Parliament Question: Scholarship Schemes for Minority Students

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF MINORITY AFFAIRS LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 617 ANSWERED ON 23/07/2025 SCHOLARSHIP SCHEMES FOR MINORITY STUDENTS

617. SHRI BAPI HALDAR:

Will the Minister of MINORITY AFFAIRS be pleased to state:

(a) the details of the number of children belonging to the Minority community who have applied and been provided scholarships during the last five years, State-wise;

(b) whether the Government has assessed the educational status, achievement and the impact of various central schemes among minority community students and if so, the details thereof;

(c) whether it is a fact that the Government has discontinued pre-matric scholarships to students of minority communities from class one to eight from 2023-24 and if so, the reasons therefor; and

(d) if so, whether the Government proposes to re-introduce the said scholarship scheme for minority community students? ANSWER THE MINISTER OF MINORITY AFFAIRS (SHRI KIREN RIJIJU)

(a): The Government of India implements various schemes for the educational and socio- economic empowerment of every strata of the society including minorities, especially the economically weaker and under privileged sections through different ministries/ departments. Ministry of Minority Affairs implements three scholarship schemes namely Pre-Matric, Post-Matric and Merit- cum-Means based Scholarship Schemes for the educational empowerment of notified minority communities. The Scholarship Schemes of Minority Affairs are Central Sector Schemes with 100% Central Share and scholarships are disbursed through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mode. There is a defined State/UT-wise quota of beneficiaries based on Census data. However, the scheme has not been approved for implementation beyond 2021-22. The release over the period of 2019-20 to 2021- 22, scheme-wise and State/UT-wise is annexed as Annexure-I.

(b): Monitoring and Evaluation of schemes is a continuous process for all the Schemes including Central Schemes. Ministry of Minority Affairs conducted a third party study through National Council of Applied Economic Research for all the three Scholarship Schemes during the year 2022-

23. The findings of the report highlighted irregularities based on which, a physical verification study was conducted wherein out of 1572 institutes, 830 were found to be either fake/ partial fake or non- operational. The matter has been handed over to the CBI for thorough investigation.

(c) & (d): The Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009 makes it obligatory for the Government to provide free and compulsory elementary education (classes I to VIII) to each and every child.

Accordingly only students studying in classes IX and X are covered under the Pre-Matric Scholarship Scheme of Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment and Ministry of Tribal Affairs.

There is no proposal under consideration in this Ministry to re-introduce such coverage. *****ANNEXURE-I REFERRED IN REPLY TO PART (a) OF LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 617 FOR 23.07.2025 REGARDING “SCHOLARSHIP SCHEMES FOR MINORITY STUDENTS”.

Pre-Matric Scholarship Scheme-Details of scholarships and amount for AY 2019-20 to 2021-22 Amount in ₹ crore 2019-20 2020-21 2021-22 State Beneficiaries Amount Beneficiaries Amount Beneficiaries Amount ANDHRAPRADESH 161555 47.60 152714 36.4 175563 37.85 TELANGANA 171908 60.28 156037 56.6 177571 61.29 ASSAM 290719 161.16 250267 90.97 235337 99.98 BIHAR 245662 82.43 134270 32.97 175287 49.19 CHHATTISGARH 4839 1.64 4308 1.35 4453 1.34 GOA 497 0.06 772 0.08 1111 0.11 GUJARAT 134907 37.48 102873 28.6 89543 25.7 HARYANA 8860 3.25 9396 3.58 25011 8.53 HIMACHALPRADESH 2056 0.40 1985 0.34 1790 0.3 JAMMUANDKASHMIR 523653 129.16 466290 96.24 389132 77.67 JHARKHAND 84133 60.90 14332 5.17 14146 5.7 KARNATAKA 507463 100.42 517527 99.74 566291 110.67 KERALA 593531 74.80 599692 74.4 634299 78.32 LADAKH 0 0.00 14862 3.93 11884 3.08 MADHYAPRADESH 137269 41.54 113780 37.93 139638 47.53 MAHARASHTRA 744273 86.66 734816 81.65 802121 88.89 MANIPUR 44390 25.76 47526 26.29 52432 28.17 MEGHALAYA 9865 2.51 14630 3.97 15462 4.42 MIZORAM 52652 15.09 53129 15.07 60784 18.54 NAGALAND 53156 18.90 69053 24.01 77882 28.03 ODISHA 12934 2.53 17470 2.92 25620 4.19 PUNJAB 468622 76.14 447136 70.44 503179 75.57 RAJASTHAN 165049 53.66 146296 46.59 188827 55.58 SIKKIM 716 0.15 102 0.03 513 0.1 TAMIL NADU 376543 78.23 381455 76.96 448485 86.55 TRIPURA 3525 0.52 5723 0.87 7109 1.02 UTTAR PRADESH 727980 247.14 747354 265.24 842938 317.32 UTTARAKHAND 30197 14.00 18621 7.4 21812 10.48 WEST BENGAL 884 0.36 273 0.2 576 0.14 ANDAMANAND 107 0.04 3272 0.4 NICOBAR 2796 0.37 CHANDIGARH 1461 0.15 1913 0.2 1783 0.18 DNHDD 468 0.07 275 0.03 318 0.04 DELHI 4928 0.65 8328 0.88 12302 1.25 PUDUCHERRY 3223 0.87 3963 1 4318 1.04 Total 5568025 1424.56 5239964 1192.42 5,710,789 1329.17

