Sneher Paras

What was Sneher Paras?

Sneher Paras (স্নেহের পরশ, literally "a touch of affection") was an emergency relief scheme of the Government of West Bengal that paid a one-time ex-gratia grant of Rs 1,000 to workers domiciled in West Bengal who were stranded outside the state when the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown began on 24 March 2020.

Sneher Paras was notified by the Department of Disaster Management and Civil Defence under Notification No. 106-PSDM&CD/2020 dated 20 April 2020. The scheme is important to understand as history rather than as a live benefit: the application window closed on 3 May 2020 and has not been reopened.

What the scheme was designed to do

• Put a small amount of cash directly into the hands of Bengali migrant workers who had lost daily wages and were living in camps, worksites or rented rooms in other states.
• Create, for the first time, a state-held digital list of West Bengal's out-of-state workers, which later fed into the state's migrant worker registration work.
• Deliver the money without any physical contact, since applicants were hundreds or thousands of kilometres from their home district and could not visit a block office.

Main features

• Single payment of Rs 1,000. Sneher Paras was not a monthly allowance.
• Paid by Direct Benefit Transfer into the applicant's own bank account.
• Application only through a purpose-built Android app, "West Bengal Sneher Paras", also reachable from the state's Jai Bangla portal.
• Verification by the District Magistrate of the worker's home district, or by the Commissioner of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation for Kolkata residents.

Who was eligible for Sneher Paras, and who was not eligible?

A worker could claim Sneher Paras if:

• The worker was a resident of West Bengal, established through a Khadya Sathi digital ration card number, an EPIC (Voter ID) number or an Aadhaar number.
• The worker was physically outside West Bengal on the date of application and unable to return because of the lockdown restrictions in force from 24 March 2020.
• The worker held a bank account in their own name that could receive a direct transfer.
• The District Magistrate of the home district, or the KMC Commissioner, confirmed the stranded status on the online record.

A person was not eligible if:

• The person was inside West Bengal at the time of application. Sneher Paras was aimed only at people stranded elsewhere; residents inside the state were covered by ration and other relief measures instead.
• The person could not produce any of the three accepted West Bengal identity numbers, so domicile could not be established.
• The person had no bank account, because the grant was payable only by DBT and no cash counter existed.
• More than one claim was made from the same identity. Duplicate entries were rejected at the verification stage.

There was no income ceiling, no occupation restriction and no age bar published for Sneher Paras. The single test was West Bengal domicile plus being stranded outside the state.

What documents were needed for Sneher Paras?

Nothing had to be printed, attested or posted. The whole submission was made from a phone, which was the point of the design.

How was the application for Sneher Paras made?

The steps below describe the process as it operated between 20 April and 3 May 2020. They are recorded here for reference; the route is no longer live.

1. Download the app. The worker installed the "West Bengal Sneher Paras" application from the Google Play Store, or opened the link published on the state's Jai Bangla migrant worker portal.
2. Register with a mobile number. The worker entered a working mobile number and verified it with the one-time password sent to that number.
3. Enter identity details. The worker typed in a Khadya Sathi number, EPIC number or Aadhaar number, along with name, home district and present location outside West Bengal.
4. Enter bank details. Account number and IFSC code were entered exactly as printed on the passbook, because a mismatch meant the transfer would fail.
5. Upload a photograph and, optionally, the name and number of a local contact person in the home district.
6. Submit and wait for verification. The claim went to the District Magistrate of the home district (or the KMC Commissioner), who approved eligible cases online.
7. Receive the payment. The Department of Disaster Management released the Rs 1,000 by direct transfer, and the applicant received a confirmation SMS on the registered mobile number.

What should a migrant worker from West Bengal do now?

