Dayanand Bandodkar Scheme for Higher Education for Orphans

What is the Dayanand Bandodkar Scheme for Higher Education for Orphans?

Dayanand Bandodkar Scheme for Higher Education for Orphans is a fee waiver scheme of the Directorate of Higher Education, Government of Goa. According to the Directorate, the basic purpose of formulating the scheme is to support the educational needs of children who are orphaned of both parents, that is father and mother, and who are deprived of higher education for want of financial resources.

The scheme is named after Dayanand Bandodkar, Goa's first Chief Minister, whose name also attaches to a number of state institutions and roads. In the Directorate's own citizen charter the scheme appears under the heading "Bhausaheb Bandodkar Scheme for Higher Education for Orphans Students", Bhausaheb was Bandodkar's popular name, so a student searching under either title is looking at the same scheme.

What distinguishes this scheme from an ordinary scholarship is that it does not pay a fixed monthly stipend. It removes the bill. The Directorate states that the amount of fee waiver provided to eligible students consists of tuition fees, library fees, laboratory fees and development fees, if any, plus other charges payable to the institution like lodging, boarding, food (hostel charges) or transport. In other words the scheme is designed so that the cost of attending the institution is not the reason an orphan student stops studying.

Who is eligible for the Dayanand Bandodkar orphan scheme?

You can claim the fee waiver if:

• You are orphaned of both parents: father and mother. This is the defining condition of the scheme.
• You were born in Goa, or you have been a resident of Goa for at least fifteen years. The Directorate's citizen charter states the residence requirement in exactly those terms.
• You passed your qualifying examination from an institution located in Goa. The qualifying examination is the one that got you admission to the course for which you are seeking the waiver.
• You are pursuing higher education — the scheme sits in the Directorate of Higher Education's portfolio, alongside its schemes for degree colleges and post-school institutions.
• You are deprived of higher education for want of financial resources, which is the stated purpose the Directorate applies when assessing applications.

You are not eligible if:

• You have lost only one parent. The scheme is written for children orphaned of both father and mother. A single-parent student should look at the general fee waiver and bursary schemes the Directorate runs instead.
• You passed your qualifying examination outside Goa. The condition is about the institution, not merely about residence.
• You were neither born in Goa nor resident in Goa for fifteen years or more.
• You are in school rather than in higher education. Pre-higher-education support for orphan children in Goa runs through the Directorate of Women and Child Development and the Directorate of Education, not through this scheme.

The fifteen-year residence rule matters more than students expect. It is longer than the ten-year rule the Directorate applies to some of its science-promotion scholarships, so a family that moved to Goa recently will clear one scheme's residence test and fail this one.

What benefits does the scheme provide?

The Directorate of Higher Education sets out the benefit in two parts.

Institutional fees. Tuition fees, library fees, laboratory fees and development fees, if any, are waived.

Other charges payable to the institution. Lodging and boarding, food or hostel charges, and transport are also covered.

There is no published rupee ceiling. That is deliberate: an orphan student in a professional course with laboratory fees and a hostel bill faces a very different cost from one attending a nearby arts college as a day scholar, and the scheme is scaled to the actual charge rather than to an average.

The Directorate's citizen charter records an indicative timeline of 90 days from the prescribed due date of submission of the application for the sanction to be issued, with the Assistant Technical Officer named as the dealing hand.

What documents are required?

Because the benefit is a waiver of specific heads of charge, the fee break-up from the institution is the document that does the most work. A consolidated receipt that says only "fees paid" makes it hard for the Directorate to separate tuition, library, laboratory and development components, and that slows the file down.

How to apply for the Dayanand Bandodkar orphan scheme

1. Open the scheme page on the Directorate of Higher Education website at dhe.goa.gov.in and download the scheme notification, a PDF of about 161 KB published under "Dayanand Bandodkar Scheme for Higher Education For Orphans".
2. Read the notification for the year's prescribed due date. The Directorate works to a due date for submission, and its 90-day sanction timeline runs from that date, not from the day you hand in the form.
3. Assemble your proof of orphan status. The death certificates of both father and mother.
4. Assemble your residence and schooling proof, birth certificate showing birth in Goa, or residence documents covering fifteen years, together with the marksheet of the qualifying examination passed from an institution in Goa.
5. Get the fee structure from your institution, broken up into tuition, library, laboratory and development heads, plus hostel, food and transport charges where applicable.
6. Complete the mandate form with your bank account details so the sanctioned amount can be routed to you or to the institution.
7. Submit the application with all enclosures to the Directorate of Higher Education, Goa Education Complex, Porvorim, Bardez, Goa 403521, routed through your institution.
8. Note the inward number and date on your acknowledgement, and follow up after the 90-day indicative window if you have heard nothing.

The Directorate's office hours are 9.30 a.m. to 1.15 p.m. and 2.00 p.m. to 5.45 p.m., with a lunch break from 1.15 to 2.00 p.m.

How do I check the status of my application?

The Directorate of Higher Education does not publish an online status tracker for this scheme. Status is confirmed by telephoning the Directorate on 0832-2410824 or 0832-2415585 and asking for the Assistant Technical Officer handling the Bandodkar orphan scheme, or by writing to dir-dhe.goa@nic.in.

Quote your inward number and the academic year. If the 90-day indicative timeline from the prescribed due date has passed with no communication, that is the point at which a written follow-up is worth making rather than a phone call.

Why do applications under this scheme fail?

• Only one parent's death certificate produced. This is the single most common reason. The scheme is not a general hardship fee waiver.
• Qualifying examination passed outside Goa, which fails the institution condition even where the student is a Goa resident.
• Residence short of fifteen years, or residence documents that cover the period only in fragments.
• Fee receipt without a break-up, so the waivable heads cannot be identified.
• Application submitted after the prescribed due date for the academic year.
• Bank mandate incomplete, which stops the payment after the sanction has already been issued.

Where do I complain if the file is stuck?

The Directorate of Higher Education names a Public Grievances Officer on its website, and that is the first formal route. The Directorate can be reached at the Goa Education Complex, Porvorim, Bardez, Goa 403521, on 0832-2410824 or 0832-2415585, or by email at dir-dhe.goa@nic.in. The website also carries a "Complain" link and an appointment booking facility.

If the departmental route does not produce a result, a grievance may be lodged against the department through the Government of Goa's citizen services portal at goaonline.gov.in.

Practical advice

• Apply through your institution rather than over the counter. The Directorate needs the institution to confirm the course, the fee heads and the hostel status, and a form that arrives with those already certified moves faster.
• Ask the college office for a written fee structure on letterhead, not a printout of the payment gateway receipt.
• Keep the death certificates in the file permanently. Renewals in later years of the same course will need them again.
• Do not stop attending because the sanction has not arrived. The waiver is processed against fees for the year of study, and dropping out ends the claim.
• Orphan students should also check the Directorate's Sant Sohirobanath Ambiye Dnyanvruddhi Shishyavrutti bursary scheme and the Interest Free Education Loan Scheme, which can run alongside a fee waiver for costs the waiver does not reach.