Scholarship
Welfare Measures for Children of Labourers(WMCL)
Overview
About WMCL
Welfare Measures for Children of Labourers belongs to the Coffee Board. That one fact clears up most of what the name confuses: it is not a state building workers' board benefit, and the Ministry of Labour and Employment has nothing to do with it. The Board answers to the Department of Commerce, and it runs this as Component 5 of the Integrated Coffee Development Project, the same umbrella under which it pays replantation subsidy and farm machinery support to growers.
The people it reaches are a narrow group: children of the men and women who work on coffee estates and inside licensed coffee curing works, once those children are past Class 10 and still studying. In 2024-25 the Board paid out Rs 4,11,60,000 under this head to 5,274 students, of whom 3,442 were recorded as Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe (Coffee Board Annual Report 2024-25).
Those two numbers carry the most important change in the scheme's recent life. The version described across scheme aggregators is the older one, framed for the Medium Term Framework period, open only to children of SC and ST labourers and paying Rs 2,250 as its stipend (the Board's MTF-period modalities). The modalities the Board approved for the current cycle write the eligibility clause without the caste condition and set a higher figure against every line, the stipend at Rs 5,000. The circular that issued them, No. 80 of 05.08.2024, sends them to every Joint Director and Deputy Director of Extension for strict adherence while implementing the new scheme (ICDP modalities to 2025-26). A family reading the older text and deciding not to apply is reading a version those offices have been told to work from no longer.
Who runs it
Provider
Ministry Of Commerce And Industry
Central Government
Department Of Commerce
At a glance
Key details
| Level | Central |
| Scheme type | Central Sector Scheme |
| Category | Education & Learning |
| Beneficiaries | Individual |
| Benefit type | Cash |
| Application mode | Offline |
| Direct Benefit Transfer | Yes |
| Tags | Scholarship, Financial Assistance, Stipend, Student, DBT, Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe |
| Source record | myScheme, 2026-07-08official-site· 2026-07-08 |
Calendar
Important dates
No standing calendar date governs this component. What the Board commits to instead is the process: schemes are announced on its website and publicised through print and social media, with enough lead time before applications start being accepted, and each round carries its own specified last date for receiving applications (ICDP modalities to 2025-26).
The current modalities have a defined life, and it is worth knowing where it ends.
| Stage | Date |
|---|---|
| Modalities approved by the Board, 216th meeting | 27.06.2024 |
| Circular issuing the modalities to field offices | 05.08.2024 |
| Outer limit for completing all processing and disbursement | 31.03.2026 |
The rules require the whole journey from receipt of an application to disbursement of the money to finish inside the scheme period and not spill past that outer date, which is a real constraint on late filing rather than an administrative note. Anyone applying after that window should look for the notification covering the following year on the Board's scheme pages instead of assuming the last set of dates still runs.
Who can apply
Eligibility criteria
The test is the parent's job and the child's stage of study. There is no income ceiling in either set of modalities, no marks bar for the stipend, and no age limit; what has to be true is that a parent works in a coffee plantation or a licensed coffee curing works, and that the child has passed SSLC or its equivalent and gone on to study further.
Where the child studies matters less than people expect, and where the parent works matters more. The current modalities extend the component across Traditional Areas, Non-Traditional Areas and the North Eastern Region, so an estate worker's family in Andhra Pradesh, Odisha or Assam is inside it, not only one in Karnataka or Kerala (ICDP modalities to 2025-26). The institution simply has to be recognised by a central or state government.
On caste, read the two documents in order. The Board's 2022-23 annual report describes the year's beneficiaries as children of SC and ST labourers. The 2024-25 report drops that wording and describes them as children of labourers, and its own table separates a Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe subtotal of 3,442 from a grand total of 5,274. The current modalities list a caste certificate among the documents only for SC and ST applicants rather than as a universal requirement. What none of these documents contains is a sentence announcing the change, so what can honestly be said is only what each one states: the older clause names SC and ST labourers, the current clause names labourers.
