Only 0.4 million of six milliond Scheduled Caste students receive scholarship

More than 5.5 million post-matriculation scholarships meant for Scheduled Caste students remain unawarded across states, including poll-bound ones, even as the academic session winds to a close, latest central government data shows.

The Centre, however, is pushing for disbursement of the scholarship money--more so in the poll-bound states-before the model code of conduct for election kicks in.

Under the post-matric scholarship scheme for SCs, financial assistance of about '18,000 is offered to students every year to pursue any post-matriculation course.


As of December 31, 2021, poll-bound Uttar Pradesh had disbursed scholarship money to about 130,000 students of the identified 1.3 million beneficiaries, as per data accessed by ET.

On the other hand, Punjab has not disbursed a single scholarship to the 224,000 SC students waiting for it. Nor has Uttarakhand, which has more than 24,000 SC students waiting for their post-matriculation scholarship money.

Uttar Pradesh's new chief secretary Durga Shankar Mishra is learnt to have taken a review of the pending scholarships soon after taking charge. The Centre, sources said, has nudged him to try and disburse the scholarships at the earliest possible.

It is not like the other states are faring any better despite the salience of the SC vote across states.

In West Bengal, only 136,000 SC students have received scholarships so far against the 730,000 identified for it.

Madhya Pradesh, which identified 515,000 beneficiaries under the Centre's post-matric scholarship scheme, has managed to only reach the amount to 15,450 students.

Odisha has paid 37,000 students against the 163,000 identified for scholarships.

Andhra Pradesh has disbursed it to 94,350 students of the 210,000 beneficiaries selected for it.

Karnataka, Maharashtra and Kerala with 360,000, 380,000 and 120,000 SC students, respectively, haven't disbursed a single scholarship.

Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi are also among the states that haven't disbursed any scholarships in the year.

Latest central government data accessed by ET shows that 6.13 million SC students were identified for receiving scholarships.

Records have been verified by states for 2.32 million students and as on December 31, 2021, scholarship money had been disbursed to only 409,000 students.