Establishment and Maintenance of Government Boys and Girls Hostels for Scheduled Caste Students

What is the government hostel scheme for Scheduled Caste students?

Establishment and Development of Government Boys and Girls Hostels is a scheme of the Directorate of Scheduled Caste Welfare in the Social Justice and Empowerment Department, Government of Gujarat. The Directorate lists it under its educational schemes with the scheme number BCK-24.

The problem the scheme addresses is simple. A Scheduled Caste student from a village with no higher secondary school or college has to move to a taluka or district town to keep studying, and the cost of a rented room plus food is often more than the family can carry. Government hostels remove that cost entirely. According to the Directorate of Scheduled Caste Welfare, admitted students receive free lodging and boarding, together with the academic facilities the hostel provides.

Key features

• 73 government hostels listed by the Directorate across 27 districts of Gujarat.
• Individual hostel capacity ranges from 50 to 360 students. The Mahatma Gandhi Boys Hostel in Rajkot, at 360 seats, is the largest on the list, while most hostels are built around a 50-student unit.
• Separate boys' hostels (Kumar Chhatralay), girls' hostels (Kanya Chhatralay) and dedicated post-graduate hostels.
• Hostels operate from government-owned buildings, rented premises and municipal or taluka panchayat buildings.
• Lodging and boarding are provided free of cost to the admitted student.

The scheme sits alongside four construction schemes run by the same directorate, BCK-20 and BCK-21 for grants to build backward class boys' and girls' hostels, and BCK-25 and BCK-26 for boys' and girls' hostel construction. Those schemes fund buildings. BCK-24 funds the running of the hostels and the seats inside them.

Who is eligible for a government hostel seat?

You can seek admission if:

• You belong to a Scheduled Caste notified in Gujarat.
• You are a resident of Gujarat and are studying away from your home place.
• You are enrolled in a recognised school, college or professional institute.
• For boys, the family's annual income is Rs 1,00,000 or less.
• For girls, there is no income limit at all.
• You have secured at least 50% marks at graduate level, the academic threshold stated by the Directorate.

You are not eligible and cannot apply if:

• You do not belong to a Scheduled Caste notified in Gujarat. Developing Castes, Scheduled Tribe and minority students are served by separate hostel schemes run by their own directorates and corporations.
• You are a boy from a family whose annual income exceeds Rs 1,00,000.
• You are not enrolled in a recognised course, or your admission cannot be evidenced by a bonafide certificate.
• You already hold a seat in another government or grant-in-aid hostel. A student cannot occupy two subsidised seats at once.
• You live in the same town as your institution and do not need residential accommodation.

How are the seats divided between courses?

Admission percentages are fixed course-wise, so that professional and science students do not crowd out school students or the reverse. The Directorate publishes the following split:

A student applying for a hostel competes within their own course group rather than against the whole applicant pool, so the effective cut-off differs between groups and between hostels.

What documents are required for hostel admission?

How to apply for a government hostel seat

1. Create a citizen account on the e-Samaj Kalyan portal at esamajkalyan.gujarat.gov.in using your mobile number and Aadhaar.
2. Sign in and select the Scheduled Caste Welfare directorate, then open the government hostel admission scheme from the list of educational schemes.
3. Fill in the application form with your personal details, caste, family income, the course you are enrolled in and the district and hostel you are applying to.
4. Upload the caste certificate, income certificate, previous mark sheet, admission letter, Aadhaar and school leaving certificate.
5. Submit the form and keep the acknowledgement number safe.
6. Report to the Rector of the hostel with the original documents once the list is published, and complete the admission formalities on the spot.

Students who cannot apply online can submit the same form and documents directly at the hostel or at the District Social Welfare Officer's office. Ask for a dated receipt when handing over the file.

How do I check my hostel application status?

1. Sign back into the e-Samaj Kalyan portal with the same login you used to apply.
2. Open your application history and look for the government hostel application against your acknowledgement number.
3. If the status has not moved for several weeks, contact the Rector of the hostel you applied to, since the verification happens at hostel level.
4. For an unresolved case, escalate to the District Social Welfare Officer and then to the Directorate.

What kind of hostel will I get?

The 73 hostels on the Directorate's list are not identical, and it helps to know what the categories mean before you pick one.

• Kumar Chhatralay are boys' hostels and Kanya Chhatralay are girls' hostels. They are separate institutions with their own Rectors, not wings of a single building.
• Post-graduate hostels are set aside for students in PG programmes, which keeps older students from competing for the same beds as school students.
• Capacity varies widely, from a standard 50-student unit up to 360 students at the Mahatma Gandhi Boys Hostel in Rajkot. A larger hostel is usually in a district headquarters with several colleges nearby.
• Buildings are a mix of government-owned premises, rented buildings and municipal or taluka panchayat buildings. The facilities differ accordingly, and it is reasonable to visit before you accept a seat.

The largest concentrations of hostels are in Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Anand, Rajkot, Bhavnagar, Junagadh and Kutch districts, which reflects where students travel for higher education in Gujarat.

Why hostel applications get rejected

• Caste certificate not from the Gujarat Scheduled Caste list, or a certificate issued by an authority that is not competent to issue it.
• Income above Rs 1,00,000 in a boy's application, or an income certificate older than the period the district office accepts.
• Marks below the 50% graduate-level threshold.
• No proof of current admission, which makes the application impossible to verify.
• Seats exhausted in that course group, which is a rejection on availability rather than on eligibility. Applying to a second hostel in the same district is the usual remedy.
• Duplicate accommodation, where the student is already admitted to another subsidised hostel.

Where to raise a grievance

The first point of contact for any hostel problem, from admission to food and facilities, is the Rector of the hostel. Unresolved matters go to the District Social Welfare Officer, and after that to the head office:

• Director, Scheduled Caste Welfare, Government of Gujarat
• Phone: +91 79 23253229 or +91 79 23253235

Admission to a government hostel under BCK-24 is free. No payment is due for a seat, for meals or for the application, and any demand for money in exchange for admission should be reported to the District Social Welfare Officer.