Labour Welfare Organisation gives hope to wards of beedi workers

TIRUCHI: The Labour Welfare Organisation of the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment disbursed education scholarship and attendance incentive to the tune of Rs. 19 crore to about 1.40 lakh school and college going wards of beedi workers in the state during last year.
While education scholarship ranging from Rs. 250 to Rs. 8,000 per annum is provided to both boys and girls, the attendance incentive is given only to girl students of classes from V to VIII.
The Labour Welfare Organisation provided an annual scholarship of Rs. 250 to students of classes from I to IV; Rs. 500 to students of classes V to VIII; Rs. 700 to students of class IX; Rs. 1,400 to students of class X; and Rs. 2,000 to students of classes XI and XII. The department provided every year Rs. 3,000 to the wards of beedi workers pursuing diploma, under graduate and post graduate courses and Rs. 8,000 to those pursuing professional courses.
The total annual family income should not exceed Rs.10,000 per month for getting the education scholarship, D. Job Prince, Deputy Welfare Commissioner, Labour Welfare Organisation, Tirunelveli, told ‘The Hindu'.
To check the practice of girls in the school going age getting engaged in beedi rolling and encourage them to attend the schools, the Department is providing attendance incentive to the girls of classes V to XII. An incentive of Rs. 440 is given to each beneficiary at the rate of Rs. Two per day and is given to a maximum of 220 days.
During last year, education scholarship and attendance incentive worth Rs. 19 crore was disbursed to about 1.40 lakh beneficiaries of Tirunelveli; Vellore; Tiruvannamalai; Tiruchi, Erode, and Salem districts and Chennai city.
Mr. Job Prince said while scrutinising the applications for incentive and scholarship, the department noticed that some of them who were not involved in beedi rolling had applied for the same. To check this, from the academic year 2010-11, the wards have been directed to produce the beedi workers pass books and provident fund receipts to the officials when they come for verification of the applications. The scholarship will be sanctioned only if these documents were produced by the applicants, Mr. Job Prince said. The official will undertake the verification of the applications after duly informing the school authorities to enable the students to remain well prepared to produce the same, he added.