Scheme of Hostels for Other Backward Classes (OBC) Boys and Girls, Haryana

What is the Scheme of Hostels for OBC Boys and Girls?

The Scheme of Hostels for Other Backward Classes (OBC) Boys and Girls is a centrally sponsored scheme implemented in Haryana by the Directorate of Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes, part of the SEWA department, in partnership with the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. The scheme pays for the construction of hostel buildings for students of the backward classes, particularly students from rural areas.

The reasoning behind the scheme is straightforward. A student from a village whose nearest high school, college or university is thirty kilometres away has three options: a long daily journey, a rented room the family cannot afford, or dropping out. A hostel attached to the institution removes that choice entirely. The department describes the objective as providing hostel facilities to students belonging to socially and educationally backward classes, especially from rural areas, so that they can pursue secondary and higher education.

This is an infrastructure scheme, not a cash benefit, and that is the single most important thing for a reader to understand. There is no application form on which an individual student can claim money. What a student can do is seek admission to a hostel that has already been built under the scheme.

What does the scheme fund?

• Construction of hostels for middle, secondary, college and university level students.
• Up to 100 seats per institution. Each institution is provided assistance for construction of a boys' or girls' hostel for a maximum of 100 seats.
• A one-time non-recurring grant of Rs 2,500 per seat for furniture and equipment in hostels constructed under the scheme, which works out to Rs 2.5 lakh for a full 100-seat hostel.
• The building as a whole, including residential accommodation for students, quarters for the warden and security staff, and a boundary wall. Construction follows PWD or CPWD schedules of rates and uses local materials where feasible.

Two reservations are built into the scheme. At least one-third of the hostels set up under the scheme are exclusively for girls, and 5% of the total seats in these hostels are reserved for students with disabilities.

How is the cost shared?

According to the Haryana Directorate of Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes, the cost of construction of hostels for boys is shared between the Centre and the state in a 60:40 ratio, while girls' hostels carry 90% central assistance with the remaining 10% borne by the state government. Central institutions and union territories receive 100% central assistance.

The department's summary page for the scheme has also described the arrangement as a 50:50 sharing between the Government of India and state governments, which reflects an earlier version of the guidelines. Institutions preparing a proposal should therefore work to the funding pattern in the guidelines current for the year of sanction rather than to a figure carried forward from an older circular.

Whichever ratio applies, the land, the staff and the maintenance of the hostel remain the responsibility of the state government. The scheme is a capital grant.

Where are the hostels located?

Hostels under the scheme are to be constructed at the place where the concerned educational institution is situated, taking into account the concentration of the OBC population in that area and the inadequacy of existing educational facilities. In practice this pushes construction towards blocks with a high backward-class population and thin school or college infrastructure, rather than towards cities where private hostels already exist.

Who is eligible under this scheme?

Institutions that can receive assistance:

• State governments and union territory administrations.
• Central and state universities and institutions.
• Autonomous bodies or societies established by a state government or a union territory administration, particularly those set up for the welfare of backward classes.
• Educational institutions owned or controlled by the central or state government.

Students who can occupy a seat:

• Students belonging to a notified Other Backward Class.
• Students outside the creamy layer, as defined by the Government of India.
• Students at middle, secondary, college or university level.
• Students with a disability, for the 5% of seats reserved for them.

Who is not eligible:

• Individuals cannot apply for a construction grant under this scheme. There is no personal cash benefit and no citizen application form.
• Private institutions not owned or controlled by the central or state government are not eligible to receive assistance.
• Creamy layer applicants are excluded from claiming a seat under the scheme.
• Students who are not from a notified backward class cannot claim a seat under this scheme, though the state may have separate hostels for other categories.
• Proposals above 100 seats are not funded in full; assistance is capped at 100 seats per institution.

How to apply under the OBC hostel scheme

If you are an institution or a state body seeking construction assistance:

1. Confirm your eligibility category — state government, university, government-controlled institution, or an autonomous body or society set up by the state.
2. Identify the site and establish the need, showing the concentration of the OBC population in the area and the inadequacy of existing hostel facilities there. This justification is the core of the proposal.
3. Prepare the construction estimate on PWD or CPWD schedules of rates for a hostel of up to 100 seats, including student accommodation, warden and security staff quarters and a boundary wall, and confirm that land is available and free of dispute.
4. Submit the proposal to the Directorate of Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes, Haryana, which consolidates state proposals and forwards them to the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
5. Commit the state and institutional share of the cost and the recurring cost of staffing and maintenance, which the scheme does not fund.
6. Complete construction and utilisation reporting as required before a further instalment or a further hostel is sanctioned.