Source: National Scholarships PortalPost-Matric Scholarship Scheme- Details of scholarships and amount for AY 2019-20 to 2021-22 Amount in ₹ crore 2019-20 2020-21 2021-22 State Beneficiaries Amount Beneficiaries Amount Beneficiaries Amount ANDAMANAND 9 0.01 278 0.1 295 0.1 NICOBAR ANDHRAPRADESH 15408 12.95 12661 9.69 15216 11.32 ASSAM 38531 32.94 30456 24.78 49106 51.34 BIHAR 48456 30.53 43512 18.12 19642 9.55 CHANDIGARH 154 0.06 123 0.05 117 0.05 CHHATTISGARH 2202 1.38 2198 1.27 2744 1.54 DELHI 2261 0.89 3518 1.08 2908 0.86 GOA 218 0.15 349 0.21 458 0.27 GUJARAT 23445 13.43 21289 11.6 23519 12.82 HARYANA 4703 3.22 5194 3.31 7824 4.58 HIMACHALPRADESH 534 0.26 500 0.24 637 0.29 JAMMUANDKASHMIR 111052 72.51 53725 30.38 47574 27.47 JHARKHAND 13182 8.72 5918 2.99 5494 3.41 KARNATAKA 74944 49.90 55081 34.24 73830 43.98 KERALA 65635 32.68 67583 31.8 74271 37.55 LADAKH 0 0.00 1593 0.91 905 0.5 MADHYAPRADESH 22038 14.47 20430 13.6 23622 16.13 MAHARASHTRA 48331 24.23 47333 23.02 42110 20.97 MANIPUR 5599 4.86 4497 3.82 4629 3.93 MEGHALAYA 7533 5.06 7254 4.88 5306 3.63 MIZORAM 1309 1.17 1144 0.85 1702 1.34 NAGALAND 5332 4.58 6029 4.88 6421 5.45 ODISHA 2738 1.98 3146 1.91 4030 2.4 PUDUCHERRY 572 0.36 596 0.33 629 0.33 PUNJAB 56646 30.18 53450 27.66 55430 29.96 RAJASTHAN 27933 20.73 27404 19.39 30012 21.26 SIKKIM 52 0.03 85 0.04 289 0.15 TAMIL NADU 43241 25.93 44319 24.79 52409 29.18 TELANGANA 17393 13.90 18372 14.63 20843 16.8 DNHDD 81 0.03 57 0.02 78 0.03 TRIPURA 1067 0.73 1004 0.63 1766 1.21 UTTAR PRADESH 94291 68.20 4646 81.22 134433 100.24 UTTARAKHAND 4521 3.43 114388 3.37 5296 3.85 WEST BENGAL 3730 3.15 5184 5.49 6548 7.09 Total 743141 482.65 663316 401.3 720093 469.58

Source: National Scholarships PortalMerit-cum-Means based Scholarship Scheme- Details of scholarships and amount for AY 2019- 20 to 2021-22 Amount in ₹ crore 2019-20 2020-21 2021-22 State Beneficiaries Amount Beneficiaries Amount Beneficiaries Amount ANDAMANAND 3 0.01 3 0.01 NICOBAR 4 0.01 ANDHRAPRADESH 3476 9.17 1808 4.43 2118 5.54 ASSAM 6158 17.25 7216 19.08 9287 26.93 BIHAR 6985 18.74 7933 20.85 6733 17.66 CHANDIGARH 2 0.00 6 0.02 7 0.02 CHHATTISGARH 432 1.09 441 1.28 516 1.42 DELHI 384 0.97 376 1.04 295 0.77 GOA 76 0.20 116 0.29 50 0.13 GUJARAT 3037 7.17 2722 6.47 2731 6.54 HARYANA 821 2.12 772 2.04 1029 2.71 HIMACHAL 30 0.09 51 0.13 PRADESH 32 0.09 JAMMU AND 7702 19.91 9392 23.83 KASHMIR 8898 22.14 JHARKHAND 1501 4.40 232 0.59 685 1.94 KARNATAKA 20779 52.96 22510 56.59 22161 55.79 KERALA 26205 71.42 29630 80.81 32790 89.80 LADAKH 0 0.00 130 0.30 81 0.22 MADHYAPRADESH 2448 7.28 2216 6.53 2530 7.30 MAHARASHTRA 2814 8.50 2187 7.14 2335 7.74 MANIPUR 348 1.01 282 0.81 338 0.94 MEGHALAYA 1322 3.32 1165 2.63 601 1.51 MIZORAM 1115 3.24 46 0.11 107 0.23 NAGALAND 1193 3.09 1193 3.01 1258 3.13 ODISHA 436 1.33 392 1.08 466 1.29 PUDUCHERRY 62 0.14 44 0.09 48 0.12 PUNJAB 2410 6.53 1829 5.06 1716 4.76 RAJASTHAN 3241 8.63 3173 8.52 2907 7.97 SIKKIM 18 0.04 34 0.05 51 0.08 TAMIL NADU 5685 14.85 5295 13.48 6856 17.55 TELANGANA 3311 8.88 4065 10.80 4757 12.82 DNHDD 5 0.01 7 0.07 8 0.06 TRIPURA 81 0.20 111 0.28 94 0.24 UTTAR PRADESH 10545 27.05 10154 26.19 12387 32.10 UTTARAKHAND 470 1.26 496 1.44 658 1.69 WEST BENGAL 5264 14.77 4856 14.54 6764 19.90 Total 118359 315.63 120371 317.86 131810 352.87

Source: National Scholarships Portal