beyond the local haat.
• Facilitation support, help with enlistment on the state artisan portal, help with forming a cooperative society, and help with statutory compliance.

Who is eligible for the Artisans Financial Benefit Scheme?

An individual artisan qualifies if:

• The artisan is aged between 18 and 60 years.
• The artisan is engaged in a traditional craft using hand tools or small machines.
• The artisan is enrolled on the State Portal for Artisans and Weavers at artisan.wb.gov.in.
• The artisan is an Indian citizen and has been a resident of West Bengal for at least 10 years.

An artisan cooperative society qualifies if:

• It is a registered industrial cooperative society of artisans.
• It has a minimum of 10 artisan members.

You cannot apply if:

• You or a member of your family is a government employee.
• You have already received a government grant for the same purpose. The scheme does not fund the same tool kit twice.
• You are a handloom or khadi weaver. Weavers are expressly kept out because the state runs the separate West Bengal Handloom and Khadi Weavers Financial Benefit Scheme, 2024 for them.
• You are below 18 or above 60 years of age.
• You are not enlisted on the state artisan portal and do not get enlisted before the screening committee takes up your case.

How much money does the scheme provide?

An artisan society that qualifies for both the equipment and the work shed components can therefore draw up to Rs 10 lakh plus the digital marketing amount. Individual grants are one time; the scheme is not an annual recurring payment.

What documents are required?

How to apply for the Artisans Financial Benefit Scheme

1. Enrol on the State Portal for Artisans and Weavers at artisan.wb.gov.in first. Without this enrolment your application will not be entertained, whatever else is in order.
2. Collect three quotations for the tool kit, machinery or equipment you want to buy or repair, so the screening committee can compare rates.
3. Fill in the application form with your personal details, craft, portal enrolment number, bank account details and the equipment proposed.
4. Submit the application at the right office — the Block Development Officer if you live in a panchayat area, the Sub-Divisional Officer if you live in a municipality, and the Municipal Corporation office if you live in a corporation area. Take an acknowledgement.
5. Wait for the fortnightly screening committee to take up your case. In a panchayat area the committee is chaired by the BDO or Joint BDO with a Sub-Assistant Engineer as member and the Industrial Development Officer as member-convener. In a municipality the SDO or Deputy Magistrate chairs it. In a corporation area an Additional or Deputy Municipal Commissioner chairs it, with the District Industries Centre manager as member-convener.
6. Collect the sanction order generated by the District Industries Centre after the committee recommends your case.
7. Buy or repair the equipment and submit the invoices so that the Directorate of MSME can process the fund requisition and release the money to your bank account.

For a cooperative society work shed, add one step before submission: get a project estimate with a layout plan prepared and vetted by a government engineer, and attach the society's land documents and registration certificate.

How to track your application

1. Ask the receiving office: BDO, SDO or Corporation, for the date of the next screening committee sitting, since committees meet fortnightly.
2. After the committee sits, follow up with the District Industries Centre, which generates the sanction order and is the office that actually knows the status of a sanctioned case.
3. Once the sanction order is issued, the release depends on the fund requisition at the Directorate of MSME level, so a gap of a few weeks between sanction and credit is normal.
4. Check the state artisan portal at financialbenefitartisan.wb.gov.in, the dedicated scheme portal run by the Directorate of MSME and Textiles, for scheme notices and application status features.

Why applications get rejected

• No enrolment on the state artisan portal. This is the single commonest reason and the easiest to fix.
• Age outside 18 to 60 years on the date of application.
• Fewer than three quotations, or quotations from related parties.
• A government employee in the family, disclosed during verification.
• An earlier government grant for the same purpose, picked up during screening.
• Weaver applying as an artisan, handloom and khadi weavers must go to the weavers' scheme instead.
• Society with fewer than 10 artisan members, or with a lapsed registration.
• Work shed proposal without a vetted estimate or without clear land documents.

How to appeal or raise a grievance

An applicant aggrieved by the decision of the General Manager of the District Industries Centre may appeal to the Director of MSME. The appeal route is written into the scheme notification, so use it rather than filing a fresh application, which restarts the queue.

For questions on portal enrolment, the Bangla Sahayata Kendra counters at bsk.wb.gov.in help artisans register on the state portal free of charge. The Directorate of MSME and Textiles, Government of West Bengal, is the administering authority for the scheme as a whole.

Applying is free. No middleman can charge you for a sanction, and the grant is released only to the artisan's or the society's own bank account.