If you are a student who wants a hostel seat:

1. Take admission to the course first. The hostel is attached to an institution, so a seat follows admission rather than the other way round.
2. Ask the institution whether it runs a hostel built under this scheme, and when hostel admissions open. Your District Welfare Officer can also tell you which institutions in the district have such hostels.
3. Submit the hostel admission form to the institution with your OBC certificate, non-creamy-layer proof, Haryana residence proof, admission proof, Aadhaar and, if applicable, your disability certificate.
4. Follow the institution's allotment result. Where applications exceed the seats available, allotment is usually on merit and distance from home.

What documents does a student need for a hostel seat?

Why do proposals and applications fail?

• The applicant is an individual. The single most common misunderstanding about this scheme is that a student can apply to it for money. A student cannot.
• The institution is private and not owned or controlled by government, so it falls outside the list of eligible organisations.
• Land is not in the institution's possession, or the title is disputed, which stops a construction proposal at the first check.
• The proposal exceeds 100 seats without the institution funding the excess.
• The state share is not committed, or no arrangement is shown for staffing and maintenance after construction.
• A student is in the creamy layer, which disqualifies the claim to a reserved seat.
• No proof of admission to the course, so there is no basis for a hostel seat.

Where do you get help?

• Directorate of Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes, Haryana, which is the nodal directorate for the scheme in the state.
• District Welfare Officer in your district, for information about which institutions run hostels under this scheme.
• Antyodaya SARAL helpline: 0172-3968400, 7 am to 8 pm, Monday to Saturday, for general Haryana government service queries.
• Email: saral.haryana@gov.in
• Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, which publishes the scheme guidelines that state proposals must follow.

Hostel admission under this scheme carries no fee for the seat itself. No agent can arrange a hostel seat or a construction sanction for a payment.

How to check your application status

Because this is a construction grant scheme rather than a cash-benefit scheme, there is no single online portal where a student or institution can log in and track a status by application number. Status has to be chased at two separate points, depending on whether the query is about a hostel seat or a construction proposal.

If you are a student waiting on a hostel seat:

1. Go back to the institution, not the state department. The hostel is run by the college, university or school it is attached to, so the institution's own admission or hostel office holds the current status of your seat request, not the Directorate.
2. Ask specifically about the allotment list, not just "when will I know." Institutions typically publish a merit-and-distance-based allotment list rather than notifying each applicant individually, so a seat can already be decided without a call or SMS going out.
3. If the institution cannot answer, contact the District Welfare Officer for your district. The DWO deals with backward-class welfare matters locally and can confirm whether the institution has a hostel sanctioned under this scheme and roughly when its admission cycle runs.
4. Call the Antyodaya SARAL helpline, 0172-3968400 (7 am to 8 pm, Monday to Saturday), if you cannot reach the institution or the DWO. SARAL handles general Haryana government service queries and can point you to the right office, though it will not itself hold your hostel seat record.

If you are an institution or state body tracking a construction proposal:

1. Confirm the proposal actually reached the Directorate. Since submission is offline or through direct correspondence rather than a tracked online form, the first useful status check is simply verifying with the Directorate of Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes, Haryana that your file was received and logged, quoting the date and reference of your submission letter.
2. Ask the Directorate where the file currently sits, since a state-sponsored proposal moves through two stages: State Directorate review and consolidation, followed by forwarding to the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment for central sanction. A proposal can be stalled at either stage, and the fix is different each time (state-side documentation versus waiting on central sanction).
3. Keep your utilisation certificates ready to quote. If an earlier instalment or hostel was sanctioned to the same institution, the Directorate will often ask about utilisation and completion reporting on that first before discussing the status of a new or pending request, since further release depends on it.
4. Use the SARAL helpline or saral.haryana@gov.in only as a general routing channel for a Haryana government office contact if you cannot reach the Directorate directly. It is not a dedicated tracker for construction sanctions.

There is no fee involved in checking status at any of these points, and no agent or intermediary can produce a faster answer than the institution, the District Welfare Officer or the Directorate itself.