Quick Answer
The Indian government runs dozens of welfare schemes across health, housing, farming, pensions, business support, education, and banking. Most people qualify for at least one, and many qualify for several at once. This guide organizes every major central scheme by category, so you can find what applies to you — or use the eligibility checker for a personalized answer in under two minutes.
How to use this guide
You don’t need to read this whole page. Two ways to use it:
- Fastest: Use the Haqdaar eligibility checker — answer a few questions about your age, income, and situation, and get matched to relevant schemes directly.
- Browse by category: Jump to the section below that matches your situation — a farmer, a family without health cover, someone starting a small business, a senior citizen — and see the full list of schemes in that space, with links to detailed guides.
Every scheme listed here is genuinely free to apply for through official government channels. If anyone asks you to pay a fee to “guarantee” approval on any of these, that’s not a legitimate part of the process — see our Scam & Fraud Alerts coverage for more on this.
🏥 Health
India’s main health coverage scheme protects families against the cost of hospital treatment — one of the most common reasons families fall into debt.
- Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY — cashless treatment worth ₹5 lakh a year per family. Automatic for everyone aged 70+, regardless of income; below that age, eligibility is based on SECC deprivation criteria.
More health coverage guides — including state-specific top-ups — are being added on an ongoing basis.
🏠 Housing
Support for buying, building, or renting a home, split across four different types of assistance depending on your income and situation.
- PM Awas Yojana Urban 2.0 — for city and town residents: a home loan interest subsidy, direct construction assistance, subsidized housing, or affordable rental housing, depending on your income band.
- PM Awas Yojana Gramin — the rural equivalent, for households without a pucca house, prioritized through the Awaas+ survey. (Full guide coming soon.)
🌾 Agriculture
Direct income support and insurance for farming families, independent of land size.
- PM Kisan Samman Nidhi — ₹6,000 a year in three instalments, for any farmer family with land in official records. Government employees, income-tax payers, and registered professionals are excluded, even if they also farm.
- PM Fasal Bima Yojana — low-premium crop insurance against yield loss from natural calamities, pests, and disease, open to both landowners and tenant farmers with valid cultivation proof. (Full guide coming soon.)
👴 Pension & Social Security
A mix of direct pensions for those who need support now, and voluntary retirement savings for those building toward the future.
- Old Age Pension (IGNOAPS) — monthly pension for BPL senior citizens aged 60+.
- Widow Pension (IGNWPS) — monthly pension for BPL widows aged 40–79; many states add their own top-up on top of the central amount.
- Disability Pension (IGNDPS) — for BPL individuals aged 18–79 with 40%+ disability, depending on your state’s specific threshold.
- Atal Pension Yojana — a guaranteed pension of ₹1,000–₹5,000 a month after age 60, built through small contributions starting as early as age 18.
- National Pension System (NPS) — a voluntary, market-linked retirement account open to any citizen aged 18–70, with its own tax benefits separate from standard deductions.
(Individual guides for each pension scheme are coming soon — the checker tool already covers full eligibility for all five.)
💼 Employment & Enterprise
Loans and subsidies for starting or growing a small business, with no collateral required in most cases.
- PMEGP — margin-money subsidy (15–35% of project cost) to start a new small business or manufacturing unit.
- Mudra Yojana (PMMY) — collateral-free loans up to ₹20 lakh across four tiers, for existing or new non-farm businesses.
- Stand-Up India — ₹10 lakh to ₹1 crore in loans specifically for women and SC/ST entrepreneurs starting a new enterprise.
- PM SVANidhi — small working-capital loans for street vendors, starting at ₹10,000 and growing with repayment history.
(Individual guides for each scheme are coming soon.)
👩👧 Women & Child
- PM Ujjwala Yojana — free LPG gas connection for women from BPL households, reducing dependence on firewood and other polluting fuels.
- Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana — a high-interest savings account for a girl child under 10, for future education and marriage expenses.
(Individual guides coming soon.)
🎓 Education
- National Scholarship Portal — a single gateway covering dozens of central and state scholarships, from Class 1 through postgraduate and professional courses, most with a family income ceiling in the ₹2.5–8 lakh range.
(Full guide coming soon.)
🏦 Banking & Savings
- PM Jan Dhan Yojana — a zero-balance bank account with a RuPay debit card, accident insurance cover, and overdraft facility after 6 months of regular use. Often the gateway account that makes you eligible to receive direct benefit transfers for every other scheme on this page.
(Full guide coming soon.)
A note on accuracy
Every scheme above is compiled from official government sources and cross-checked at the time of writing. Eligibility rules, income limits, and benefit amounts are set by the government and can change — and several schemes have state-specific top-ups not fully reflected in a central overview like this one. Always confirm your eligibility on the official scheme portal before applying, and never pay a fee to anyone claiming they can guarantee or speed up your approval.
Last verified: July 2026. This is independent informational content, not affiliated with the Government of India. For a personalized answer instead of browsing, use the eligibility checker.