Samudra Sathi Scheme

What is the Samudra Sathi Scheme?

Samudra Sathi Scheme is an income-support programme of the Department of Fisheries, Government of West Bengal, for marine fishermen who cannot go to sea during the annual fishing ban. Samudra Sathi pays Rs 5,000 per month for two months; Rs 10,000 in all: by direct benefit transfer to eligible registered fishermen.

Samudra Sathi exists because of a specific, predictable gap in the fishing calendar. Venturing into the sea is prohibited from 15 April to 14 June every year, a conservation measure that protects the breeding season. The ban works, but it removes two months of earnings from households whose only livelihood is marine fishing. Samudra Sathi is the state's answer to that: a cash transfer for exactly the months the ban is in force.

The scheme was announced in the 2024 West Bengal state budget by Finance Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya, and the Department of Fisheries issued the Samudra Sathi notification and standard operating procedure on 12 March 2024, publishing the SOP in both English and Bengali. Press reporting at the time put the state allocation at around Rs 200 crore and the covered population at roughly two lakh registered fishermen across the three coastal districts.

Who is eligible for Samudra Sathi?

You can be considered if:

• You are a registered marine fisherman with the Department of Fisheries, Government of West Bengal.
• You are above 21 years of age.
• You live in one of the three coastal districts, Purba Medinipur, North 24 Parganas or South 24 Parganas.
• Your livelihood is adversely affected by the ban on going to sea between 15 April and 14 June.
• You hold a bank account in your own name for direct benefit transfer.

You are not eligible if:

• You are not registered with the Department of Fisheries as a marine fisherman. Registration is the gateway; the department builds the beneficiary list from its own database.
• You are 21 years or younger.
• You fish in inland or freshwater waters, or live outside the three coastal districts. The scheme is tied specifically to the marine ban.
• You are not a resident of West Bengal.
• Your bank account is not in your own name, since DBT cannot be routed to a third party's account.

What documents are required for Samudra Sathi?

Applicants who have never registered as marine fishermen should treat registration as step zero. Turning up with an application but no registration in the department's database is the single commonest reason a claim goes nowhere.

How to apply for the Samudra Sathi Scheme

1. Confirm or complete your fisherman registration with the Department of Fisheries at your block or district fisheries office. Without registration there is no basis on which the department can include you.
2. Read the official notification and SOP, published on 12 March 2024 in English and Bengali under the Programmes and Schemes section of wbfisheries.wb.gov.in. The SOP sets out the operating procedure the field offices follow.
3. Collect and fill in the Samudra Sathi application at your block or district fisheries office, or through the route indicated on the department's portal for the current year.
4. Attach the documents — fisherman registration or identity card, age proof, residence proof, bank passbook copy and a recent photograph.
5. Submit the application within the window notified for the year, which is tied to the 15 April to 14 June ban period, and collect the dated acknowledgement.
6. Cooperate with verification by the block fisheries staff, who confirm the registration, residence and active fishing status before the list is finalised.
7. Watch your bank account during the ban months. The Rs 5,000 per month arrives by direct benefit transfer for two months.

When is the money paid?

Payment is aligned to the ban period from 15 April to 14 June. Two monthly instalments of Rs 5,000 each are released to the verified beneficiary's bank account, totalling Rs 10,000 for the year. Because the transfer is by DBT, the passbook entry is the plainest confirmation that the assistance has been released, and there is no cash counter or intermediary involved at any point.

A beneficiary who was verified but sees no credit should check the bank side first: a dormant account with incomplete KYC, a closed account, a wrong IFSC code, or an account held in a relative's name will all stop the transfer even when the departmental sanction is correct.

How do you check your Samudra Sathi status?

Track the application at the block or district fisheries office where it was submitted, quoting the acknowledgement number. That office holds the verified beneficiary list for its area, which is the authoritative record. The Department of Fisheries can also be contacted directly at its Kolkata office on 033 2357 0072, or by email at the address published on wbfisheries.wb.gov.in.

Treat "Samudra Sathi beneficiary list" pages on private websites with caution. The department does not authorise them, and several ask for personal details that have no bearing on the scheme.

Why Samudra Sathi claims fail

• Applicant not registered as a marine fisherman with the Department of Fisheries.
• Age not above 21 on the documents produced.
• Residence outside the three coastal districts of Purba Medinipur, North 24 Parganas and South 24 Parganas.
• Bank account not in the applicant's own name, or wrong account details.
• Application submitted outside the notified window for the year.
• Duplicate entry already recorded against the same fisherman.

Registration problems dominate this list. A fisherman who has worked at sea for years but never completed departmental registration is, for the purposes of Samudra Sathi, invisible. The remedy is to register at the block fisheries office well before the next ban season rather than during it.

Key dates

• 15 April to 14 June. The annual ban on venturing into the sea, and the period Samudra Sathi assistance is designed to cover.
• 12 March 2024, the date the Department of Fisheries published the Samudra Sathi notification and the standard operating procedure in English and Bengali.
• The application window for each year is notified separately by the Department of Fisheries and is tied to the ban period. Check wbfisheries.wb.gov.in ahead of April rather than after the ban has begun.

Where do you raise a Samudra Sathi grievance?

• Block fisheries office, the first point for registration, verification and list-inclusion problems.
• District fisheries office of Purba Medinipur, North 24 Parganas or South 24 Parganas for escalation.
• Department of Fisheries, Government of West Bengal, IT Tower, 31-GN Block, Sector-V, Salt Lake, Kolkata 700091, telephone 033 2357 0072, for department-level grievances.

Samudra Sathi assistance is free of any charge. No fee is payable for registration as a fisherman, for the application, or for inclusion in the beneficiary list, and no official will ask a beneficiary for a bank OTP.