Govt scholarship budgets rise but beneficiaries decline

Central government scholarship schemes for the most disadvantaged student segments have had an extraordinary and consistent trend for the period from 2019 till 2024, which also overlaps with the ongoing implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020: The number of beneficiaries has reduced significantly while the sanctioned budgets have either remained steady or increased.

It is reflected in government reports submitted to Parliament between July-November 2024, parliamentary committee reports, and ministries of social justice and empowerment, tribal affairs, and minority affairs annual data.

The social justice and empowerment ministry (MoSJE) administers a number of flagship programmes reflecting this ominous trend. Most notably, the overall government funding for the Post-Matric Scholarship for SC students almost doubled, from roughly ₹2,710 crore during 2019-20 to ₹5,475 crore during 2023-24. Ironically, the enrolment of SC students fell by 12.7%, from 54.27 lakh to 47.39 lakh.

State-level data paint a grimmer picture: Uttar Pradesh saw a 3% increase in funding but dipped by 30%% of beneficiaries and Madhya Pradesh saw a very slow 1.94% growth in beneficiaries despite the state funding increasing from ₹0 in 2019-20 to ₹36,680.48 lakh in 2023-24. Other MoSJE schemes saw no better fortune.

The National Fellowship for SC students fellowships nearly halved to 2,221 despite going over its budgeted outlay during 2019-20 to 2023-24. The Free Coaching Scheme for SCs and OBCs shut down, helping only 223 students in 2023-24 compared to 1,345 five years back. For OBC, EBC, and DNT students under the PM-YASASVI scheme, Post-Matric beneficiaries declined from 40.94 lakh to 5.38 lakh prior to the partial increase with no beneficiaries in Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka states in intervening years. Pre-Matric Scholarships for the groups fell from 94.52 lakh to 4.30 lakh recipients.

It was earlier on July 7 that HT reported that the ministry has conferred interim scholarship awards on fewer than half of the selected, i.e., only 40 out of the 106 selected candidates for its National Overseas Scholarship (NOS) for the ensuing academic year, 2025-26. It has declared that the remaining 66 candidates' letters "may be issued… subject to availability of funds". There are 125 slots annually under the scheme.

Administrative hurdles cited as causes

Acting on the Parliamentary Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment in its report in March this year, the MoSJE cited systemic hurdles for the derailments. For SC schemes (SHREYAS), causes were tardy submissions of proposals by institutions, unfixed allocations due to sanctioned slots and sub-target applications, administrative lethargy in processing, and a strict ₹8 lakh income criterion for foreign scholarships excluding deserving candidates. For PM-YASASVI, the ministry attributed the "non-receipt of applications" from states and Union territories, because of abysmally low uptake rates (12.5% for Pre-Matric, 33.5% for Post-Matric), as well as verification delays on the National Scholarship Portal (NSP). Invoking "past experience" of low utilization, the ministry has already reduced the 2025-26 budget for the PM-YASASVI Top Class School Scheme by ₹50 crore.

ST scholarships: Volatility and underfunding concerns

Even the ministry of tribal affairs (MoTA) pointed out with regard trends. Beneficiaries of the Pre-Matric Scholarship for ST students declined by 51.27%, from 13.75 lakh to 6.70 lakh, as grants decreased and yet another reduction is planned for 2025-26. A CAG audit found that the scheme reached only 80.14% of the target between 2017-2022 due to biometric authentication lapses and lesser awareness efforts. Post-Matric Scholarship reported varying beneficiary numbers, dropping to 13.64 lakh in 2023-24, whereas its budget expenditure for 2025-26 rose to ₹2,462.68 crore. MoTA ensured that it has already spent ₹10,577.91 crore of the sanctioned ₹12,516.70 crore of ST scholarships in 2021-22 to 2025-26, with just ₹1,938.79 crore remaining for the current fiscal (2025-26) and necessitating a request for an additional ₹1,983.67 crore. The National Overseas Scholarship for ST students was hit by a virtual zero budget cut of 99.83%.

Minority scholarships: Terminated, disproportionate impact

The biggest cut occurred in the Ministry of Minority Affairs. The Pre-Matric Scholarship covering 55-57 lakh students annually up to 2021-22 was reduced to zero budget and zero recipients in 2023-24. The Post-Matric Scholarship and the Merit-cum-Means Scholarship met a similar fate. The ministry, responding to the Parliamentary Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment (report laid in March this year), invoked "overlapping benefits" and "rationalisation" for withdrawal. To be sure, the ministry reiterated that the overlap is with the scholarships provided by the Ministries of Social Justice and Tribal Affairs—Muslims and Christians cannot be classified as SC in India. HT had also previously written about the challenges of MANF scholars, the fellowship, which was put on hold in December 2022 for fresh entrants, continues for ongoing scholars up to the end of their term. MANF is a five-year financial support programme for MPhil and PhD students belonging to minority groups notified by the government—Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, Jains, Parsis, and Sikhs. The ministry has, however, announced on Friday that pending payments have now been released.

This systemic failure to disburse scholarships overlaps with persistently lower Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) in higher education enrollment among marginalised groups compared to national levels. In 2019-20, GER in India's higher education was 27.1% but for SCs it was 23.4% and STs it was 18%. The GER in 2021-22 (latest available) at the national level increased to 28.4% but for SCs it had only increased to 25.9% and for STs to 21.2%. The government's target is 50% GER by 2035.

What the ministries say

HT asked the three ministries for a reply. Despite the silence of the tribal affairs ministry, a senior social justice ministry official, refusing to be named, told HT that the primary reason why numbers are decreasing is delay from the state, non-functional portals for scholarships, and in certain cases—no go-ahead signal for release from the department of expenditure. "The portals do not work in various states and though we are working with states so that they work, there are instances where the states do not care. The challenges are also that the National Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Corporation are not always sanctioned by the department of expenditure so that they can disburse the funds."

A senior government official of the ministry of minority affairs has told HT that while most of its schemes have been wound up, the ones where the disbursement for previous years is yet to happen — complaints of "siphoning" and "fraud" wherein the CBI at the state level is investigating such cases. "Expecting closure reports from several states for such scams, once these become available to us, we can initiate the disbursement," stated the official.