Pre-Matric Scholarship Scheme for Minority Students
1. Background
The Prime Minister’s New 15 Point Programme for the Welfare of Minorities was introduced in 2006. It includes a scholarship program for talented students from minority communities.
2. Objective
The scholarship is designed to encourage parents from minority communities to send their children to school. It will help ease the financial burden of education and support their efforts to complete their schooling. The scholarship will also help level the playing field in the job market and empower minority communities through education.
3. Scope
The scholarship is available for students studying in government or private schools in India from grades 1 to 10. This includes residential government institutes and eligible private institutes selected and notified by the State Government and Union Territory Administration.
4. Eligibility
To be eligible for the scholarship, students must have scored at least 50% marks in their previous final examination. Additionally, the annual income of their parents or guardians from all sources must not exceed Rs. 1.00 lakh.
5. Distribution
The scholarship is available to students from minority communities, including Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Jains, and Zoroastrians (Parsis). A total of 30 lakh scholarships will be distributed as “Fresh” Scholarships, in addition to Renewal scholarships. The distribution of scholarships among the States/Union Territories will be based on the population of minorities in each state/territory as per Census 2001 for 2017-18 and as per the population of minorities in the States/Union Territories of Census 2011 for 2018-19 and 2019-20.
6. Earmarking
1. 30% of the scholarship is earmarked for girls from each minority community in a State/UT. If there are no female students available in a particular community, the scholarship can be transferred to male students from that community. This is the minimum percentage, and there is no maximum limit for eligible girl students. If the physical target of scholarship for a particular minority community in a state/UT is not utilized, it will be distributed among the same minority community in other States/UTs strictly in accordance with merit and without disturbing the national ratio for the Community. Any unutilized community quota shall be distributed amongst other communities again in accordance with merit and without affecting overall national quota.
2. If the physical target of scholarship for a particular minority community in a state/UT is not utilized, it will be distributed among the same minority community in other States/UTs strictly in accordance with merit and without disturbing the national ratio for the Community. Any unutilized community quota shall be distributed amongst other communities again in accordance with merit and without affecting overall national quota.
3. A student residing in a particular State/UT will be entitled for scholarship under the quota of that State/UT only irrespective of his/her place of study.
7. SELECTION PROCEDURE
Fresh – As the number of scholarships for minorities available in a year is fixed and limited, it is necessary to lay down preference for selection. Inter-se selection weightage is to be given to poverty rather than marks (the applicant is required to submit an Income Certificate as per para-11(ii)). In case of same income, merit shall be generated from ‘Date of Birth’ criteria of applicant (senior is preferred).
Renewal – There is no merit list generation for renewal cases. Renewal applicant will get the scholarship if one has obtained 50% in his/her previous year’s examinations (at the same Institute and in same course) and his/her application is verified by all authorities (as designated by Ministry of Minority Affairs) and approved by State Governments/UTs.
8. DURATION
The scholarships shall be provided for the entire course. Maintenance allowance will be given as fixed lump sum amount in an academic year (as per para-9 below) for 2017-18 to 2019-20.
9. RATE OF SCHOLARSHIP
Actual financial assistance will be provided for admission/tuition fee and maintenance allowance as given below subject to a maximum ceiling indicated against item concerned.
10. IMPLEMENTING AGENCIES:
The scheme is being implemented/funded by Ministry of Minority Affairs through the States/UT’s Administration.
11. CONDITIONS FOR SCHOLARSHIP:
(i) Scholarship will be available to the students of minority community studying in Classes I to X.
(ii) An Income Certificate, issued from a Competent Authority in the State/UT Governments is required in respect of parent/guardian of the student.
(iii) A Self-Certified Community Certificate is required from the student who has attained 18 years of age. For others the Community Certificate certified by parent/guardian of the student is required.
(iv) The continuance of award (for Renewal applicants) will be subject to securing 50% marks in the previous years examination.
(v) Maintenance allowance will be provided to hostellers and day scholars.
(vi) Scholarship will not be given to more than two students from a family (applicable for all Scholarship schemes meant for minorities under this Ministry taken together).
(vii) Students should be regular in attendance for which the yardstick will be decided by the competent authority of the school.
(viii) The school/institute will certify the claim of student of being an outstation student not residing in hostel of the school/institute concerned on the basis of permanent address and parents’ address.
(ix) If a student violates school discipline or any other terms and conditions of the scholarship, scholarship may be suspended or cancelled. The State Government/Union Territory Administration can also directly cancel the award if duly satisfied of the reasons of violation of these regulations governing the scheme.
(x) If a student is found to have obtained a scholarship by false statement, his/her scholarship will be cancelled forthwith and the amount of the scholarship paid will be recovered by the concerned State/UT Govt.
