Scheme of Coaching and Allied for Scheduled Castes

What is the Scheme of Coaching and Allied for Scheduled Castes?

Scheme of Coaching and Allied for Scheduled Castes is a state scheme of the Department of Scheduled Tribe, Scheduled Caste, Minority and Backward Class Welfare, Government of Jharkhand, running with effect from 2015-16 onwards. According to the guidelines hosted on the Jharkhand state portal, the department supports coaching and pre-examination training for disadvantaged Scheduled Caste candidates at quality coaching institutions, so that they can appear in competitive examinations and obtain suitable jobs in the public or private sector.

The scheme is the Scheduled Caste counterpart of the parallel Scheme of Coaching and Allied for Scheduled Tribes, and the two carry identical financial norms. The stated reason for both is that candidates from deprived families and a disadvantaged environment cannot match candidates coming from a socially and economically advantageous background, and paid coaching is where that gap shows most clearly.

Scheme of Coaching and Allied for Scheduled Castes funds two sides of the same arrangement. Registered private coaching institutions and NGOs running centres in Jharkhand receive a 100 per cent grant on a per-student cost basis. Scheduled Caste candidates selected by the department attend that coaching free and draw a monthly stipend.

Key features

• Selected institutions must run the coaching programme at Ranchi and Dumka.
• Selection of institutions is valid for one financial year or the course period, whichever is earlier, and fresh proposals are invited each year.
• Funding is contractual, on a per-student cost basis, with no committed liability on the State Government.
• The department selects the candidates and hands the list to the institute. The institute does not choose its own scheme beneficiaries.

Who is eligible for the SC coaching scheme?

A candidate can be selected if:

• The candidate belongs to a Scheduled Caste and holds a certificate in the prescribed proforma from a competent authority such as a Collector, Deputy Collector or Tehsildar.
• The candidate is a resident of Jharkhand.
• Annual income of the candidate, plus that of the parents where the candidate is dependent on them, is not more than Rs 2.50 lakh.
• The candidate holds the qualification prescribed for the particular competitive examination applied for.

A candidate is not eligible if:

• Income crosses the Rs 2.50 lakh per annum ceiling.
• The candidate has already availed departmentally assisted coaching for the same examination, or has already used two courses in total under the scheme.
• The candidate is already receiving a stipend or scholarship under any other scheme of the organisation or Government, the scheme stipend cannot be paid on top of it.
• The candidate is not a Scheduled Caste or not resident in Jharkhand.

An institution is not eligible if it is not a registered private institution or NGO, has under three years of experience running coaching for competitive examinations, has been declared bankrupt at any point, has been blacklisted by any debarment body of the Government, or cannot arrange building and space at Ranchi and Dumka from its own resources.

The guidelines also fix batch composition. A class may not exceed 40 students in total including non-SC students, admission being on merit. Among SC students admitted, the batch should preferably include 30 per cent women SC candidates and 5 per cent disabled SC candidates, and no more than 10 per cent of a batch may be drawn from any single district of Jharkhand.

What are the benefits under the scheme?

Alongside the coaching fee, the scheme pays:

• A fixed stipend of Rs 1,000 per month for the entire coaching period stated in the table above.
• Rs 2,000 per month per student for boarding and lodging of outstation students, with the institute responsible for making the arrangements and certifying that the student is genuinely from outside the coaching city.

The funding envelope covers coaching fees including faculty charges, the candidate stipend and outstation boarding assistance. Stipend and boarding money must be disbursed by the institute monthly through account payee cheques, covering the period from the date of the candidate's actual admission to the last date of attendance.

What documents are required?

Institutions applying for the grant must file a much larger set with Form-I: the application form, budget estimates, audited accounts for the last three years, results of the last three years with grading against intake, faculty details with academic and professional qualifications, details of SC beneficiaries, confirmation of genuineness from the concerned Deputy Commissioner as per Annexure III, the registration certificate, the management committee list, a surety bond signed by the full executive committee, written acceptance of the terms and conditions, and an undertaking that no grant for the same purpose has been received from any other central or state government department.

How to apply for the SC coaching scheme

1. Wait for the department's advertisement. The Department of Welfare invites applications by advertising in leading national dailies published in Jharkhand and on the Welfare Department website. There is no rolling application window.
2. Submit your application to the Department of Welfare. Any SC candidate holding the eligible qualification for a particular competitive exam applies to the department when applications are invited, attaching the caste certificate, income certificate, residence proof and qualification documents.
3. File the required undertakings. Confirm in writing that you have not availed more than one departmentally assisted coaching earlier and are not receiving a comparable stipend, scholarship or coaching under another government scheme.
4. Clear departmental scrutiny. A separate committee constituted at department level scrutinises documents and selects beneficiaries. The list of selected candidates is then sent to the selected coaching institution.
5. Join the class at Ranchi or Dumka. The institute must furnish the department with the course-wise names of enrolled candidates, with photographs and full addresses, within one week of classes beginning.

