Cash Award Scheme for Scheduled Caste Students of Classes I to VIII

What is the Cash Award Scheme for Scheduled Caste students of classes I to VIII?

Cash Award Scheme for Scheduled Caste Students of Classes I to VIII is a Haryana state scheme of the Directorate of Elementary Education that pays a single lump sum once a year to every Scheduled Caste boy and girl studying in classes I to VIII in a Haryana government school. The money is intended for school bags, uniform and stationery articles such as a geometry box and colour pencils.

According to the Directorate's published scheme document on harprathmik.gov.in, the scheme replaced a set of older, narrower allowances. Earlier there were separate schemes under which a one-time allowance was given to all Scheduled Caste students for stationery and school bags, and a further scheme under which only Scheduled Caste girl students received an allowance for uniform, shoes and jerseys. The department consolidated these into one payment, made at the beginning of the year, covering both boys and girls in classes I to VIII.

The scheme appears on the Haryana State Direct Benefit Transfer portal as "Cash Award Scheme for Schedule Caste Classes 1 to VIII for Boys and Girls one time cash in year", one of ten DBT-onboarded schemes of the Department of Elementary Education.

How much does the Cash Award Scheme pay?

The Directorate's scheme statement sets the award class by class:

The award is paid once in the year, not monthly, and it is paid at the start of the academic session so that the family can actually buy the bag, uniform and stationery before or soon after the session begins. A student who moves up from class V to class VI moves from Rs 980 to Rs 1,250 in the following year.

Because these are the rates published in the Directorate's own scheme document, they are the figures the department itself circulates. Rates for a scheme of this kind are revised administratively from time to time, so confirm the current year's amount with the school head before planning a purchase.

Who is eligible for the Cash Award Scheme?

A student is eligible if:

• The student belongs to a Scheduled Caste notified for Haryana and holds a caste certificate from a competent authority.
• The student is enrolled in classes I to VIII.
• The student studies in a Haryana government school.
• Both boys and girls qualify. The consolidated award deliberately removed the earlier boy/girl distinction.

A student is not eligible if:

• The student is not from a Scheduled Caste. Backward Class (BC-A) and BPL students have their own separate stipend schemes of the same department, but they are not covered by this cash award.
• The student studies in a private unaided school. The scheme is limited to government schools.
• The student is in class IX or above. Classes IX to XII are covered by separate schemes of the Department of School Education, including a One Time Allowance to SC students in classes IX to XII.
• The student is not enrolled, or the school records show the student has left. Payment follows enrolment records.
• The family is a resident of another state and the student is not on the rolls of a Haryana government school.

What documents are required?

How to apply for the Cash Award Scheme

There is no online citizen application for this scheme. It runs on school records. The steps a parent should follow are:

1. Submit the Scheduled Caste certificate to the school at admission or at the start of the session, and confirm with the class teacher that the student's category is correctly recorded as SC in the school register and on the UDISE/MIS record.
2. Open a bank account in the student's name if one does not exist. Departmental instructions direct school heads and the bank officer of the branch attached to the school to organise this together, with accounts opened in the name of the student and operated by a parent or guardian, preferably the mother. Carry the student's Aadhaar, the parent's Aadhaar and a school letter.
3. Give the school the bank account number and IFSC, and have the account Aadhaar-seeded so that DBT can reach it.
4. Confirm the school has included the student in the requirement statement it sends to the Block Elementary Education Officer and District Elementary Education Officer. School-wise requirement of funds is assessed by these officers and intimated to the Directorate.
5. Check the passbook or bank SMS after the session begins to confirm the credit.

How the money reaches the student

The Directorate's 2009 instructions to Deputy Commissioners and district education officers describe the payment chain, and it still explains what a parent sees:

• The Directorate transfers a lump sum to the school account through the head office of the bank.
• The school account can only transfer money onward to student accounts. It cannot be withdrawn by anyone, which is the specific safeguard the department built in.
• Amounts are assessed on the basis of enrolment and attendance reported by the school in-charge.
• Bank branches are attached to schools so that not more than four or five schools are handled by one branch, with the sarpanch or village head, the bank officer and the school head meeting on a fixed date to open student accounts.

Why a cash award payment can fail or get delayed

• No bank account or an inactive account in the student's name. This is the single most common cause.
• Aadhaar not seeded with the bank account, so DBT cannot route the payment.
• Name mismatch between the school record, Aadhaar and the bank account.
• Caste category wrongly recorded in the school register or MIS as General or BC instead of SC.
• Student not on the current enrolment statement, for example after a transfer between schools mid-session.
• Caste certificate not submitted to the school, or issued by an authority that is not competent to issue it in Haryana.

Every one of these is fixed at the school first. The class teacher and school head hold the record that generates the claim, so a correction made in the school register flows through to the next payment cycle.

Key dates to keep in mind

The Cash Award Scheme has no separate last date for a citizen to apply, because there is no citizen application form. What matters is the school calendar. The award is designed as a beginning-of-year payment, so the practical deadline for a parent is to get the caste certificate, the bank account and the Aadhaar seeding in place before the academic session opens. Departmental instructions historically set an April deadline for school-wise requirement of funds to be assessed and intimated to the head of department, with transfers following in May.

Where to complain if the award does not arrive

• School head or class teacher — the first and usually fastest route, since the defect is normally in the school record.
• Block Elementary Education Officer (BEEO) for the block.
• District Elementary Education Officer (DEEO) or District Education Officer for the district.
• Directorate of Elementary Education, Haryana, Panchkula, whose contact details are published on harprathmik.gov.in.
• CM Window, the Haryana government's central grievance platform, for a complaint that the district level has not resolved.
• Antyodaya SARAL helpline 1800-2000-023, 7 am to 9 pm Monday to Saturday, for general guidance on state schemes and services.

No fee is payable to anyone for this award. A school or agent asking for money to "get the cash award sanctioned" should be reported to the BEEO or through CM Window.

How to check your application status

There is no citizen login or tracking number for this award, because there is no citizen-filed application. The claim is generated entirely from the school's own enrolment and category records, so "checking status" means confirming that the school-side record is correct and then watching for the credit, not tracking a form through a portal.

1. Ask the class teacher or school head directly. They can tell you whether the student's name has been included in the school's requirement statement sent up to the Block Elementary Education Officer (BEEO) and District Elementary Education Officer (DEEO) for that year, since inclusion in this statement is what triggers the payment.
2. Check that the bank account is Aadhaar-seeded and active. A dormant or wrongly linked account is the most common reason a sanctioned amount never shows up as a credit, so this is worth confirming before assuming the claim itself was rejected.
3. Watch the student's bank passbook or SMS alerts around the start of the academic session, since the award is released as a single lump sum at that time rather than on a fixed calendar date every applicant can look up in advance.
4. If nothing has arrived by well into the session, go back to the school first rather than the district office, since the school record is where any error (missing name, wrong category, unseeded Aadhaar) actually sits and gets corrected.
5. Escalate only if the school cannot resolve it, by raising the matter with the BEEO or DEEO, or through the Antyodaya SARAL helpline (1800-2000-023) or the CM Window for a complaint that the block or district level has not resolved.

Because payment is a once-a-year lump sum rather than an installment schedule, there is no month-to-month status to track. The only meaningful checkpoints are: is the student correctly recorded as SC and enrolled, is the bank account Aadhaar-seeded, and has the credit appeared in the passbook after the session opens.