Financial Assistance to ST Students under Gagan Bharari Shiksha Yojana

What is Gagan Bharari Shiksha Yojana?

Gagan Bharari Shiksha Yojana is a scholarship scheme of the Directorate of Tribal Welfare, Government of Goa, that provides financial assistance of up to Rs 15,000 to Scheduled Tribe students in Goa. The assistance is paid as a maintenance allowance top-up over and above the rate already admissible to the student under the Centrally Sponsored Post Matric Scholarship for Scheduled Tribe students.

The scheme exists because the central Post Matric Scholarship rates are set for the whole country and do not track Goa's cost of living. A Scheduled Tribe student from a village in Sanguem or Canacona who takes admission to a college in Panaji or Margao pays Goa rents and Goa transport fares out of a nationally uniform maintenance allowance. Gagan Bharari. The name translates roughly as "soaring the sky"; closes that gap so the maintenance allowance is realistic against what the student actually spends.

The Directorate of Tribal Welfare describes its own role as performing statutory and administrative functions relating to the protection and empowerment of Scheduled Tribes in the state, and Gagan Bharari sits alongside the department's Merit Base Award, Vidya Laxmi, Pre-Matric and Post-Matric scholarship schemes. In practice the Directorate issues one combined application form headed "Application for the Gagan Bharari Shiksha Yojana / Merit Base Scholarship Scheme for Scheduled Tribes Students", so a single submission is considered against both schemes.

Who is eligible for Gagan Bharari Shiksha Yojana?

You can claim the assistance if:

• You belong to a Scheduled Tribe notified in Goa. The form lists three communities: Gawda, Kunbi and Velip.
• You hold a Scheduled Tribe certificate issued by the competent authority, and can quote its number and date.
• You have passed matriculation and are studying a post-matriculation class or course. The form asks for educational details "from matriculation onwards".
• You are studying at a recognised school, college or institute, and the head of that institution is willing to certify Part B of your form.
• Your parents' or guardian's annual income is within the limit fixed for the Post Matric Scholarship, evidenced by an income certificate from the competent authority.
• You have a bank account in your own name with MICR and IFSC details, and an Aadhaar number you are willing to have used for authentication.

You are not eligible if:

• You do not hold a Goa Scheduled Tribe certificate. Belonging to a Scheduled Tribe notified in another state does not by itself qualify you here.
• You are still in a pre-matric class. Pre-matric Scheduled Tribe students are covered by the Directorate's separate Pre-Matric Scholarship Scheme for classes V to X, not by Gagan Bharari.
• You are already drawing another scholarship for the same purpose. Clause 16 of the form requires a declaration that you are not availing any other scholarship from any other source for that purpose.
• Your income certificate shows household income above the prescribed ceiling.
• The head of your institution declines to certify your attendance and course details in Part B.

A student who was sanctioned the scholarship in a previous year is not barred, but clause 14 of the form asks you to declare, year by year, the name of every scholarship scheme previously received, the course, the institute, and whether the amount was actually received. Understating this is the fastest way to lose the sanction later.

How much money does Gagan Bharari Shiksha Yojana give?

According to the National Scheme Portal maintained by the Government of India, financial assistance of up to Rs 15,000 is provided under Gagan Bharari Shiksha Yojana to Scheduled Tribe students as a maintenance allowance component over the Post Matric Scholarship rate.

The exact figure sanctioned to any individual student is not a flat rate. The "For Official Use of Tribal Welfare Department" box printed at the top of the application form has separate fields the verifying official fills in: income, standard or class, Scheduled Tribe community, percentage, group, Merit Base Award amount, Gagan Bharari amount, and whether the student is a day scholar or a hosteller. Those variables together decide the figure. Hostellers, who pay lodging and food charges, are assessed on a different footing from day scholars living at home.

Payment goes directly to the bank account the student declares in clause 13 of the form, which is why the form insists on the payee name exactly as it appears in the bank records, the branch address, the 15-digit account number written in both figures and words, the MICR code and the IFSC.

What documents are required?

Clause 15 of the official form lists exactly six enclosures — photograph, marksheet, income certificate, Scheduled Tribe certificate, bank passbook and Aadhaar card. Every one of them must be self-attested, meaning signed by the student across the copy.

