AROHAN Scheme (Mentor-Mentee Programme for Secondary Students)

What is the AROHAN scheme in Assam?

AROHAN is a mentor-mentee scheme of the School Education Department, Government of Assam, implemented through Samagra Shiksha Axom. AROHAN began in the 2022-23 academic year and takes its name from the Assamese and Sanskrit word for "ascent", which describes exactly what the scheme sets out to do; lift capable students out of secondary school in a government institution and onto a path towards professional and scientific careers.

AROHAN was designed around a simple observation. Assam's government schools produce large numbers of academically strong students in Classes 9 and 10, but many of them have never met an engineer, a doctor, a researcher or a civil servant, and have no realistic idea of how a person from their own background gets there. The scheme addresses that gap by attaching each selected student. A mentee; to a mentor drawn from exactly those professions, and by physically taking students onto the campuses of premier institutions.

According to Samagra Shiksha Axom, AROHAN has registered 17,383 mentees across four cohorts running from 2022-23 to 2025-26, alongside 13,758 registered mentors. Roughly 62 to 65 per cent of mentees have been girls, a deliberate emphasis on getting more young women into science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Main features of AROHAN

• Mentor-mentee pairing for meritorious students of Classes 9 to 12.
• A book grant of Rs 1,000 per mentee, paid by Direct Benefit Transfer.
• Tablets for selected Class 10 mentees to 4,280 devices in 2025-26.
• Residential exposure visits of four to five days to institutions such as IIT Guwahati and AIIMS.
• Career counselling sessions with district officials and subject experts.
• Alignment with the National Education Policy 2020 emphasis on STEM.

Who is eligible for the AROHAN scheme?

You can register as a mentee if:

• You are a permanent resident of Assam.
• You are studying in Class 9, 10, 11 or 12.
• Your school is a government or provincialised school in Assam. The pool explicitly includes Adarsha Vidyalayas, tea garden model schools and Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas.
• You are shortlisted on merit by your school and district administration.
• You hold a bank account in your own name for the DBT book grant.

The published age band for mentees is roughly 13 to 18 years, which follows naturally from the Class 9 to 12 requirement rather than acting as a separate filter.

You cannot apply if:

• You study in a private unaided school. AROHAN is confined to the government and provincialised school system.
• You are in Class 8 or below, or have already left school after Class 12.
• You are not a resident of Assam.
• You have already drawn the book grant for the same cohort, the grant is one-time per cohort, not repeatable within the same year.

Being registered on the portal does not by itself make a student a mentee. Selection is merit-based and is finalised by the school head together with the District Mission Office of Samagra Shiksha, working within the cohort size fixed for that district.

Who can register as a mentor: senior government officials, serving teachers, college and university professors, alumni of the same schools, postgraduate students, doctors, entrepreneurs and other professionals of Assamese origin working anywhere in India or abroad. Mentors are volunteers and are not paid an honorarium under the scheme.

What documents are required for AROHAN?

How to apply for AROHAN online

1. Open the AROHAN portal at arohan-ssa.assam.gov.in. The scheme's information page sits on the Samagra Shiksha Axom site at ssa.assam.gov.in/resource/arohan.
2. Select Mentee Registration on the homepage. Mentors use the separate Mentor Registration link.
3. Fill the registration form with your full name, date of birth, class, school name and code, district, parent's name and mobile number.
4. Enter your bank account number and IFSC code exactly as printed in your passbook, and your Aadhaar number for seeding.
5. Upload your photograph and the supporting documents in the sizes and formats the form specifies.
6. Enter the captcha and submit. Save or photograph the registration number shown on the confirmation screen — it is what you quote in any follow-up.
7. Wait for the merit shortlist. Your school head and the District Mission Office confirm the final mentee list for your district and inform selected students through the school.
8. Once selected, attend the mentor pairing and orientation session your school announces, and keep your bank account active so the Rs 1,000 book grant can be credited.

How to apply for AROHAN offline

1. Meet your school Headmaster or Principal and say you want to be considered as an AROHAN mentee for the current cohort.
2. Submit your previous class marksheet, bonafide certificate, bank passbook photocopy and Aadhaar photocopy to the school office.
3. Ask the school to complete your registration on the AROHAN portal: schools routinely register eligible students in bulk where students do not have their own internet access.
4. Follow up with the District Mission Office of Samagra Shiksha in your district headquarters if your school has not registered you before the cohort closes.

There is no paper application form that bypasses the portal. Every mentee record ultimately lives on arohan-ssa.assam.gov.in; the offline route simply means the school does the data entry for you.

What benefits does AROHAN provide?

Book grant. AROHAN pays Rs 1,000 per selected mentee, transferred by DBT into the student's own bank account. Samagra Shiksha Axom has reported the grant reaching 17,253 mentees of Classes 9 and 10 across two years.

Tablets. Selected Class 10 mentees receive a tablet loaded for academic use. 4,280 tablets were distributed in 2025-26. Recipients are trained on basic operation of the device and on downloading content from the DIKSHA portal, Khan Academy and Assam's own E-Kaksha e-content library.

Residential exposure visits. AROHAN mentees travel to premier institutions for fully residential stays of four to five days. IIT Guwahati alone hosted 12 batches between October and December 2023, covering 3,311 students to 2,009 girls and 1,302 boys, with 33 IIT faculty members taking sessions. Students from all 29 participating districts have taken part, and 10,726 students in total have made exposure visits, including to AIIMS and to state science centres. Visits also include cultural programmes at Srimanta Sankardev Kalakshetra.

Mentoring and counselling. Each mentee is paired with a mentor for ongoing guidance on subject choice, entrance examinations and career planning, backed by group counselling sessions with district officials and subject experts.

How to check your AROHAN status

1. Log in to arohan-ssa.assam.gov.in with the credentials created at registration.
2. Open your mentee dashboard to see whether your registration is submitted, verified or selected.
3. Ask your school head for the district selection list, which is circulated to schools rather than always published online.
4. For the book grant, check your bank passbook or statement for a DBT credit of Rs 1,000 rather than expecting a portal payment screen.

Why AROHAN registrations and grants fail

• Bank account not in the student's own name. A parent's account will not receive the DBT credit.
• Account dormant or not Aadhaar-seeded, the single most common reason a book grant bounces back.
• IFSC or account number mis-typed during registration.
• Private school enrolment. The student is simply outside the scheme's scope.
• Registered but not shortlisted. District cohort sizes are fixed, so registration does not guarantee selection.
• Duplicate registration across two schools or two cohorts.

Corrections to bank details are made by editing the mentee record on the portal through the school; genuine selection disputes go to the District Mission Office.

Key dates and cohorts

AROHAN has run in annual cohorts since 2022-23, with fresh mentee and mentor registration opening each academic year. The scheme has completed four cohorts through 2025-26. No permanent statewide last date is published; Samagra Shiksha Axom announces the registration window for each cohort on the portal and through District Mission Offices, so students should check with their school early in the academic session rather than wait for a public notice.

Help and grievance redressal for AROHAN

• Samagra Shiksha Axom toll-free grievance line: 1800-345-3525
• State Mission Office: 0361-2386452, ssaassam@rediffmail.com
• Postal address: Office of the Mission Director, Samagra Shiksha Axom, Kahilipara, Guwahati 781019, Assam
• District Mission Office of Samagra Shiksha in your district headquarters, the correct first stop for selection and payment complaints

AROHAN registration, selection and exposure visits are free. No official will ask a student for money or for an OTP to complete an AROHAN registration.