Pre-Matric Scholarship for the Students of Notified Tribes and Denotified Tribes Castes

What is the Pre-Matric Scholarship for Notified and Denotified Tribes students?

The Pre-Matric Scholarship for the Students of Notified Tribes and Denotified Tribes Castes is a Gujarat state scholarship paid to school students of nomadic and denotified communities from Std 5 to Std 10. The scheme is run by the Director, Developing Castes Welfare under the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of Gujarat, and appears on the department's website under its Gujarati name, Pre S.S.C. Shishyavrutti (Vicharti Vimukt).

Gujarat recognises 28 nomadic tribes and 12 denotified tribes. These are communities that were listed under the colonial Criminal Tribes Act and denotified after independence, and communities that continue to migrate for work. Their children face a specific problem: the family moves, school attendance breaks, and the child drops out before Std 10. The scholarship is a small, deliberately unconditional payment intended to reduce the cost of keeping such a child in school through the pre-matric years.

According to the Director, Developing Castes Welfare, the scheme has operated at substantial scale; departmental figures for 2018-19 show the pre-matric scholarships reaching several lakh students with an allocation of Rs 3,000 lakh.

Key features

• Covers Std 5 to Std 10, that is, the years before the SSC board exam.
• Paid annually, not monthly.
• No income ceiling for Std 5 to Std 8.
• Girls draw the higher Rs 750 rate one year earlier than boys.
• Applied for online and free on the Digital Gujarat portal.

How much does the scholarship pay?

The difference is worth noticing. A girl moves to the Rs 750 rate from Std 6, while a boy stays at Rs 500 until Std 9. Over Std 6 to Std 8 that is an extra Rs 750 for a girl student across three years, a deliberate nudge towards keeping girls from these communities in school past primary level.

The amounts are modest by design. This scholarship is not meant to fund education by itself; it sits alongside free textbooks, the mid-day meal, uniform assistance and, for eligible students, hostel facilities run by the same department.

Who is eligible for the pre-matric NT and DNT scholarship?

A student can receive the scholarship if:

• The student belongs to a Nomadic (Notified) Tribe or a Denotified Tribe of Gujarat, evidenced by a caste certificate from the competent revenue authority.
• The student is studying in Std 5 to Std 10 in a school in Gujarat.
• For Std 9 and Std 10, the family's annual income is within the ceiling published by the Director, Developing Castes Welfare.
• The student has an Aadhaar number and a bank account that can receive a direct transfer.

A student cannot apply, or is not eligible, if:

• The student does not hold an NT or DNT caste certificate of Gujarat. A Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, SEBC or minority student applies under a different pre-matric scheme of the same department, not this one.
• The student is below Std 5 or above Std 10. Post-SSC study is covered by separate post-matric schemes of the Director, Developing Castes Welfare.
• The family's income for a Std 9 or Std 10 applicant exceeds the notified ceiling.
• The student is not enrolled or not attending, since the school's bonafide certificate and verification are what release the payment.
• The student is already drawing another scholarship for the same standard and year.

A note on the income ceiling, stated plainly because the official source is not consistent: the English version of the Director, Developing Castes Welfare page for this scheme lists Rs 47,000 for rural areas and Rs 68,000 for urban areas, while the Gujarati version of the same page lists Rs 1,20,000 and Rs 1,50,000. Because these cannot both be current, confirm the applicable Std 9 and 10 limit with your school or with the district Developing Castes Welfare office before obtaining an income certificate.

What documents are required?

How to apply for the pre-matric NT and DNT scholarship online

1. Open the Digital Gujarat portal at digitalgujarat.gov.in and go to Scholarship Services. This is the single state portal through which Gujarat runs its pre-matric and post-matric scholarships.
2. Register or log in. New users create an account with a mobile number and email, verify the OTP, and set a password. Existing users log in and start a fresh application for the current academic year; last year's application is not carried forward automatically.
3. Select the correct scheme. Choose the pre-matric scholarship for Nomadic and Denotified Tribes students under the Developing Castes Welfare directorate. Picking a Scheduled Caste or SEBC scheme by mistake is the single most common cause of rejection.
4. Fill in student details: name exactly as on Aadhaar, date of birth, caste, school name and code, standard, and the academic year.
5. Enter the bank account details carefully: account number, IFSC and account holder name. Confirm the account is active and Aadhaar-seeded.
6. Upload the documents — caste certificate, bonafide certificate, Aadhaar, bank passbook first page, residence proof, and the income certificate if you are in Std 9 or 10.
7. Submit the application and save or print the application number shown on screen.
8. Get the school to verify. The application goes to your school for verification on the same portal. Follow up with the clerk or headmaster who handles Digital Gujarat, because an application left unverified at the school never reaches the department.

How to apply offline

1. Ask the school office for help. Most government and grant-in-aid schools in Gujarat submit pre-matric applications for their students in bulk on Digital Gujarat.
2. Alternatively, visit a Common Service Centre or e-Gram centre with all the documents and have the operator file the application on the portal.
3. For any difficulty with the caste certificate or the scheme itself, approach the district office of the Developing Castes Welfare directorate.

How to check your application and payment status

1. Log in to digitalgujarat.gov.in and open My Applications under Scholarship Services.
2. Read the status against your application number. "Pending at school" means the school has not verified it, "Pending at department" means it is with the directorate, and "Approved" means the sanction is done.
3. Once approved, check the bank passbook or account statement for the credit. Payment is by direct transfer, and there is no separate cheque or cash payment.
4. If the status has not moved for weeks, contact the school first, then the Digital Gujarat scholarship helpline on 1800-233-5500 or the Director, Developing Castes Welfare on 079-23253245.

Why applications get rejected

• Wrong scheme selected on Digital Gujarat, most often a Scheduled Caste or SEBC pre-matric scheme instead of the NT and DNT one.
• Caste certificate does not name an NT or DNT community, or has expired, or is in a parent's name only without a link to the student.
• School verification never completed, which leaves the application stuck before it reaches the department.
• Bank account errors. A wrong IFSC, a dormant account, or an account not seeded with Aadhaar.
• Name mismatch between Aadhaar, the school record and the bank account.
• Income certificate missing for Std 9 or 10, or an income above the notified ceiling.
• Duplicate application for the same student and year.

Most of these are fixable. Digital Gujarat sends applications back for correction rather than closing them outright in many cases, so log in and read the remark against the application before filing a fresh one.

Key dates

Gujarat does not publish a permanent statutory last date for this scholarship. The Digital Gujarat pre-matric window has in recent years opened around June and closed in September, with the department announcing extensions in some years. Treat the portal's own announcement banner as the authority for the current year, and apply in the first weeks of the window rather than the last: school verification takes time, and a late submission often runs out of window before the school clears it.

Help and grievance redressal

• Director, Developing Castes Welfare, Block 4, 3rd floor, Dr Jivraj Mehta Bhavan, Gandhinagar. Phone 079-23253245.
• Digital Gujarat scholarship helpline: 1800-233-5500, and the email address published on the portal for scholarship queries.
• District Developing Castes Welfare office, for caste certificate and eligibility questions.
• Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, Block 5, 8th floor, Sachivalaya, Gandhinagar, for written grievances.

Applying is free. No agent or middleman can charge for filing a Digital Gujarat scholarship application, and no official will ask for a share of the scholarship amount.