Student scholarship numbers in Rajasthan plummet during Covid

JAIPUR: The state government is finding it difficult to distribute scholarships to all targeted students under different vulnerable categories including Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes and OBC forcing several of them to drop out in want of support.
Data accessed by the education department said that over 4lakh beneficiaries under the pre-matric scholarship haven’t received money amounting to Rs 114.13 crore in 2019-20.
Similarly, out of the total scholarship amount of Rs 380 crore in 2020-21, the state could distribute only Rs 108 crore by the end of December 2020.
Reports say the estimated number of students eligible for the scholarship was 12 lakh enrolled in grades 6-10. The estimated amount required to provide scholarships to all students was Rs 250 crore. “State needs to allocate an additional Rs 98 crore to pay scholarships to 4 lakh students of 2019-20,” said a source. TOI called up Samit Sharma, secretary of the social justice and empowerment department, but couldn’t connect with him.
The implications of the anomaly are costing the student from vulnerable groups. Vikas Meghwal (19), who lives in a slum in Jaipur,,is yet to receive a post-matric scholarship of Rs 6,000 annually in 2020-21. “I wanted to take admission in a polytechnic college only if I got the scholarship,” said Meghwal, whose father works as a caretaker of a retired couple.
Monika Kumari, a class 10 student from Noornagar village in Alwar, fears not being able to continue education after her matric. “It is discouraging not to get the scholarship money, particularly during the pandemic when my father was without work for months. Also, we go through a very tedious process of paperwork to apply for a scholarship. It goes waste when we don’t see any results,” said Kumari.
Priyanka Meghwal, a student of class 10 and a resident of Jodhpur’s Nayapura village in Osian tehsil said, “The scholarship money would have helped me in buying a data pack to attend online classe.”
Reacting to the situation, KB Kothari, former policy planner in Unicef said, “I understand that the state is facing a huge problem in verification of beneficiaries due to Covid but still it has to be prioritised in order to retain them else it would impact the gross enrollment ratio (GER).”