AICTE Saksham Scholarship Scheme for Specially-Abled Student (Degree)

What is the AICTE Saksham Scholarship Scheme?

The AICTE Saksham Scholarship Scheme for Specially-Abled Students is a scholarship of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), the statutory technical-education body under the Ministry of Education. According to AICTE, the scheme provides financial assistance of up to Rs 50,000 per year to differently-abled students so they can pursue a technical degree in an AICTE-approved institution without dropping out for want of money.

The scholarship recognises that students with disabilities often face higher costs, for assistive devices, transport, software and support; on top of ordinary tuition. Saksham is meant to ease that burden and widen access to professional technical education. There is a companion Saksham stream for diploma students; this guide covers the degree stream.

Key features

• Benefit of up to Rs 50,000 per year of study, paid by Direct Benefit Transfer.
• Targeted at specially-abled students with a disability of 40% or more.
• Applicable to AICTE-approved degree programmes.
• Administered and disbursed through the National Scholarship Portal (NSP).

Who is eligible for the AICTE Saksham Scholarship?

You can apply if:

• You are a specially-abled student with a disability of at least 40%, certified by a competent medical authority.
• You are admitted to the first year of a degree programme, or to the second year through lateral entry, in an AICTE-approved institution.
• Your family income is within the ceiling notified by AICTE for the scheme.
• You have a valid disability certificate, income certificate and an Aadhaar-seeded bank account.

You cannot apply if:

• Your certified disability is below 40%.
• You are studying in an institution not approved by AICTE, or in a course outside the scheme's scope.
• Your family income exceeds the notified ceiling.
• You are already receiving another scholarship for the same purpose: most government scholarships cannot be combined for the same tuition.

Because the income ceiling and the number of scholarships sanctioned are revised from year to year, confirm the current figures in the official scheme guidelines on the National Scholarship Portal before you apply. Do not rely on a previous year's numbers.

How much does the Saksham scholarship provide?

According to AICTE, the scholarship is worth up to Rs 50,000 for every year of study. The amount is intended to be used for:

• Tuition fees (or reimbursement of fees paid), and
• Purchase of books, equipment, stationery, software and other essentials needed for the course.

Payment is made by Direct Benefit Transfer into the student's Aadhaar-seeded bank account, so the account details and Aadhaar seeding must be correct to avoid payment failure. The scholarship continues for the normal duration of the degree, subject to yearly renewal and satisfactory academic progress.

What documents are required?

Keep clear scans ready before you start the form. The National Scholarship Portal will not let you submit without the mandatory uploads.

How to apply for the AICTE Saksham Scholarship

1. Open the National Scholarship Portal at scholarships.gov.in during the annual application window (the portal announces the dates each academic year).
2. Complete the One-Time Registration (OTR) and get your OTR/reference number, then log in.
3. Select the AICTE Saksham Scholarship (degree stream) from the list of schemes and open the application form.
4. Fill in your personal, academic, disability, income and bank details exactly as they appear on your documents.
5. Upload the mandatory documents: disability certificate, income certificate, admission proof, Aadhaar, bank passbook and marksheets.
6. Submit the form and note the application ID. Your institute's nodal officer verifies it, after which it moves to AICTE for approval.
7. Track the status on the portal, and renew every year if you are a continuing student.

There is no application fee. Never pay an agent to "get your name added", the entire process is free on the government portal.

Renewal and continuation

Saksham is not a one-time grant for the whole course. Continuing students must re-apply (renew) each academic year on the National Scholarship Portal. Renewal is conditional on satisfactory academic progress, typically passing and continuing in the same programme, and on continued eligibility (disability and income status). Missing the renewal window can mean losing the scholarship for that year, so track the portal's annual dates closely.

Help and grievance redressal

• National Scholarship Portal helpdesk: 0120-6619540, and the grievance section on scholarships.gov.in.
• Your institute's scholarship nodal officer. The first point of contact for verification problems, document rejection or bank-seeding errors.
• AICTE Saksham scheme page on aicte.gov.in for the current-year guidelines, income ceiling and number of scholarships.

