Parliament Question: Funds earmarked for minority educational upliftment

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF MINORITY AFFAIRS RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1085 ANSWERED ON 09.02.2026 FUNDS EARMARKED FOR MINORITY EDUCATIONAL UPLIFTMENT 1085. SMT. JEBI MATHER HISHAM: Will the Minister of MINORITY AFFAIRS be pleased to state: (a) the year-wise allocations to the Ministry over the last five financial years, including revised estimates and actual expenditure; (b) fund earmarked specifically for minority educational upliftment during the last five years, State/UT-wise and community-wise distribution; (c) the details of the current operational status of all schemes for minority educational empowerment, including beneficiary numbers and outcomes; (d) whether any minority education schemes have been discontinued during the last five years, if so, the reasons thereof; and (e) whether any plans have been devised to replace or redesign discontinued schemes, if so, the timelines, budgets, and coverage targets? ANSWER THE MINISTER OF MINORITY AFFAIRS (SHRI KIREN RIJIJU) (a): The statement showing Budget Estimate, Revised Estimate and actual expenditure during the last five years i.e. from FY 2020-21 to 2024-25 is at Annexure-I. (b) to (e): The Ministry of Minority Affairs has implemented the following three Scholarship schemes for the educational empowerment of the six centrally notified minority communities viz. Buddhist, Christian, Jain, Muslim, Parsi and Sikh: i) Pre-Matric Scholarship Scheme; ii) Post Matric Scholarship Scheme; and iii) Merit-cum-Means based Scholarship Scheme. The Schemes intend to provide financial assistance to the poor and meritorious students belonging to religious minority communities to enable them to pursue professional and technical courses. The Scholarship schemes, however, have not been approved for implementation beyond 2021-22. Apart from scholarship schemes, this Ministry implemented Padho Pardesh scheme to award interest subsidy on educational loan to minority students for studying abroad to pursue approved courses of study at Masters, M.Phil. and Ph.D. levels. The scheme has been discontinued from FY 2022-23 as education loan is available at cheaper rates through various other Government interventions.The Maulana Azad National Fellowship (MANF) scheme intended to provide fellowships in the form of financial assistance to students belonging to the minority communities to pursue degrees in higher education such as M.Phil. and Ph.D. in India. The scheme has been discontinued from 2022-23 due to its apparent overlapping with similar schemes of other Ministries. The fellowship to existing beneficiaries would continue till the completion of their studies as per extant guidelines. The year-wise number of beneficiaries and funds released under the three scholarship schemes in last 5 years are at Annexure-II. The following educational schemes have also been discontinued:- i. The Ministry of Minority Affairs implemented ‘Nai Udaan’ Scheme to provide financial support to the minority candidates who qualify in the preliminary examinations conducted by Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), Staff Selection Commission (SSC), and State Public Service Commissions (SPSCs). Further, Ministry of Minority Affairs also implemented a scheme namely “Free Coaching and Allied Scheme for the candidates/students belonging to minority communities/ Naya Savera” under which Free Coaching was provided to assist students/candidates belonging to the notified minority communities by way of special coaching for qualifying examinations for admission in technical/professional courses and competitive examination for recruitment to Group ‘A, ‘B’ & ‘C’ services and other equivalent posts under the Central and State Governments including public sector undertakings, banks, railways etc. The ‘Nai Udaan’ and ‘Naya Savera’ Schemes have been discontinued w.e.f. Financial Year 2022-23. ii. Education Scheme for Madrasas and Minorities: The Department of School Education & Literacy implemented the Scheme for Providing Education in Madrasas/Minorities (SPEMM) upto 2020-21 and then transferred to Ministry of Minority Affairs. As the scheme was approved only upto 2021-22, the Ministry of Minority Affairs implemented this Scheme only for FY 2021-22. *****ANNEXURE-I ANNEXURE REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PART (A) OF THE RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1085 FOR ANSWER ON 09.02.2026 REGARDING ‘FUNDS EARMARKED FOR MINORITY EDUCATIONAL UPLIFTMENT’ ASKED BY SMT. JEBI MATHER HISHAM Statement showing year-wise allocation and expenditure (Rupees in crore) S. Scheme 2020-21 2021-22 2022-23 2023-24 2024-25 No BE RE Actual BE RE Actual BE RE Actual BE RE Actual BE RE Actua Expr Expr Expr Expr l Expr 1 Pre-Matric 1330. 