Sneher Paras has been superseded. A worker from West Bengal working in another state should now look at three live routes, all under the Labour Department:

1. West Bengal Migrant Workers' Welfare Scheme, 2023 — the standing registration system for out-of-state workers from West Bengal. Registration creates the record on which later benefits depend.
2. Shramashree Scheme, 2025, notified on 19 August 2025 and effective from 21 August 2025. Shramashree pays a one-time travel grant of Rs 5,000 and a rehabilitation allowance of Rs 5,000 a month for up to twelve months, or until the worker finds work in West Bengal. Claims are filed at karmasathips.wblabour.gov.in.
3. Utkarsh Bangla skill training and the Karmashree employment scheme, which Shramashree explicitly links to for workers who choose to stay back in the state.

Where to raise a grievance

Sneher Paras had no standing helpline of its own; grievances during the 2020 window were routed through the District Magistrate's office of the applicant's home district. Because the scheme is closed, an old Sneher Paras payment question is best taken to the same District Magistrate's office, or to the district Labour office, which now holds the migrant worker records.

Sneher Paras registration was free. No fee was ever payable, and any website or agent asking for money today to "apply for Sneher Paras" is not connected to the Government of West Bengal.

How to check your application status

Sneher Paras never had a dedicated status-tracking page or a tracking ID system: the entire 2020 window ran on the "West Bengal Sneher Paras" mobile app, and the only status signal an applicant received was the confirmation SMS sent to the registered mobile number once the District Magistrate (or the KMC Commissioner for Kolkata residents) approved the claim and the Rs 1,000 was credited by Direct Benefit Transfer.

Because the scheme closed on 3 May 2020 and has not reopened, there is no live portal today where an old Sneher Paras claim can be looked up. An applicant who filed during that window and wants to confirm what happened has three practical options:

• Check the bank account used at the time. A credit of Rs 1,000 around April-May 2020 from the West Bengal government's disaster relief head is the actual proof of payment; bank statement or passbook is the most reliable record now, since the app itself is no longer in active use.
• Contact the District Magistrate's office of the home district named in the original application (or the Kolkata Municipal Corporation Commissioner's office for a Kolkata-based claim). These offices held the approval records and remain the correct point of contact for a 2020 case.
• Approach the district Labour office. Migrant worker records from Sneher Paras fed into the state's later migrant worker registration work, so the district Labour office is now the practical successor point of contact for any lingering query tied to that 2020 registration.

There is no SMS-based "type SNEHER and send to" style status check, no helpline number, and no web form for this specific scheme; any site claiming to offer live Sneher Paras status tracking today is not an official West Bengal government channel.

Common reasons for rejection

Sneher Paras verification was done by District Magistrates working through a large volume of app submissions in just two weeks, so most rejections traced back to a handful of avoidable problems rather than any discretionary judgment:

• Applicant was inside West Bengal at the time of filing. The scheme was built only for workers stranded outside the state; a claim filed from within West Bengal did not meet the basic test and was turned down regardless of how genuine the hardship was.
• No valid West Bengal identity number could be matched. The app accepted a Khadya Sathy ration card number, an EPIC (voter ID) number or an Aadhaar number as proof of domicile; a number that did not match state records, or was mistyped, meant the District Magistrate's office could not confirm the applicant was actually from West Bengal.
• Bank account details did not match. Because payment went out only by Direct Benefit Transfer, an account number or IFSC code entered incorrectly, or a bank account not held in the applicant's own name, caused the transfer to fail even after the claim was otherwise approved.
• Duplicate claims from the same identity. More than one submission using the same ration card, EPIC or Aadhaar number was flagged and rejected at verification, since the scheme was designed to pay each eligible worker only once.
• Application filed after 3 May 2020. The window was hard-closed; a submission made after that date, even from a genuinely stranded and eligible worker, could not be processed because the app itself stopped accepting new entries.

None of these can be corrected today, since Sneher Paras is closed and has no reopening or appeal process. A worker who was wrongly turned down in 2020, or who never got to apply in time, has no route to revisit that specific claim; the practical step now is to register instead under the West Bengal Migrant Workers' Welfare Scheme, 2023, or to check eligibility for the Shramashree Scheme, 2025, both of which are live and carry their own separate application and verification process.