How to apply for Gagan Bharari Shiksha Yojana

1. Download or collect the combined form. The Directorate of Tribal Welfare publishes it under Downloadable Forms on tribalwelfare.goa.gov.in as "Application form of Merit Base and Gagan Bharari scheme". Copies are also available at the Directorate's office in Panaji.
2. Fill in Part A yourself, in block capitals. This covers your name, date of birth, gender, full correspondence address down to the village panchayat or municipality, taluka, district code, assembly constituency, PIN code, mobile number and email.
3. Complete the identity and community fields. Enter your religion, your Scheduled Tribe community (Gawda, Kunbi or Velip), your Scheduled Tribe certificate number and date, your Aadhaar number, and whether your bank account is Aadhaar-seeded.
4. Sign the Aadhaar consent form printed inside the application, and have it identified by the head of your institution, who signs with name, designation and address.
5. Enter your academic record from matriculation onwards: examination passed, institution, board or university, year of passing, percentage and division, and attach attested copies of the certificates.
6. Enter the course details you are seeking the scholarship for: name and duration of the class or course, academic year, class last attended, total marks obtained, last passing percentage, name and address of the institution, and total annual course fees.
7. State whether you are a day scholar, hosteller or distance learner. If you are a hosteller not living in an institutional hostel, add the landlord's name, monthly rent, full postal address and telephone number.
8. Fill in the bank details in clause 13 and the annual income of your parents or guardian in clause 12.
9. Sign the declaration in clause 16, and have your parent or guardian sign alongside.
10. Hand the form to the head of your school, college or institute to complete and sign Part B, then submit it to the Directorate of Tribal Welfare, Shram Shakti Bhavan, 5th Floor, Patto, Panaji, Goa.

There is no online submission route for this scheme. The Government of Goa's "Know Your Schemes" service on goaonline.gov.in lists departmental schemes for citizens to check eligibility, but the Gagan Bharari application itself is a paper form.

How do I check the status of my application?

The Directorate does not publish an online tracker for Gagan Bharari. Status is checked by contacting the Directorate of Tribal Welfare on 0832-2438024 or 0832-2438052, or by email to dir-tw.goa@nic.in, quoting your name, ST certificate number and the academic year applied for.

Because the form travels through the head of your institution, the institution's office is usually the faster first stop. It will know whether your form was forwarded, on what date, and under what covering letter.

Why do Gagan Bharari applications get rejected?

• Scheduled Tribe certificate not from Goa's competent authority, or expired or in a different spelling of the name than the marksheet.
• Income certificate missing or stale. The certificate must come from the competent authority and reflect the current position, not a certificate obtained years earlier for a different purpose.
• Part B left blank. A form the head of the institution has not signed is incomplete and cannot be verified.
• Bank details that do not match. A payee name that differs from the bank record, a wrong IFSC, or an account in a parent's name rather than the student's will stop the credit even after sanction.
• Another scholarship already drawn for the same purpose, contrary to the declaration in clause 16.
• Copies not self-attested. Every enclosure listed in clause 15 must carry the student's signature.

Fixing most of these is a matter of resubmitting the corrected page with a covering letter through the same institution, rather than filing a fresh application.

Where do I complain if my scholarship is stuck?

The first grievance route is the Directorate of Tribal Welfare itself, at Shram Shakti Bhavan, 5th Floor, Patto, Panaji, on 0832-2438024 or 0832-2438052, or by email at dir-tw.goa@nic.in.

If the departmental reply does not resolve the matter, a grievance can be registered against the department through the Government of Goa's citizen services portal at goaonline.gov.in and tracked by reference number.

Practical advice

• Apply as soon as your admission is confirmed, not after the term is over. The scheme is an allowance for the year you are studying, and a form submitted late in the academic year competes with a budget already committed.
• Keep your Post Matric Scholarship application alive. Gagan Bharari is built on top of that allowance, so the two are assessed together.
• Get your income certificate before term starts. Obtaining it from the Mamlatdar usually takes longer than filling in the scholarship form.
• Seed your bank account with Aadhaar before you submit. An unseeded account is the most common reason a sanctioned amount fails to reach the student.
• Students from the same three communities should also look at the Directorate's Vidya Laxmi, Eklavya Prashikshan Yojana and Short Term Professional Training Courses schemes, which serve different stages of the same educational journey.