Monthly Stipend for Scheduled Caste Students in Classes 9 to 12

What is the Monthly Stipend for Scheduled Caste Students in classes 9 to 12?

Monthly Stipend for Scheduled Caste Students in Classes 9 to 12 is a Haryana state scheme that pays a regular allowance to SC students studying in government schools. It began as an announcement by the Chief Minister of Haryana and was put into effect by the Education and Languages Department through instructions issued on 7 February 2008, covering students in classes 1 to 12 across government schools in the state.

The department set out its purpose in plain terms: to check the dropout rate among Scheduled Caste students and to give them adequate incentive to continue studying. Two distinct benefits were created in the same order. A monthly allowance at different rates for different classes, and a one-time allowance paid at the beginning of the academic session to help families buy the materials a student needs for the year.

This scheme was the template for everything that followed. When Haryana extended similar stipends to Below Poverty Line and Backward Class category A families from the financial year 2009-10, the department expressly directed that the procedure should remain the same as in the case of Scheduled Caste students. The bank attachment model, the restricted school accounts, the quarterly release and the attendance condition all originate here.

Monthly Stipend for SC Students is administered by the Directorate of School Education under the Haryana School Education Department. The Directorate's August 2021 notification of state scholarship schemes lists it as item (ii), "Monthly Stipend to all Scheduled Caste Students in Classes IX-XII", alongside item (i), the one-time cash award for the same group. The Haryana State DBT Portal carries both under the Secondary Education department, confirming that the scheme is current.

Main features

• Covers all Scheduled Caste students in Haryana Government schools, with no merit test and no separate income ceiling.
• Two components: a class-wise monthly allowance and a one-time allowance at the start of the session.
• Monthly allowance disbursed in four quarterly instalments; the one-time allowance disbursed once a year.
• Conditional on 50 per cent attendance in the preceding quarter.
• Paid through DBT/PFMS into an Aadhaar-linked, zero-balance account opened in the name of the parent or guardian, preferably the mother.
• A student may draw only one of the SC, BC-A and BPL stipends.

Who is eligible for the SC monthly stipend?

A student qualifies if all of the following hold:

• The student belongs to a Scheduled Caste recognised in Haryana.
• The student is enrolled in a Haryana Government school. The scheme covers primary, upper primary, high and senior secondary government schools; classes 9 to 12 are the secondary stage described on this page.
• The student maintains at least 50 per cent attendance in the quarter before each release.
• The student has an Aadhaar number and a bank account able to receive a DBT credit.

Note that this scheme has no merit condition at all. It reaches all Scheduled Caste students on the rolls, which is what distinguishes it from the merit-based Haryana scholarships such as Education Encouragement for Excellence.

Students who cannot apply or are not eligible:

• Students of private, unaided or privately managed schools, however low the family's income. The whole payment chain is built on government school accounts.
• Students who cannot establish Scheduled Caste status on the school record.
• Students already enrolled under the BC-A stipend or the BPL stipend, since only one of the three may be drawn.
• Students whose attendance fell below 50 per cent in the previous quarter, for that quarter's instalment.
• Students who have left school or moved out of the government school system during the year.

How much does the SC stipend pay?

The Haryana Education Department's founding instruction of 7 February 2008 created the monthly allowance at different rates for different classes, and stated that the rates of these allowances would be notified separately. The department has not published a current class-wise rate table for this scheme on its website, so this guide does not quote one. Asking the school office for the rate in force this session is the reliable route, and it is a question the Principal or Head Master can answer immediately because the school itself advises the bank on the amounts.

What can be stated with confidence is the structure of the payment:

For a sense of the scale of comparable benefits, the parallel BPL and BC-A stipends created a year later pay Rs 300 a month to girls and Rs 150 a month to boys in classes 9 to 12, with Rs 400 and Rs 200 for science students of classes 11 and 12. Those figures belong to the BPL and BC-A schemes, not to this one, and should not be assumed to apply here.

What documents are required for the SC stipend?

How to apply for the SC monthly stipend

There is no online application and no student login. The scheme is delivered through the government school, and the school authorities supply the list and details to the bank. These steps describe what a family actually needs to do.

