Gagan Bharari Shiksha Yojana for SC Students

What is Gagan Bharari Shiksha Yojana?

Gagan Bharari Shiksha Yojana is a Government of Goa education scheme that provides additional financial assistance to supplement the Post Matric Scholarship maintenance allowance. The Post Matric Scholarship is the centrally-driven maintenance support that reaches students through the National Scholarship Portal; Gagan Bharari Shiksha Yojana sits on top of it as a state top-up, so that a student in Goa is not left short of what it actually costs to stay in education after matriculation.

The scheme has a long notification history. It was first notified by No. DTW/STAT/2012-13/571 in the Official Gazette, Series I No. 29 dated 18 October 2012. It was revised by No. 4-1-2015-16/SCHEME/GB/TW/11522 notified in Series I No. 29 dated 15 October 2015, amended again in Series I No. 48 dated 1 March 2018, amended in Series I No. 34 dated 19 November 2020 which deleted Clause 6, and most recently amended by notification No. DTW/9/Gagan Bharari/Scheme/9/Amendment/2021-22/5363 dated 25 January 2022, published in the Official Gazette Series I No. 51 dated 17 March 2022. The 2022 amendment substituted Clause 4 on eligibility and Clause 7 on the mode of application, and deleted Clause 10.

Anyone reading older material about this scheme should check the date. The income ceiling in particular has moved, and the 17 March 2022 notification is the version that governs the current eligibility test.

Who is eligible for Gagan Bharari Shiksha Yojana?

Clause 4 of the scheme, as substituted in March 2022, sets out four conditions.

You can apply if:

• You belong to the notified community in the State of Goa for which the scheme is framed, evidenced by a caste certificate from the competent authority.
• The income of your parents or guardians does not exceed Rs 5,00,000 per annum.
• You are a regular, full-time student studying in a recognised institution or university.
• You are claiming for a class in which you have not previously drawn the scholarship.

You cannot apply if:

• Your parents' or guardians' annual income exceeds Rs 5,00,000.
• You are not a regular, full-time student; part-time enrolment, distance learning and correspondence programmes do not meet the Clause 4 test.
• Your institution is not recognised by a competent authority.
• You are repeating a class for which you have already received the scholarship. Clause 4 states plainly that scholarship for studying in any class will be available only for one year, and that a student who has to repeat a class is not eligible to get the scholarship for a second time in the same class.
• You cannot produce a caste certificate or income certificate from the competent authority for the relevant year.

The repeat-class rule is the one that most often surprises students. A year lost to illness or to a failed examination cannot be funded twice, so a student who falls back a year should plan on covering that year from other sources.

What documents are required?

Clause 7 of the scheme, as substituted in March 2022, lists the documents that must accompany the application:

Note the word attested running through the list. This is not a self-attestation scheme; the copies are expected to be attested, and applications that arrive with plain photocopies are commonly sent back.

The income certificate must be for the year in question. A certificate issued two or three years earlier does not satisfy Clause 4, even if the family's circumstances have not changed.

How to apply for Gagan Bharari Shiksha Yojana

1. Wait for your results and collect the mark sheet or passing certificate for the examination passed in the academic year, since this is the document the claim is built on.
2. Obtain a fresh income certificate and your caste certificate from the competent authority in your taluka. The income certificate must relate to the relevant year and must show parental or guardian income not exceeding Rs 5,00,000.
3. Collect the prescribed application form for Gagan Bharari Shiksha Yojana from your educational institution or from the department.
4. Fill in the form completely and attach the attested copies of the passport size photograph, mark sheet or passing certificate, income certificate, caste certificate, hostel receipts if applicable, bank passbook and Aadhaar card.
5. Submit the completed application through the head of your educational institution. Clause 7 requires the application to be routed through the head of the institution rather than sent directly by the student.
6. Ask the institution for an acknowledgement and keep a full copy of the submitted set for your record.

How the assistance is paid

Payment is made to the student's bank account, which is why an attested copy of the bank passbook is a mandatory attachment. The scheme is structured around the academic year, so a student who continues into the next class applies afresh for that class with a new mark sheet and a current income certificate.

The rates of assistance are notified by the department for each class and course and are revised from time to time by amendment. Because the figures have changed across the notifications of 2012, 2015, 2018, 2020 and 2022, a student should confirm the current rate with the department or with the head of the institution rather than relying on a figure quoted in an older circular.

