State Welfare Scheme for Purohits

What is the State Welfare Scheme for Purohits?

The State Welfare Scheme for Purohits is a welfare measure of the Government of West Bengal, announced in September 2020, that pays a monthly allowance to financially distressed practising priests. Locally the benefit is usually spoken of as purohit bhata, and readers searching under that name are looking for this scheme.

The coverage as announced is broader than the name suggests. It reaches practising temple purohits, tribal purohits who conduct the rites of Adivasi communities, and priests of other faiths: Christian, Jain and Buddhist denominations among them. The common thread is not the faith but the circumstance: a person who performs religious duties for a community, earns little or nothing dependable from it, and has no pension, no employer and no retirement provision.

The scheme fits into an established pattern of West Bengal state practice. The state had for years paid a monthly allowance to imams and muezzins, and the purohit scheme extended a comparable form of support to Hindu priests and then to priests of the other denominations named. Administratively the scheme sits with the Backward Classes Welfare Department, and the identification and verification of beneficiaries is done at district level.

Understanding what the scheme is not saves a reader time. It is not a pension, so there is no contribution and no service record. It is not payment for religious service, so the state is not employing the priest. It is a welfare allowance directed at distress, which is why means and the fact of active practice are both verified before enrolment.

Who is eligible for the purohit allowance, and who is not?

You may be enrolled if:

• You are a practising priest. A temple purohit, a tribal purohit, or a priest of a Christian, Jain or Buddhist denomination, as covered by the announcement.
• You are resident in West Bengal and can show it with a voter card, ration card or equivalent document.
• You are in financial distress. The scheme is means-directed, and the district administration assesses this before enrolment.
• Your religious duties are verifiable locally. A temple committee, a place of worship, a church or a recognised community body can certify that you actually officiate.
• You hold an active bank account that can be Aadhaar-seeded, since payment is by direct transfer.

You cannot apply, or are not eligible, if:

• You are not a practising priest. Descent from a priestly family, or a formal qualification without active practice, does not by itself qualify.
• You are not financially distressed. A priest attached to a well-endowed temple with a dependable income falls outside the purpose of the scheme.
• You are not a resident of West Bengal. The scheme is a state measure and does not extend to priests living in another state.
• You already draw a comparable state allowance for religious functionaries, such as the allowance paid to imams and muezzins. The state does not pay two allowances of the same character to one person.
• You are a serving government employee or a government pensioner. A person with a salary or a pension from the state is outside the distress category the scheme addresses.
• You cannot produce local certification of practice. Enrolment turns on verification at block level, and an unverifiable claim will not be enrolled.

How much is paid, and how?

The allowance was announced in September 2020 at Rs 1,000 per month. Payment is by direct transfer into the beneficiary's bank account, which is why an active and Aadhaar-seeded account is mandatory at enrolment rather than optional.

Two qualifications belong with that figure. First, a monthly allowance rate can be revised by a later government order, and the amount actually credited today should be confirmed from the Block Development Office or the District Magistrate's office rather than from an announcement made years ago. Second, the allowance is per eligible priest, not per household, and it does not vary by the size of the temple, the number of rituals performed or the community served.

Alongside the allowance, the announcement carried an assurance of housing support for eligible priests who do not own a house. That support is delivered through the state's rural housing programme and is decided against that programme's own eligibility list and waiting order — it is not a second cash payment under this scheme, and a priest should apply for it as a housing beneficiary in the ordinary way.

What documents are required?

How to apply for the State Welfare Scheme for Purohits

1. Get local certification of your practice. Obtain a written certificate from the temple committee, the place of worship, the church, or the tribal or community body for which you officiate, stating that you are a practising priest and for how long. This is the document the enquiry turns on.
2. Assemble the identity and residence papers: Aadhaar, a voter card or ration card showing your West Bengal address, passport-size photographs and your bank passbook. Check that the bank account is active and Aadhaar-seeded before you file; a dormant account is the commonest cause of a payment that never arrives.
3. Go to the Block Development Office in a rural block, or to the Sub-Divisional Officer or the District Magistrate's office, and ask for the application under the welfare scheme for purohits. A Bangla Sahayata Kendra will help you fill the form and check the annexures at no charge.
4. Complete the form and the income declaration, describing your sources of income honestly. Because the scheme is directed at distress, an inflated or evasive declaration is more likely to delay enrolment than to help it.
5. Submit the application and take a dated acknowledgement. Keep it, along with a copy of everything you filed.
6. Cooperate with the local verification. A block official, or a panchayat or municipal functionary, will normally verify that you officiate where you say you do and that your circumstances match the declaration.
7. Check your bank passbook after enrolment to confirm the first credit, and report a non-credit to the block office with your acknowledgement in hand.

How do you check whether enrolment has gone through?

Because enrolment is handled by the district administration, status is checked at the Block Development Office or the office where the application was filed, quoting the acknowledgement. The beneficiary list for the block is maintained locally, and the dealing assistant can confirm whether a name has been included and from which month payment starts. The decisive confirmation is the credit in the bank passbook, so an updated passbook or an account statement should be checked before assuming the application has failed.

Why do applications and payments fail?

• No verifiable certification of practice. A self-declaration without support from a temple committee, church or community body will not clear verification.
• Income declaration inconsistent with local enquiry. Where the enquiry finds a dependable income the declaration did not mention, the file is rejected.
• Dormant, closed or non-Aadhaar-seeded bank account. The allowance is sanctioned but the transfer fails, and the beneficiary hears nothing. Submit a fresh passbook copy for an active account.
• Name mismatch between Aadhaar, the bank account and the application. All three must read the same. One corrected document usually settles it.
• Duplicate allowance. A person already drawing a comparable state allowance for religious functionaries will not be enrolled twice.
• Application filed in the wrong district. File where you live and officiate.

Where do you take a grievance?

Escalate in order: the Block Development Office that handled the enrolment, then the Sub-Divisional Officer, then the District Magistrate, and then the Backward Classes Welfare Department through the state grievance channel. Complain in writing, attach the acknowledgement, and keep a receipt of the complaint itself.

Two practical cautions. No fee is payable to any agent for enrolment. The form is free and the application is filed across a government counter. And where a payment stops after having run for some months, check the bank account first, because a dormant account or a failed Aadhaar seeding explains far more stoppages than any decision to cancel a beneficiary.