The National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights, an independent organisation, on Sunday said that despite uproar from students across India about increase in college fee, the allocation for post matriculation scholarships (PMS) in the Union Budget had only marginally increased.

“PMS has only nominally increased from ₹2,926 crore to ₹2,987 crore. Up to December 2019, only ₹1,731 crore has been utilised. The scholarship schemes have been consistently under funded with limited outreach,” said a release from the organisation.

“In restructuring the Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS), the schemes for SC/STs are being categorised as the ‘Core of the Core’ but a scrutiny of the budgetary outlays reveals that most schemes have remained stagnant and, at best, is an exercise of incremental budgeting,” it added.

No direct impact

The organisation added that ₹22,212 crore has been allocated in the Department of Agriculture, in which a majority of the schemes have no direct impact on SC/ST farmers.