One condition is easy to miss because it sits in the scheme's general rules rather than in the component. Every ICDP applicant, children of plantation and curing labour included, has to be registered with the Board or to register before making the application (ICDP modalities to 2025-26).
| Children of SC/ST labourers working in coffee plantations and Licensed Coffee Curing Works, who are pursuing higher education after the 10th grade, are eligible. | |
| Eligibility extends to the first two surviving children of SC/ST labourers employed in Coffee Plantations and Licensed Coffee Curing Works. In cases where the birth of the second child results in twins or multiple births, assistance shall be granted to all the children, provided they meet individual merit requirements. | |
| Children of Clerks, Drivers, Supervisors, and Estate/Curing Works Managers are not entitled to these benefits. | |
| The educational institution where the student is enrolled must be recognized by the Central or State Governments. | |
| Educational Stipends: Students who have successfully passed the SSLC (Secondary School Leaving Certificate), 10th Class, or Matriculation examination and have commenced higher studies after SSLC, such as 1st-year PUC (Pre-University Course), Polytechnic, or Vocational Training in the current academic year, are eligible.1. Incentive Award: One female student and one male student in each region under the Deputy Director (Extension) (or Joint Director (Extension) for the NER region) who have achieved the highest marks in the SSLC, 10th Class, or Matriculation examination in the previous academic year and continue their studies in the current academic year are eligible.1. Financial Assistance: Students pursuing higher education, including Graduation, Post-Graduation, and Professional Courses such as Medical, Engineering, Agriculture, Pharmacy, and Nursing in the current academic year after completing the 2nd PUC (Pre-University Course) or 12th Class in the previous academic year, are eligible.1. A student eligible for an Educational Stipend is also eligible for an Incentive Award based on their academic merit. | |
| Students pursuing the 1st year of PUC (11th Class) or Diploma courses during a specific academic year but completed the SSLC (10th Class) in earlier years are also eligible for educational stipends. | |
| Students pursuing Graduation or Professional Courses during a specific academic year but completed the 2nd year of PUC (12th Class) in earlier years are also eligible for financial assistance. | |
| Students pursuing Post-Graduation studies during the academic year 2017-18 but completed Graduation in years other than 2016-17 are also eligible for financial assistance. | |
| Students pursuing the 2nd or 3rd year of Graduation or Post-Graduation courses, as the case may be, are eligible for financial assistance, regardless of whether they had previously availed or applied for financial assistance in previous years while pursuing the 1st or 2nd year of their course. |
Who cannot apply
Exclusions
An incomplete file is not sent back for correction. The general rules are blunt about it: any application incomplete for want of documents or otherwise is summarily rejected (ICDP modalities to 2025-26). With two of the required certificates coming from other people, the estate owner and the college principal, that is the bar most likely to catch a genuine applicant, and it is worth treating the deadline as the date by which those signatures are already in hand.
The scheme's own bar is occupational, and it runs along the line between labour and supervision, which is why the children of clerks, drivers, supervisors and estate or curing works managers are kept out even though those parents work on the same estate.
The last exclusion is about conduct rather than status. An applicant who tries to move the sanction along with an offer, a reward, a gift, any material benefit or any coercion has the application rejected outright, and anyone who obtains the money by wilfully giving wrong information, misrepresenting facts or suppressing them faces legal action for recovery with interest (ICDP modalities to 2025-26).
Continuation
Renewal conditions
A second or third year of the same degree is a fresh claim, not a continuation of an old one. The modalities say so directly, making students in the second or third year of graduation or post-graduation eligible whether or not they took or applied for the money in an earlier year, so nothing is forfeited by having been paid once.
What a returning applicant should understand is where they sit in the queue. Eligible applications are processed first come first serve, and priority goes to beneficiaries who have not availed any benefit under a Coffee Board scheme in the last 10 years (ICDP modalities to 2025-26). A repeat claim is admissible and still ranks behind a first-time one when the component's budget runs short, which makes filing early worth more in the second year than in the first.
