**Executive Summary:**
This document presents the Ministry of Minority Affairs' response to Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 617 regarding scholarship schemes for minority students. It details the implementation of pre-matric, post-matric, and merit-cum-means based scholarships, their disbursement through DBT, and the findings of a third-party evaluation that led to a CBI investigation. It also clarifies the discontinuation of pre-matric scholarships for classes I-VIII, citing the Right to Education Act, 2009.
**Key Points / Main Content:**
* **Scholarship Schemes:**
* The Ministry of Minority Affairs implements three Central Sector Scholarship Schemes for notified minority communities: Pre-Matric, Post-Matric, and Merit-cum-Means based.
* Scholarships are disbursed through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mode.
* Beneficiaries are determined by State/UT-wise quotas based on census data.
* The schemes were approved for implementation until 2021-22.
* **Monitoring and Evaluation:**
* A third-party evaluation by the National Council of Applied Economic Research in 2022-23 revealed irregularities in all three scholarship schemes.
* A physical verification study found 830 out of 1572 institutes to be fake, partially fake, or non-operational.
* The matter has been handed over to the CBI for investigation.
* **Pre-Matric Scholarship Discontinuation:**
* Pre-matric scholarships for students in classes I-VIII have been discontinued from 2023-24.
* This decision is based on the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009, which mandates free and compulsory elementary education for all children in classes I-VIII.
* Only students in classes IX and X are now covered under the Pre-Matric Scholarship Scheme, managed by the Ministry of Social Justice Empowerment and Ministry of Tribal Affairs.
* There is no proposal to reintroduce the scholarship for classes I-VIII under the Ministry of Minority Affairs.
* **Financial Data (AY 2019-20 to 2021-22):**
* Annexure I provides state-wise details of scholarships awarded and amounts disbursed under the Pre-Matric Scholarship Scheme from AY 2019-20 to 2021-22.
* The Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme distributed ₹482.65 crore in 2019-20, ₹401.3 crore in 2020-21 and ₹469.58 crore in 2021-22.
* The Merit-cum-Means based Scholarship Scheme distributed ₹315.63 crore in 2019-20, ₹317.86 crore in 2020-21 and ₹352.87 crore in 2021-22.
**Impact Analysis:**
* **Minority Community Students:**
* *Impact:* Students in classes I-VIII no longer receive pre-matric scholarships from the Ministry of Minority Affairs due to the RTE Act. Students in IX and X may be eligible for pre-matric scholarships from other ministries.
* *Action Required:* Students in classes IX and X should apply for pre-matric scholarships through the Ministry of Social Justice Empowerment or the Ministry of Tribal Affairs. Students in higher classes should continue to apply for Post-Matric and Merit-cum-Means scholarships.
* **Ministry of Minority Affairs:**
* *Impact:* The Ministry has discontinued pre-matric scholarships for classes I-VIII and is addressing irregularities in existing scholarship schemes through a CBI investigation.
* *Action Required:* The Ministry needs to cooperate with the CBI investigation and continue to monitor and evaluate the remaining scholarship schemes.
* **Educational Institutions:**
* *Impact:* Institutions identified as fake, partially fake, or non-operational face potential legal action following the CBI investigation.
* *Action Required:* Institutions must cooperate with the CBI investigation and ensure compliance with scholarship scheme guidelines.
* **State/UT Governments:**
* *Impact:* State/UT governments are responsible for ensuring the accurate identification of beneficiaries and preventing fraudulent activities related to scholarship schemes.
* *Action Required:* State/UT governments need to strengthen their monitoring mechanisms to prevent irregularities and ensure the proper disbursement of scholarships.
Key Entities Referenced
Ministry of Minority Affairs: The Indian government ministry responsible for implementing schemes for the empowerment of minority communities.
Pre-Matric Scholarship Scheme: A scholarship scheme implemented by the Ministry of Minority Affairs, initially providing financial assistance to minority students from class one to ten, but discontinued for classes one to eight from 2023-24.
Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme: A scholarship scheme implemented by the Ministry of Minority Affairs for minority students pursuing education after class X.
Merit-cum-Means based Scholarship Scheme: A scholarship scheme implemented by the Ministry of Minority Affairs providing financial assistance to meritorious minority students with limited financial means.
Direct Benefit Transfer DBT: A mechanism used by the Government of India to disburse scholarships directly to the beneficiaries' bank accounts.
National Council of Applied Economic Research: An independent, non-profit research organization that conducted a third-party evaluation of the scholarship schemes of the Ministry of Minority Affairs.
Central Bureau of Investigation CBI: The primary investigating agency in India, to which the matter of irregularities in scholarship schemes was handed over for investigation.
Right to Education RTE Act, 2009: An Act of the Parliament of India which makes elementary education compulsory for children between the ages of 6-14 years.
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