Pre-Matric Scholarship for Students Belonging to Minority Communities, Haryana

What is the Pre-Matric Scholarship for Minority Communities in Haryana?

Pre-Matric Scholarship for Students Belonging to Minority Communities is a scholarship implemented in Haryana by the Directorate of Social Justice and Empowerment, part of the Social Justice, Empowerment, Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes and Antyodaya (SEWA) department. According to the directorate's scheme page, the scholarship is a 100% centrally sponsored scheme. The money comes from the Government of India, while Haryana runs the identification, verification and disbursement machinery.

The scheme targets the school years immediately before the board examination. Classes IX and X are the point at which many students from low-income minority households drop out, either because fees start biting or because a family cannot support a child who is not yet earning. Pre-Matric Scholarship for Minorities tries to hold those students in school by covering the admission fee, the tuition fee and part of the monthly cost of living.

The Directorate of Social Justice and Empowerment implements pre-matric, post-matric and merit-cum-means scholarship schemes for students belonging to the minority communities of Muslim, Sikh, Christian, Buddhist, Parsi and Jain, and earmarks 30% of scholarships for girl students in Haryana.

The scheme sits under the umbrella of the Prime Minister's New 15 Point Programme for the Welfare of Minorities, announced in June 2006, which required scholarship schemes for minority community students to be created at both pre-matric and post-matric stages.

Who is eligible for the Haryana pre-matric minority scholarship?

You can claim the scholarship if:

• You belong to one of the six notified minority communities; Muslim, Sikh, Christian, Buddhist, Parsi or Jain.
• You are studying in class IX or class X.
• You are enrolled in a government school, or a private school recognised by an appropriate authority.
• The annual income of your parents or guardian is less than Rs 1 lakh.
• You secured 50% marks or more in the previous examination, which is the condition for continuation of the award into the next year.

You cannot apply, or are not eligible, if:

• Your community is outside the six notified minority communities.
• Your family's annual income is Rs 1 lakh or more. The income ceiling here is half of what the post-matric minority scholarship allows.
• You are in class XI or above, or in a class below IX. Class XI onwards is covered by the post-matric scheme.
• Your school is not recognised by an appropriate authority.
• You are already drawing another scholarship of a similar nature from the central or a state government. Simultaneous benefit is barred.
• You scored below 50% in the previous examination and are applying for renewal.

How much money does the pre-matric minority scholarship give?

Two points matter when reading that table. First, the admission and tuition components are paid against actuals up to the ceiling, so a student in a government school charging no tuition fee will receive only the maintenance allowance. Second, the maintenance allowance is paid for a maximum of ten months in an academic year, not twelve.

A hosteller therefore draws up to Rs 6,000 a year in maintenance, while a day scholar draws up to Rs 1,000 a year. The gap reflects the fact that hostellers carry board and lodging costs that day scholars do not.

All payments reach the student through Direct Benefit Transfer into an Aadhaar-seeded bank account. For a class IX student who is still a minor, a guardian-operated minor account in the student's own name is the usual route.

How to apply for the Haryana pre-matric minority scholarship

1. Complete One Time Registration (OTR) on the National Scholarship Portal at scholarships.gov.in, using the student's Aadhaar number and a mobile number that can receive the OTP. Save the OTR ID — you reuse it every year.
2. Log in and choose the pre-matric scholarship for minority community students, then select Haryana as the state and pick your school from the institution list.
3. Fill the form with the student's community, class, parental annual income, hosteller or day scholar status, and the bank account number with IFSC code. Spell the student's name exactly as it appears in Aadhaar.
4. Upload the documents: community proof, income certificate below Rs 1 lakh, previous class mark sheet, bonafide certificate, bank passbook page and the hostel certificate if applicable.
5. Submit the application and record the application ID. A saved draft is not an application.
6. Ask the school's nodal teacher to verify the application online. The school's verification is compulsory and is where most applications stall.
7. Track the application on the portal until it shows sanctioned and then disbursed.

How to apply with assistance if you have no internet

1. Go to your school's scholarship nodal teacher, who can complete the online form for you from the school's computer. Most government schools in Haryana run a scholarship help desk during the application window.
2. Visit an Antyodaya Saral Kendra or Common Service Centre in your block. Saral Kendras operate across Haryana's districts and sub-divisions.
3. Approach the District Welfare Officer of the Social Justice and Empowerment department for clarification on documents and the current year's closing date.

There is no purely paper route. Every application has to be created on the National Scholarship Portal, and these are assisted ways of doing that.

How do I check my pre-matric scholarship status?

Log in to scholarships.gov.in and open the applicant dashboard. Applications move through Applied, Verified by Institute, Verified by District, Verified by State, and then Sanctioned. If the status has not moved past Applied, the school has not verified. If it shows sanctioned but nothing has reached the bank, the issue is generally an Aadhaar seeding or account-name problem at the bank.

The Directorate of Social Justice and Empowerment also publishes downloadable lists of past pre-matric minority scholarship recipients on its website for the years 2015-16 through 2022-23. Those lists are a useful cross-check for a family that believes a sanction was issued but not received.

Why do pre-matric minority scholarship applications fail?

• Income certificate shows Rs 1 lakh or more. Applicants frequently reuse a certificate prepared for a scheme with a Rs 1.8 lakh or Rs 2 lakh ceiling, and it is rejected here.
• School did not verify the application within the institute verification window.
• Bank account not in the student's name, or not Aadhaar-seeded, so Direct Benefit Transfer fails.
• Name mismatch between Aadhaar, the school record and the bank record.
• Below 50% marks in the previous examination on a renewal.
• Duplicate scholarship already being drawn by the same student.
• Blurred or partial document scans, especially of income certificates.

Correcting a defect is usually possible during the defect-verification window that the portal opens after the main window closes, so check the dashboard for a "defect" flag rather than waiting for next year.

Key dates and renewal

The National Scholarship Portal opens a fresh window every academic year, runs an institute verification stage after it, and then a defect-correction stage. The Government of India publishes the exact dates on scholarships.gov.in each year; no permanent calendar date exists for this scheme, so the portal notice is the only reliable source.

Renewal is a separate application each year on the same OTR ID, with the latest mark sheet attached. A class IX beneficiary must reapply as a class X student.

Where do I complain about a pre-matric scholarship problem?

• School nodal teacher or principal for verification delays.
• District Welfare Officer, Social Justice and Empowerment department, for district-stage sanction problems.
• Directorate of Social Justice and Empowerment, Haryana, via the contact details published on socialjusticehry.gov.in.
• National Scholarship Portal grievance module for OTR, login and upload faults.

The scholarship is free to apply for at every stage. No school, agent or cybercafe can charge a commission for "getting the scholarship sanctioned", and any such demand should be reported to the District Welfare Officer.