AMN / NEW DELHI

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the proposal for Continuation of Pre-Matric, Post Matric and Merit-cum-Means based Scholarship Schemes for the students belonging to the six notified Minority Communities at a total cost of Rs. 5338.32 crore for period up to 2019-20. This will benefit 70 lakh students annually.

Salient Features:

The major features of the schemes are as under:

These Schemes shall be implemented through the National Scholarship Portal (NSP) and scholarships are disbursed through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mode.
Around 70 lakh scholarships are likely to be disbursed.
Scholarship is awarded to students who have secured not less than 50% marks in the previous final examination.
The students should be studying in Government Schools/ Institutes or recognized private schools/ institutes.
The State/Community-wise target/allocation as per Census 2011.
Physical targets are fixed only for fresh scholarships.
Renewal scholarships are also awarded, in addition to the fresh scholarships. Renewal scholarships are for all such students who have been awarded scholarships in the previous years and fulfill the eligibility criteria.

Pre-matric Scholarship Scheme:

The objective of the Scheme is to encourage parents from minority communities to send their school going children (from Class I to X) to school, lighten their financial burden on school education and sustain their efforts to support their children to complete school education.
Annual income of parents/ guardian should not be more than Rs 1.00 Lakh.
Target-30,00,000 (Thirty lakh) for Fresh applicants.

Entitlements:

Item

Entitlements

Rate of Scholarship Admission + Tuition Fee

Admission Fee for Class VI to X: Rs. 500/- per annum subject to actuals (both Hosteller & Day Scholar)

Tuition Fee for Class VI to X: Rs. 4,200/- per annum subject to actuals (both Hosteller & Day Scholar)

Maintenance Allowance

For Class 1 to V: Rs 1,000/- per annum for Day Scholar

For Class VI to X (Hosteller): Rs. 6,000/- per annum For Class VI to X (Day Scholar): Rs. 1,000/-per annum

Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme:

The objective of the Scheme is to provide financial assistance to the poor and meritorious minority students with better opportunities for higher education, increase their rate of attainment in higher education and enhance their employability in organized sector.
Annual income of parents/guardians should not be more than Rs. 2.00 Lakh.
Target- 5,00,000 (Five lakh) for Fresh applicants.

Entitlement:

Item

Entitlements

Rate of Scholarship Admission + Tuition Fee

Admission and Tuition fee Class XI & XII: Rs. 7,000/- per annum subject to actuals (both Hosteller & Day Scholar)

Admission and Course/Tuition fee for technical and vocational courses of XI and XII level (Courses of one or more year of duration): Rs. 10,000/- per annum subject to actuals (both Hosteller & Day Scholar)

Admission and Tuition fee for UG & PG level including M.Phil & Ph.D: Rs. 3,000/- per annum subject to actuals (both Hosteller & Day Scholar)

Maintenance Allowance

For Class XI & XII including Tech. & Voc. Course: Rs. 3,800/- per annum for Hosteller & Rs. 2,300/- per annum for Day Scholar

For Courses other than Tech. & Prof, courses at UG & PG level: Rs. 5,700/- per annum for Hosteller & Rs. 3,000/- per annum for Day Scholar

For M. Phil & Ph.D.: Rs. 12,000/- per annum for Hosteller & Rs. 5,500/- per annum for Day Scholar

Merit-cum-Means based Scholarship Scheme:

The objective of the Scheme is to provide financial assistance to the poor and meritorious minority students to enable them to pursue professional and technical courses at under Graduate and post Graduate levels leading to upliftment of the socio economic conditions of the minority communities.
Annual income of parents/guardians should not be more than Rs. 2.50 Lakh.
Target- 60,000 for Fresh applicants.

Entitlements:

Full Course fee reimbursed to the students from 85 institutes listed under the scheme; and for others at Rs. 20,000/- per annum subject to actuals.
Maintenance allowance @ Rs. 10,000/- per annum for hostellers and @ Rs. 5,000/- for day scholars.

Special focus by earmarking funds:

Although 30% of scholarships are earmarked for girl students, more than 35% of the total scholarships are disbursed to them.

Major Impact:

The implementation of these Schemes during the past years have made a great impact on the general literacy rate/level across the minority communities. As per Census 2011, the Literacy Rate of Muslim has gone up from 59.1% to 68.5%, for Christian from 80.3% to 84.5%, for Sikh from 69.4% to 75.4%, for Buddhist from 72.7% to 81.3% and for Jains from 94.1% to 94.9% as compared to Census 2001 figures, with more improvement in respect of females (data not available for Parsis).
There is still a high demand for scholarships from minority students. For the year 2017-18, against the annual target of 35.60 Lakh, about 60.00 Lakh Scholarships have already been disbursed and the disbursement process continues in 2018-19.
By availing scholarships under the aforesaid three Scholarship Schemes, minority students shall be able to pursue their school/higher/professional education and enhance their employment opportunities for jobs in Government/ Private Sector or self-employment.

Financial implications:

Funding of the scheme would be from annual budgetary provisions of the Ministry. The Expenditure Finance Committee, Department of Expenditure has recommended for the continuation of this Scheme. The annual estimated expenditure is detailed below:

Year

2017-18*

2018-19

2019-20

Funds required (in Rs. Crore)

1,779.44

1 ,779.44

1,779.44

Total for 3 years- Rs.5,338.32 Crore

*(The Budgetary expenditure of Rs.1,971.04 crore was made during 2017-18. The Scheme was implemented on the same format as approved by Cabinet for implementation during 12th Plan period).

Beneficiaries:

For all three Scholarship Schemes, the State/Community-wise target/allocation shall be applicable as per Census 2011. Around 70 lakh scholarships are likely to be disbursed to the students belonging to the six notified Minority Communities viz. Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain and Parsi who are from the economically weaker sections of the society.

States/Districts covered:

These three Scholarship Schemes shall be implemented in all 29 States and 7 Union Territories across the country for the students belonging to the six notified Minority Communities viz. Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain and Parsi.

Background:

It is a continuing Scheme from 11^th & 12^th Five Year Plan and shall be implemented during the next three years i.e. during the balance period of 14^thFinance Commission from 2017-18 to 2019-20.

The objective of the Pre-Matric Scholarship Scheme is to encourage parents from minority communities to send their school going children (from Class I to X) to school, lighten their financial burden on school education and sustain their efforts to support their children to complete school education while the objective of the Post Matric Scholarship Scheme is to provide financial assistance to the poor and meritorious minority students with better opportunities for higher education, increase their rate of attainment in higher education and enhance their employability in organized sector. Similarly, the objective of the Merit-cum-Means based Scholarship Scheme is to provide financial assistance to the poor and meritorious minority students to enable them to pursue professional and technical courses at under Graduate and post Graduate levels leading to upliftment of the socio economic conditions of the minority communities.