Scholarship/Stipend to SC Students for ITI/Professional Courses (Swami Vivekanand Scholarship)

What is the Swami Vivekanand Scholarship (BCK-13)?

Scholarship/Stipend to SC Students for ITI/Professional Courses; carrying the official scheme code BCK-13 and popularly called the Swami Vivekanand Scholarship; is run by the Director, Scheduled Caste Welfare in the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of Gujarat.

According to the Director of Scheduled Caste Welfare's scheme page, the scheme pays a monthly stipend of Rs 400 to Scheduled Caste students of Gujarat who are studying in an Industrial Training Institute (ITI) or another professional or technical course. The amount is credited directly into the student's bank account through Direct Benefit Transfer, in line with the Government of India's DBT guidelines.

The reasoning behind BCK-13 is specific to vocational education. Post-matric scholarships in Gujarat cover degree and diploma streams well, but ITI trainees and students on shorter technical courses historically fell between two stools: too old for school scholarships, not enrolled in a university for college-level awards. A dedicated monthly stipend for exactly this group is what keeps a Scheduled Caste trainee in a two-year fitter or electrician trade instead of dropping out for daily wage work.

Key features

• Rs 400 per month stipend, the same for ITI and other professional courses.
• Restricted to Scheduled Caste students of Gujarat.
• Family income ceiling of Rs 6,00,000 per year, applied uniformly to rural and urban applicants.
• Paid by DBT into the student's own bank account.
• Applied for online only, on the Digital Gujarat portal.
• Administered at district level by the District Deputy Director, Scheduled Caste Welfare.

The current framework rests on the Government of Gujarat resolution dated 2 November 2022, reference SJED/ASO/e-file/172022/0052/G, as recorded on the Director's scheme page.

Who is eligible for the BCK-13 stipend?

You can apply if:

• You are a permanent resident of Gujarat.
• You belong to a Scheduled Caste notified in Gujarat and hold a valid caste certificate from the competent authority.
• You are currently enrolled in an ITI course or another recognised professional or technical course.
• Your annual family income from all sources does not exceed Rs 6,00,000.
• You hold a bank account in your own name, preferably Aadhaar-seeded, for DBT.
• You are applying within the Digital Gujarat scholarship window for the current academic year.

You cannot apply / are not eligible if:

• You do not belong to a Scheduled Caste notified in Gujarat. Students of Other Backward Classes, Socially and Educationally Backward Classes or Scheduled Tribes have their own schemes under the Director of Developing Castes Welfare and the Tribal Development Department, and must not apply under BCK-13.
• Your family income exceeds Rs 6,00,000 a year. The ceiling is on family income from all sources, not the student's own earnings.
• You are not currently enrolled in an ITI or professional course. An applicant who has completed the course, or who has taken admission but not confirmed it, does not qualify for the year.
• You are a Scheduled Caste student of another state studying in Gujarat. Domicile and the Gujarat caste certificate are both required.
• You have already drawn a stipend for the same course-year under this or a duplicate application.
• You are applying outside the annual window on Digital Gujarat.

Gujarat does not publish a minimum marks requirement for BCK-13. Eligibility turns on caste, domicile, current enrolment and income.

What documents are required for the Swami Vivekanand Scholarship?

Scan each document separately and check the file-size limit shown beside each upload box. A single combined PDF of all documents is a common cause of upload failure on Digital Gujarat.

How to apply for the Swami Vivekanand Scholarship online

1. Open the Digital Gujarat portal at digitalgujarat.gov.in and click Register if you do not already have an account.
2. Register with your mobile number and email, and verify the OTP sent to your mobile. Note the login ID and password. You will need them each year.
3. Log in and open Services → Scholarship Services, then choose the academic year for which you are applying.
4. Select the Scheduled Caste (SC) category, and from the scheme list choose BCK-13 to Stipend to SC Students for ITI and Professional Courses (Swami Vivekanand Scholarship).
5. Complete the application form in sections — personal details, address, caste and income details, bank account with IFSC, and academic details of your current ITI or professional course.
6. Upload the scanned documents in the boxes provided: caste certificate, income certificate, marksheets, fee receipt, institution identity card, bank passbook and photograph.
7. Review every field, then submit the application. Note the application number shown on the confirmation screen.
8. Take a printout of the submitted application and hand it, with the document photocopies, to your institution's scholarship clerk or principal if your ITI asks for a physical set. The institution verifies the enrolment online.
9. Track the application from the same Digital Gujarat login until the status reads sanctioned and then paid.

How is the stipend paid?

The stipend of Rs 400 per month is released through Direct Benefit Transfer to the bank account entered in the application. The Director of Scheduled Caste Welfare states plainly that the amount is deposited to the student's bank account as per Government of India DBT guidelines; there is no cash disbursement at the institute and no payment through the college fee account.

Two practical consequences follow. First, the account must be in the student's own name; a parent's account will not clear DBT validation. Second, the account should be Aadhaar-seeded at the bank, because DBT routes payment through the Aadhaar Payment Bridge. A student whose account is dormant, KYC- incomplete or not Aadhaar-seeded will see the application sanctioned but the payment fail.

How to check your scholarship application status

1. Log in at digitalgujarat.gov.in with your registered credentials.
2. Open Scholarship Services and then My Applications for the relevant academic year.
3. Read the stage against your application number: submitted, pending with the institution, pending with the District Deputy Director, sanctioned, or paid.
4. If the status stalls at "pending with institution", follow up with your ITI's scholarship clerk; the institution's online verification is a separate step the student cannot complete.

For portal errors, call the Digital Gujarat helpdesk on 18002335500.

Important dates for 2026-27

The Digital Gujarat scholarship window for Scheduled Caste post-matric applications for 2026-27 opened on 6 July 2026 and closes on 30 September 2026. These dates move by a few weeks from year to year and are sometimes extended, so treat the portal's own banner as authoritative and do not wait for the final week, servers slow noticeably near the closing date.

Common reasons applications are rejected

• Income certificate above Rs 6,00,000, or an income certificate that has expired.
• Caste certificate from another state, or a certificate not issued by the competent Gujarat authority.
• Bank account not in the student's name, or not Aadhaar-seeded, so DBT fails after sanction.
• Institution verification not completed by the ITI, leaving the application stuck.
• Wrong scheme code. An SC student selecting a Developing Castes or Tribal Development scheme, or the reverse.
• Illegible uploads, particularly photographed fee receipts.
• Duplicate applications for the same year, which are usually rejected together.
• Application submitted after the closing date.

Fix the underlying record rather than re-applying. A rejected application with an expired income certificate is solved by obtaining a fresh certificate from the mamlatdar, not by filing the same document again.

Where to get help

• Digital Gujarat helpdesk: 18002335500
• Director, Scheduled Caste Welfare: 079-23253229 / 079-23253235, Block 4, 2nd Floor, Dr Jivraj Mehta Bhavan, Gandhinagar, Gujarat
• District Deputy Director (Scheduled Caste Welfare) office in your district handles sanction and payment queries
• Scheme page: sje.gujarat.gov.in, Director Scheduled Caste Welfare, scheme BCK-13

Applying is free. No agent or cyber café can charge you a fee for "getting the scholarship approved", and no government officer will ask for your Digital Gujarat password or OTP.