1. Ensure the Scheduled Caste entry is on the school record. The school authorities prepare and provide the list of Scheduled Caste students to the attached bank branch, so an incorrect or missing category entry on the school file is what keeps a child out of the scheme.
2. Attend the account-opening session at the school. The person authorised to operate the school account collects account-opening forms from the branch and fills them from details given by the children and their parents. On a fixed date the branch officer comes to the school and completes the formalities. Bring Aadhaar and be available for the photograph.
3. Have the account opened in the right name. The department directs that all student accounts be opened in the name of the parent or guardian, and preferably in the mother's name where the branch is in or near the village.
4. Give the school your Aadhaar number. Payment moves on DBT/PFMS, so a student without Aadhaar must first enrol at an Aadhaar enrolment centre listed on uidai.gov.in.
5. Maintain at least 50 per cent attendance each quarter. The class teacher verifies this before every release.
6. Check the bank passbook after each quarter, and take a missing instalment straight to the school office.

Students who join the school later in the year are not shut out. The department directed that accounts also be opened for students who take admission later or who rejoin after having dropped out, and instructed school heads to open accounts for all new students who join subsequently.

How does the money reach the student?

Haryana built a deliberately tamper-resistant chain for this scheme, and the same chain now carries the BPL and BC-A stipends.

Around 2,500 bank branches operate across urban, semi-urban and rural Haryana, and every government school; primary, upper primary, high and senior secondary, was attached to the nearest possible branch, with an anticipated two to five schools per branch. Each school then has one designated school account.

That school account is restricted by design: money in it can only be transferred onward to beneficiary student accounts, and no one can withdraw cash from it. The Principals of Senior Secondary Schools and the Headmasters of High Schools operate the account for their own schools. Where a standalone primary or elementary school has no Head, either the Head of a nearby school or a senior teacher of the nearest High or Senior Secondary School is authorised instead.

The state transfers a lump sum into the school accounts through the heads of department, and the school in-charge then advises the branch — on the basis of enrolment and verified attendance: to transfer the one-time allowance together with the first quarterly instalment, and each later instalment in turn. Since the Section-7 notification, this runs through DBT/PFMS with Aadhaar linking.

How to check the status of your SC stipend

1. Ask the school office whether the student's name went on the current quarter's advice to the bank, and on what date.
2. Update the bank passbook or check the bank's SMS alerts for a quarterly credit.
3. Ask the branch to confirm Aadhaar seeding if the school says the advice went out but no credit arrived.
4. Escalate to the District Education Officer with the school's written confirmation if the school and the bank cannot settle it between them.

Why SC stipend instalments get stopped

• Attendance below 50 per cent in the preceding quarter. The condition the scheme was built to enforce.
• Bank account not Aadhaar-seeded, so the DBT credit fails and returns.
• Name mismatch between the school record, the caste certificate, Aadhaar and the bank account. Because the account is in a parent's name, mismatches between the parent's name on Aadhaar and on the passbook are especially common.
• Duplicate enrolment under the BC-A or BPL stipend, leading to removal from one scheme.
• Account dormant or closed, frequently one opened during the original 2008 drive and never operated since.
• Student transferred to a private school, which ends eligibility.
• Aadhaar not enrolled at all, which now blocks payment outright.

The scheme also has an explicit recovery rule. A student who rejoins after dropping out and then attends at least 50 per cent of classes over the following three months receives the previously withheld instalment as well as the current quarter's payment.

Where to raise a grievance about the SC stipend

• First level: the Principal or Head Master of the government school, who operates the school account.
• Second level: the District Education Officer (DEO) or District Elementary Education Officer (DEEO).
• Account problems: the attached bank branch, and the Lead District Manager who coordinates the bank side of this scheme in each district.
• Department level: Directorate of School Education, Shiksha Sadan, Sector 5, Panchkula 134109. Telephone 0172-2560246, email edusecondaryhry@gmail.com.
• State level: the Haryana CM Window grievance system for cases that stall.

Keep the caste certificate, the bank passbook and the attendance record together. Those three papers settle nearly every dispute that arises under this scheme.