New Delhi : The Delhi government has launched various welfare schemes for students of classes 8 through 12 who belong to various minority groups. This was announced by Shri.V.K. Bahal, Dy Director, Department of SC/ST/OBC/Minorities at the first meeting of Christian Advisory Committee (CAC).

These welfare measures include free supply of stationary, award of merit scholarships, reimbursement of tuition fees, merit scholarships in colleges, technical or professional institutions. There is also a Dr B R Ambedkar state award for students who are toppers.

In addition to these awards and schemes of the state govern-ment, there are various other welfare schemes sponsored by the Central Government for students belonging to minority communities. Under a “Merit cum Means scholarship scheme” educational aid would be provided to poor and meritorious students belonging to Minority Communities for pursuing Technical and Professional Courses at degree and post-graduate levels from a reco-gnized institution. An amount of Rs. 29.97 lacs has been sanctioned under this scheme by the Govt. of India to cover 132 beneficiaries for the year 2007-08. A provision of Rs. 75 lacs has been proposed for the current financial year 2008-09 to cover the target of 257 beneficiaries.

Under the Scheme of Post-Matric Scholarship for Students belonging to the Minority Communities (100% Centrally Sponsored), scholarship would be provided to the Minority Communities pursuing higher education, from class XI up to Ph.D, and technical and vocational courses of Industrial Training Institutes/Industrial Training Centres (affiliated with NCVT) in Government school/ college/institute or school /college/institute recognized by appropriate authority. A provision of Rs. 110 lacs has been proposed for the current financial year 2008-09 to cover the target of 964 beneficiaries

There is also a scheme for providing free coaching to candidates belonging to Minority Communities with the objective to assist them in their preparation for qualifying or competitive examinations. More information on these schemes can be had from the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs website http://minorityaffairs.gov.in/newsite/schemes/schemes.asp.

By “minority” community, the government means Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhist and Parsis, In all these schemes, a student must have attained 50% marks in the previous qualifying examination and his family’s collective income must not exceed Rs. 1 lakh per annum. An affidavit (either from self or employer) on non-judicial stamp paper is sufficient to make income claims.

Thirty percent of the scholarship amount is reserved for girl students. The distribution of scholarship among the states will be on the basis of the state’s population and the distribution within a state among the various minority groups. Admission fee of up to Rs. 500 per annum and Tuition fee up to Rs. 350 per month respectively is available (subject to actuals) to eligible students of Std I to X. For hostelers of std VI to X, a maintenance fee of Rs. 600 per month is available. For day scholars, this will be Rs. 100 p.m for student of std I to X.

Only two students from a family are eligible for scholar-ships. In order to receive con-tinued support, a student must secure at least 50% marks in every annual examination. Application for scholarship has to be renewed every academic year. All payments will be made directly to the school’s bank account.
 

This page is updated on February 6, 2009