1330.0 1325.5 1378.0 1378.0 1350.9 1425.0 556.8 43.95 433.0 400.0 95.84 326.1 90.00 1.55 Scholarship 00 0 4 0 0 9 0 2 0 0 6 2 Post-Matric 535.0 535.00 512.81 468.00 468.00 411.87 515.00 515.0 29.00 1065. 1000. 85.02 1145. 343.9 5.31 Scholarship 0 0 00 00 38 1 3 Merit-cum- 400.0 400.00 396.34 325.00 325.00 345.77 365.00 358.0 34.90 44.00 25.00 152.74 33.80 19.41 3.50 Means 0 2 Scholarship 4 Maulana 175.0 100.00 73.50 99.00 99.00 74.00 99.00 99.00 98.85 96.00 54.00 83.45 45.08 45.08 25.00 Azad 0 National Fellowship for minority students 5 Interest 30.00 22.00 20.19 24.00 24.00 22.15 24.00 24.00 24.00 21.00 7.00 0.00 15.30 15.30 0.00 subsidy on educational Loan for Overseas studies for students belonging tominority communities. 6 Free 50.00 25.00 18.44 79.00 39.35 37.15 79.00 29.97 25.00 30.00 14.00 11.70 10.00 3.50 2.36 Coaching &Allied Scheme for minorities 7 Support for 10.00 8.00 4.15 8.00 6.00 7.97 8.00 1.68 1.66 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 Students Clearing Prelims conducted by UPSC, SSC, State Public Servies Commissions etc. 8 Education 0.00 0.00 0.00 174.00 174.00 161.53 160.00 30.00 0.08 10.00 5.00 0.01 2.00 0.01 0.00 scheme for Madarsas and Minorities 9 Skill 250.0 190.00 190.03 276.00 250.00 268.48 235.41 100.0 65.28 0.10 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 Development 0 0 Initiative 10 Upgrading 60.00 60.00 56.74 47.00 47.00 76.68 47.00 47.00 10.61 0.10 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 Skill and Training in Traditional Arts/Craftsfor Development (USTTAD) 11 Nai Manzil 120.0 60.00 59.84 87.00 47.00 48.86 46.00 20.00 7.62 0.10 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 12 Contribution 160.0 110.00 110.00 153.00 100.00 100.00 159.00 159.0 159.00 61.00 61.00 61.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 to equity of 0 0 NMDFC 13 Scheme for 10.00 6.00 6.00 8.00 2.50 2.99 2.50 2.00 0.62 0.10 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 Leadership Development of Minority Women 14 Scheme for 4.00 4.00 4.00 3.00 3.00 5.00 10.00 5.00 2.70 6.00 3.00 1.00 6.00 5.53 5.04 Containing population decline of a small minority Community 15 Hamari 3.00 5.20 4.55 2.00 2.00 1.66 2.00 2.00 0.00 0.10 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 Dharohar 16 Research/ 50.00 35.00 11.92 41.00 41.00 15.18 41.00 25.00 4.83 20.00 15.00 13.27 20.00 12.20 23.62 Studies, Monitoring, Evaluation of development schemes for Minorities including Publicity17 Pradhan 1600. 971.38 1091.9 1390.0 1199.5 1266.8 1650.0 500.0 222.66 600.0 550.0 189.23 910.9 908.9 955.24 Mantri Jan 00 4 0 5 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 Vikas Karyakaram (Earlier MsDP) 18 Grants-in-aid 82.00 80.00 70.92 90.00 76.00 76.00 0.01 0.01 0.00 0.10 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 to Maulana Azad Education Foundation 19 Grants in aid 2.00 1.00 0.97 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 2.00 2.00 to State Channelizing Agencies (SCA) engaged for implementati on in NMDFC programme 20 Qaumi Waqf 18.00 9.00 0.10 14.00 10.00 6.72 10.00 10.00 5.12 10.00 5.00 0.10 10.00 3.06 1.56 Board Taraqqiati Scheme 21 Shahri waqf 3.00 3.00 3.00 2.00 2.00 1.00 5.00 5.00 0.00 7.00 3.00 0.00 6.00 0.01 0.00 sampatti Vikas Yojana 22 Secretariat 25.00 26.00 23.72 28.00 26.90 25.60 30.61 30.61 25.02 35.00 35.00 29.59 35.62 43.81 42.07 23 National 11.00 9.29 7.10 12.00 9.92 7.61 12.70 12.70 11.24 15.00 13.50 12.18 14.00 14.00 11.77 Commission for Minorities24 Special 3.00 2.13 1.84 2.77 2.19 2.06 2.85 2.85 1.98 4.00 2.88 1.59 3.00 2.00 1.61 Officer for Linguistic Minorities 25 Haj 98.00 13.00 4.92 98.00 12.04 7.10 89.42 75.00 61.56 97.00 86.69 83.51 97.00 129.4 112.03 Management 6 26 PM VIKAS 290.1 109.8 0.00 255.4 30.00 0.00 5 8 3 27 PM VIKAS 249.8 215.9 209.42 244.5 200.0 203.35 Committed 5 8 7 0 Liability Total 5029. 4005.0 3998.5 4810.7 4346.4 4325.2 5020.5 2612. 837.68 3097. 2608. 1032.6 3183. 1868. 1396.0 00 0 6 7 5 4 0 66 60 93 5 24 18 1Annexure-II ANNEXURE REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PART (B) to (E) OF THE RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1085 FOR ANSWER ON 09.02.2026 REGARDING ‘FUNDS EARMARKED FOR MINORITY EDUCATIONAL UPLIFTMENT’ ASKED BY SMT. JEBI MATHER HISHAM Number of beneficiaries & funds released under all three scholarship schemes (last 5 years) Pre-Matric Scholarship Post-Matric Scholarship Merit cum Means based Scholarship AY No. of No. of Amount Sanctioned (in Rs. No. of Amount Sanctioned (in Rs. Beneficiaries Amount Sanctioned (in Rs. Crore) Beneficiaries Crore) Beneficiaries Crore) 2020-21 52,39,964 1,192.43 6,63,316 401.31 1,20,371 317.84 2021-22 57,10,789 1,329.20 7,20,093 469.57 1,31,810 352.91 2022-23 3,18,576 100.32 1,24,607 79.28 58,430 157.07 2023-24 - - - - - - 2024-25 - - - - - - Total 1,12,69,329 2621.95 15,08,016 950.16 3,10,611 827.82