(xi) The course/tuition fees and maintenance allowance will be credited to the student’s bank account directly under Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mode.
(xii) The student obtaining benefits under this scheme shall not be allowed to avail of benefits under any other scheme for this purpose.
(xiii) A student shall be eligible for only one scholarship out of all the available Scholarships of Central Government meant for SC/ST/OBC/minority.
(xiv) The amount of Administrative Expenses (@ 1%) for States/UTs in subsequent year shall be released after receiving the Utilization Certificate for the previous years.
(xv) The scheme will be evaluated at regular intervals by the Ministry or any other agency designated by the Ministry and the cost of the evaluation will be borne by the Ministry of Minority Affairs under the provision of the scheme.
(xvi) The State/Union Territory shall place all relevant details of financial and physical achievements on their website.
(xvii) The regulations can be changed at any time at the discretion of the Government of India.
(xviii) It will be necessary for the eligible applicants to provide Aadhaar number while applying for the scholarship and in case, an individual does not possess Aadhaar one can provide the details of alternative identification documents, as stated in the Gazette Notification- S.O. No. 1284 (E) No. 1137, dated 21.04.2017 (as per Appendix-C).
(xix) Students who have entered Aadhaar in their online application correctly and Aadhaar seeded with any of their bank account, in such cases the amount of scholarship will be credited to Aadhaar seeded bank account only (though student has mentioned any other non-seeded bank account in online application).
12. ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES
As the magnitude of data to be entered and processed would be enormous and the scheme gets implemented over the years, there would be a need to engage qualified skilled personnel right from the beginning to ensure that the data based computerized systems are operational. Qualified skilled personnel possessing requisite expertise to operate computer programme designed for this purpose, enter, process, analyse, monitor, retrieve and transfer data should be engaged on contract basis as per need.
A provision not exceeding 1% of the total budget will be made to meet the administrative and allied costs viz. expenditure of the States/Union Territories for office equipments including computers and accessories, furniture, printing of application forms, advertisement, engagement of personnel, etc. This provision will also be used for evaluation and monitoring of the scheme, through outside reputed institutions/agencies engaged by the Ministry of Minority Affairs, Government of India or by the State Governments/Union Territory administrations.
13. RENEWAL OF SCHOLARSHIP
The scholarship, once awarded, may be renewed during the next academic year of the course on the production of certificate that the student has secured 50% marks in the previous year’s examination (provided the students pursues the same course and same Institute/School).
14. ANNOUNCEMENT OF SCHEME
The scheme will be announced by the concerned State Government/Union Territory Administration well in time, by giving advertisements in the leading language newspapers and local dailies/vernacular and by using other suitable publicity media.
15. MODE OF APPLYING
The scheme is implemented through the National Scholarship Portal (NSP). It is mandatory for all students to apply online on the website i.e. www.scholarships.gov.in.
16. PATTERN OF FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE
The scheme is Central Sector Scheme and 100% funding is provided by the Ministry of Minority Affairs.
17. MONITORING & TRANSPARENCY
The State/Union Territory shall maintain year-wise details of the students receiving scholarship, indicating school/institute, location of school/institute, government or private, class, gender, new or renewal, permanent address and parents’ address. The States/ Union Territories shall place relevant physical and financial details in their official website.
18. EVALUATION
The monitoring of the financial and physical performance of the scheme will be evaluated by assigning evaluation/impact studies to reputed institutions/agencies by the Ministry of Minority Affairs, Government of India.
19. INSTRUCTIONS RELATED TO BANK ACCOUNT DETAILS (to be filled by the students in online application form are as under):
(i) Students must select their bank/branch name carefully from the drop down list.
(ii) Thereafter the complete account no. must be entered correctly. Students are suggested to get their account number verified by their concerned Bank Branch including Bank account number and IFS Code.
(iii) Disclaimer (*If bank details entered by students are found incorrect or not validated by the student’s bank, the scholarship will be canceled/amount will not be transferred even though the application is approved for scholarship).
(iv) Bank Account holders must check their ‘Know your Customer’ (KYC) status from bank and if required the KYC must be done for successful transaction of scholarship amount.
(v) Bank Account must be operational/active till the scholarship is disbursed.
(vi) Bank Account must be preferably in any scheduled Bank with core banking facility and proper IFS Code.
(vii) Bank Account must be in the name of either the student or a joint account of student with either mother or father or a legal guardian only.
20. MODIFICATION
Minor modifications, if any, in the scheme having no financial implications may be made by the Competent Authority in the Ministry of Minority Affairs without seeking recourse to SFC/EFC/Cabinet. However, Ministry of Finance, Department of Expenditure would be consulted.
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