Coaching institutions follow a separate route. The organisation submits the prescribed Form-I application directly to the Department of Welfare as soon as the advertisement is published, with a separate proposal for every district or city where it operates a centre. The department may seek the concerned Deputy Commissioner's view on the institution's standing. A committee chaired by the Secretary, Department of Welfare — with a Special, Additional or Joint Secretary of the Welfare Department, the Tribal Welfare Commissioner, and a Director or Deputy Secretary of the Department of Education as members: examines proposals on merit and may co-opt other professionals. Once a proposal is rejected, no further correspondence is entertained.

Why do applications get rejected?

• Income above Rs 2.50 lakh. This is the single hardest cut-off in the scheme and there is no relaxation clause in the guidelines.
• Caste certificate not in the prescribed proforma. The institute is instructed to accept only certificates issued by a competent authority in the prescribed form.
• Prior use of the scheme. Second coaching for the same exam, or a third course overall, is barred.
• Existing stipend or scholarship. Candidates drawing another government stipend cannot be paid the Rs 1,000 monthly stipend under this scheme.
• For institutes: missing audited accounts, fewer than three years of coaching experience, blacklisting, bankruptcy at any time, or no Deputy Commissioner confirmation of genuineness.

How is performance monitored?

The Tribal Welfare Commissioner monitors funded coaching institutions and reports to the department in the prescribed format. Institutes submit the course-wise list of SC candidates within 15 days of the course starting, and at the end submit declared results with roll numbers and admit cards for each exam. Institutes are expected to achieve at least a 10 per cent success rate for scheduled caste students in each exam, and the department reserves the right to stop funding at any time if performance is unsatisfactory.

On the money side, the grantee organisation maintains a separate account in a nationalised or scheduled bank, routes all receipts and payments of Rs 10,000 and above through cheques only, files quarterly progress reports with the Tribal Welfare Commissioner, and after the close of the financial year submits audited accounts: receipt and payment account, income and expenditure account, balance sheet, item-wise utilisation certificate under General Financial Rules, and the organisation's audited accounts as a whole. A bond on non-judicial stamp paper of Rs 10 in favour of the Governor of Jharkhand makes the entire grant refundable with interest, with criminal liability, if the terms are breached. The grant may not be used for any partisan, political or anti-government propaganda, and State Government representatives may inspect the working of the scheme at the institute at any time.

Where do I complain?

Complaints about selection, an unpaid stipend or boarding allowance, or the functioning of a funded coaching institute go to the Department of Scheduled Tribe, Scheduled Caste, Minority and Backward Class Welfare, Project Bhawan, Dhurwa, Ranchi 834004. The department publishes 0651-2400215 and 0651-2446282 as contact numbers and secretary-welfare@jharkhandmail.gov.in as its email address.

How to check your application status

The scheme has no dedicated online tracking portal or application number system. Selection is announced as a list, not through individual status updates, so an applicant has to follow up rather than look up a reference number.

For candidates:

1. Watch the same channel you applied through. The Department of Welfare publishes the selected candidates' list in the same leading national dailies and on the Welfare Department website (jharkhand.gov.in/welfare) where it advertised the scheme, so check that page and the newspaper notices again after the scrutiny period.
2. Contact the office where you submitted your application. Since applications go directly to the Department of Scheduled Tribe, Scheduled Caste, Minority and Backward Class Welfare and are not entered into a tracking system, the office that received your form is the only place that can confirm whether your file reached the scrutiny committee.
3. Call the department helpline if the list is delayed. Use 0651-2400215 or 0651-2446282, or write to secretary-welfare@jharkhandmail.gov.in, quoting the competitive exam you applied for and the date you submitted your documents.
4. Once selected, confirm your name with the coaching institute. The department hands the selected list to the institute running the Ranchi or Dumka centre, so the institute can also confirm whether your name is on the batch roll before classes begin.

For coaching institutions awaiting a Form-I decision: the guidelines state that once a proposal is rejected, no further correspondence is entertained, so the only way to know the outcome is to wait for the committee headed by the Secretary, Department of Welfare to communicate its decision directly, there is no separate status-check line for institutional proposals.