What you get
Award & benefits
The rate depends on the level of study, and it is a lump sum for the year rather than a monthly payment.
| Benefit | Current modalities, cycle to 2025-26 | Earlier MTF-period rate |
|---|---|---|
| Educational stipend, after Class 10 | Rs 5,000 | Rs 2,250 |
| Incentive award, on top of the stipend | Rs 2,500 each to one girl and one boy per region | Rs 1,500 for a girl, Rs 1,000 for a boy |
| Graduation, traditional courses | Rs 7,500 | Rs 3,750 |
| Post-graduation, traditional courses | Rs 15,000 | Rs 7,500 |
| Professional courses, including medicine and engineering | Rs 20,000 | Rs 7,500 |
The stipend is the volume benefit and the incentive award is the rare one. Of everything the Board paid in 2024-25, stipends went to 3,195 students and accounted for Rs 1,59,75,000, while incentive awards were made to 22 students in the whole country. The same report is where the revised scale stops being a document and becomes a payment: it records the stipend as granted at Rs 5,000 a student that year, graduation at Rs 7,500, post-graduation at Rs 15,000 and professional courses at Rs 20,000 (Coffee Board Annual Report 2024-25). Every payment reaches the student electronically, and the rules are explicit that no payment is made in cash.
- Educational Stipends
- Incentive Award (in addition to ₹2,250/- Educational Stipend)
- For Boys: ₹1,000; For Girls: ₹1,500
- Financial Assistance
- Traditional Courses (Arts, Science, Commerce, etc.)
- (a) Graduation: ₹3,750 per student
- (b) Post-Graduation: ₹7,500 per student
- Professional Courses
- (a) Medical Sciences: ₹7,500 per student
- (b) Agriculture and allied Sciences / Animal Husbandry / Engineering / Pharmacy / Nursing / Other Equivalent Professional Degree Courses: ₹7,500 per student
What to prepare
Documents required
Two of the papers are not the student's to produce, and they set the real timetable. One is a certificate from the owner or an authorised person of the plantation or curing works where the parent is employed, proving the employment the whole claim rests on. The other is a certificate from the principal of the college where the student is studying in the current year. Both go on formats printed inside the application form itself, so neither can be drafted in advance on a letterhead and both need someone else's signature before the file is complete.
Two items on the current list read differently from the same list in the Board's MTF-period modalities. The bank passbook copy is specified as an Aadhaar-seeded account, since the money moves by direct transfer, and the caste certificate is asked for in the case of SC and ST rather than from everyone (ICDP modalities to 2025-26).
Step by step
How to apply
The two published versions describe two different routes, and the difference matters more than any other procedural point on this page. The older text still reproduced everywhere is a counter procedure: print the prescribed form, fill it, attach the self-attested documents, submit it to the Coffee Board. The general guidelines that carry the current modalities put every service under the scheme online instead, at coffeeboard.gov.in and on the India Coffee App, keep all the application formats there, and require the applicant to be registered with the Board or to register before making the application (ICDP modalities to 2025-26). Work from the online route unless the notification for a given round says otherwise.
A counter still exists in those same guidelines, but read the clause as it is written rather than as one would like it to be. It permits small grower applicants, or any other category of micro or small applicant the Coffee Board determines, who are not able to submit online, to hand a physical application in at a Coffee Board office; the official uploads it to the portal within 7 days and keeps the date of receipt of the paper as the date of submission (ICDP modalities to 2025-26). The clause names growers first and leaves the rest to the Board's own determination, so a family without a connection should ask the extension office whether it may use the counter instead of assuming it.