Common reasons an application is rejected

• Income certificate above Rs 5,00,000, or an income certificate that does not relate to the relevant year.
• Plain photocopies instead of attested copies, against the express wording of Clause 7.
• Repeat claim for the same class, which Clause 4 bars outright.
• Part-time or distance enrolment, which fails the regular full-time test.
• Application sent directly by the student instead of being routed through the head of the educational institution.
• Bank passbook in a parent's name rather than the student's, which delays the credit.

How the scheme has changed, and why the date matters

Gagan Bharari Shiksha Yojana has been amended more often than most Goa education schemes, and a student reading an older circular can easily work from a superseded rule. The sequence is worth keeping straight:

The March 2022 notification is the operative one for eligibility and for the document list. It was issued with the approval of the Finance (Expenditure) Department under U. No. 5999/F dated 27 December 2021.

Two things changed in that amendment that a student should register. Clause 4 now fixes the income ceiling at Rs 5,00,000 per annum and states the regular-full-time and one-year-per-class rules in terms. Clause 7 now prescribes exactly seven documents and requires the application to travel through the head of the educational institution. Any list of documents longer or shorter than those seven, or any instruction to submit directly to the department, is working from an older text.

How this scheme sits with the Post Matric Scholarship

Gagan Bharari Shiksha Yojana is designed as a supplement, not a substitute. A student draws the Post Matric Scholarship maintenance allowance through the usual route, and Gagan Bharari Shiksha Yojana adds to it. Losing the Post Matric Scholarship — by missing the National Scholarship Portal window, for example; therefore does not automatically defeat a Gagan Bharari claim, but the two are best pursued together in the same academic year, with one set of certificates obtained once and used for both.

Students should also check whether they are eligible for Goa's other education support instruments in the same year, including the Fee Waiver Scheme for SC/ST Students Pursuing Higher Education, which waives tuition, library, laboratory and development fees at the point of admission to the first year of a degree or postgraduate course.

Help and grievance redressal

• Directorate of Social Welfare, Government of Goa, for Scheduled Caste students under this scheme
• Scheme notifications are published in the Official Gazette and mirrored on goa.gov.in/government/schemes
• The most recent governing amendment is notification No. DTW/9/Gagan Bharari/Scheme/9/Amendment/2021-22/5363 dated 25 January 2022, Official Gazette Series I No. 51 dated 17 March 2022

The scheme is also known locally by its transliterated name, Gagan Bharari Shikshan Yojana. No fee is payable to apply, and no agent is authorised to charge for routing the form through an institution.

How to check your application status

Gagan Bharari Shiksha Yojana is applied for offline, on a prescribed form routed through the head of the educational institution, and there is no dedicated online tracking portal for it. Checking on an application therefore means following up through the same offline channel rather than logging into a website.

At the institution first

• Ask the head of your institution (the person the form was routed through) whether the application has been forwarded to the Directorate of Social Welfare. This is the fastest check, since the institution holds the acknowledgement and usually knows which batch of forms has gone forward.
• Keep the acknowledgement or receipt you were given at submission. Quote its date and reference when you follow up, since the department processes forms in institution-wise batches rather than tracking each student's form individually online.

With the department

• If the institution confirms the form has already been forwarded, the next point of contact is the Directorate of Social Welfare, Government of Goa, which administers the scheme for Scheduled Caste students. Enquire in person or in writing, referencing your institution's name, class, and the academic year the claim is for.
• Because no helpline number is published for this specific scheme, a written enquiry addressed to the Directorate, copied to the institution, is the more reliable route than a phone call. Keep a copy of whatever you send.

What to expect while waiting

• Payment, when sanctioned, is credited directly to the student's own bank account, so a good practical check is simply to watch that account for the credit once the academic term when funds are usually released has arrived.
• Because rates and processing timelines are notified separately for each class and course and have been revised across several amendments, do not assume delay means rejection. Confirm status through the institution and the Directorate before concluding an application has failed, and only treat it as rejected once the institution or Directorate confirms it in writing.
• If a form was submitted with a photocopy instead of an attested copy, or with an income certificate that was not for the relevant year, it is often held back rather than formally rejected. Asking the institution directly whether any document was flagged as deficient will surface this faster than waiting for a formal reply.