Because the precise family-income ceiling and the count of scholarships sanctioned change between years, always confirm those two figures against the official AICTE guideline or the National Scholarship Portal for the year you are applying in.

How to check your application status

1. Go to the National Scholarship Portal at scholarships.gov.in and log in with the same OTR credentials (registration number and password/OTP) used at the time of application.
2. Open the "Application Status" or "Track Status" option on your student dashboard. This shows which stage your Saksham application is at: submitted, pending at institute level, forwarded to AICTE, approved, or disbursed.
3. Note that Saksham moves through two levels of check before payment: your institute's nodal officer first verifies your documents and marks the application, after which it goes to AICTE for sanction. The status field changes at each of these stages, so a status stuck at "pending at institution" means your college has not yet verified it, not that AICTE has rejected it.
4. If DBT has been processed, the dashboard also shows the disbursement date and amount credited to your Aadhaar-seeded bank account. If it shows "processed" but the money has not arrived, check your bank account's Aadhaar seeding status separately with your bank or via the NPCI mapper, since a seeding mismatch is the most common cause of a delayed credit.
5. If the online status has not moved for several weeks during the active cycle, contact your institute's scholarship nodal officer first, since most delays sit at the institute-verification stage, before escalating to the NSP helpdesk at 0120-6619540 or the grievance section on scholarships.gov.in.
6. You can also raise a grievance ticket directly on the National Scholarship Portal against your application ID if the status appears stuck or shows a rejection you believe is incorrect; this creates a written trail that is more traceable than a phone call alone.

Common reasons for rejection

• Aadhaar not seeded, or seeded to a different bank account. DBT can only reach an account where Aadhaar is linked and mapped for benefit transfer at NPCI's end. If the account entered on the form is not the Aadhaar-seeded one, the application can be verified but the transfer fails. Fix: confirm Aadhaar seeding and DBT mapping with your bank before applying, and use only that account number on the form.
• Disability certificate below the 40% threshold, or issued by an authority not recognised as competent. Saksham requires certification of 40% or more disability from a competent medical authority; a certificate showing a lower percentage, or one that is not from a recognised issuing body, gets the application turned down at verification. Fix: check the certificate's percentage and issuing authority against the current AICTE guidelines before uploading, and get it re-issued if either does not match.
• Family income certificate above the notified ceiling, or expired / wrongly formatted. Because the ceiling changes from year to year, students sometimes upload a certificate valid for a past cycle or showing income over the current limit. Fix: get a fresh income certificate dated for the current application year from the competent revenue authority, and confirm the latest ceiling on the NSP or AICTE guideline before applying.
• Institution not AICTE-approved, or course outside the scheme's scope. The scholarship is restricted to AICTE-approved degree programmes; an application from a state-university-affiliated or unapproved institute is rejected regardless of how complete the rest of the form is. Fix: verify your institute's AICTE-approval status on the AICTE website before you apply, not after.
• Mismatch between uploaded documents and form entries. Name, date of birth, or admission-year mismatches between the Aadhaar card, marksheets, and the details typed into the form are a frequent cause of verification failure at the institute or AICTE level. Fix: copy details exactly as they appear on the source documents, and correct any spelling or date discrepancy across documents before submission rather than after.
• Missed the renewal window as a continuing student. Saksham is not paid automatically year after year; a continuing student who does not renew within that year's application window loses the scholarship for that academic year even if still otherwise eligible. Fix: track the NSP's announced dates each year and renew as soon as the window opens rather than close to the deadline.
• Already receiving another scholarship for the same purpose. Most government scholarships cannot be drawn together for the same tuition component, and NSP's own cross-checks can flag or reject a duplicate claim. Fix: confirm you are not concurrently claiming another central or state scholarship for the same fee head before applying for Saksham.