Tracking runs off one number. When the application goes through, the portal generates an acknowledgement automatically with a unique reference ID, and after scrutiny the acceptance or rejection is updated online against that file. There is a second, public way to check: the Board publishes the details of all beneficiary applications received in the public domain once the specified last date has passed, and updates acceptance or rejection status there too. Read the acknowledgement for what it is, though. The rules state plainly that it confirms receipt and nothing else, and that acceptance later only confirms scrutiny is finished; neither creates an entitlement to the money (ICDP modalities to 2025-26).
- 1Apply offline
The official links on this page lead to the application portal.
How winners are picked
Selection process
Two different rules apply, depending on which benefit is in question.
The incentive award is a merit contest with exactly two winners per region: the girl and the boy with the highest SSLC, Class 10 or Matriculation marks in each Deputy Director (Extension) region, or the Joint Director (Extension) region in the North East, who have carried on studying. That is why only 22 of them were made in 2024-25 (Coffee Board Annual Report 2024-25).
The stipend and the financial assistance are not ranked at all. There is no merit list and no cut-off; applications that satisfy the conditions are processed first come first serve, with the 10-year priority rule breaking ties in favour of families new to the Board's schemes. The Board also publishes a service benchmark for this component specifically: at the Deputy Director (Extension) level, processing an application under the labour welfare measures received from a field office, scrutinising it and sanctioning it is set at 30 working days, subject to funds being available (ICDP modalities to 2025-26).
Fine print
Terms & conditions
Sanction is conditional on money being available, and the current modalities attach that condition in two separate places rather than one: the component's own amendment clause makes the release of the eligible amount subject to availability of funds during a particular year, and the Board's service benchmark writes the same qualifier onto the 30-working-day scrutiny and sanction step (ICDP modalities to 2025-26). The broader discretion clause, reserving the Board's right to amend, amplify or abrogate any of the terms without notice, is printed for this component in the Board's MTF-period modalities; the current Component 5 clause carries only the funding condition and the misconduct bar.
The implementation rules add conditions applicants never see but feel. The scheme runs under the General Financial Rules 2017 and the Central Vigilance Commission's guidelines; no zonal or field office may deviate from the guidelines at any stage, and a doubt has to be referred by the nodal officer to the Secretary of the Board rather than settled locally; and the Secretary may temporarily move funds within a component or between components, inside the approved allocation for the financial year (ICDP modalities to 2025-26). That last power is the reason a component can run dry in one year and pay comfortably in the next.
Get help
Contact
The head office does not settle these files. The Deputy Director (Extension) office with jurisdiction over the estate is where an application under this component is scrutinised and sanctioned, so that is the office to ask about a stalled file, and the field office below it is where a paper application is handed in.
The network above those offices is small enough to name. The Joint Director (Extension) at Hassan supervises the four Deputy Directors of Extension, seven Senior Liaison Officers and all the Junior Liaison Officers in Karnataka, and the Joint Director (Extension) at Kalpetta supervises the two Deputy Directors of Extension, eight Senior Liaison Officers and all the Junior Liaison Officers in Kerala and Tamil Nadu (Coffee Board Annual Report 2024-25). North Eastern applicants sit under a Joint Director (Extension) region of their own, at Guwahati, which is where the 2024 circular was sent for the region (ICDP modalities to 2025-26). The Board's head office is on Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Veedhi in Bengaluru, and it publishes officer contact details both designation-wise and office-wise on its own contact page.
Source
Official links
Questions
WMCL – FAQ
Frequently asked questions
From the official scheme FAQ (myScheme)
Read this
Disclaimer
Disclaimer
Scheme details are compiled from myScheme, the Government of India’s official scheme-discovery platform, and are reproduced without alteration. Amounts, deadlines and eligibility change between cycles, so always confirm on the official links above before applying. Expertie does not process applications or charge fees.
References
Sources
- Integrated Coffee Development Project – coffeeboard.gov.in
- Grower's Registration (UMANG) – web.umang.gov.in
- myScheme (Government of India) – myscheme.gov.in