Scheme of Coaching and Allied for Scheduled Tribes

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

Scheme of Coaching and Allied for Scheduled Tribes is a state scheme of the Department of Scheduled Tribe, Scheduled Caste, Minority and Backward Class Welfare, Government of Jharkhand, operating with effect from 2015-16 onwards. According to the scheme guidelines published on the Jharkhand state portal, the department funds coaching and pre-examination training for disadvantaged Scheduled Tribe candidates at quality coaching institutions so they can compete for jobs in the public and private sector.

The reasoning stated in the guidelines is direct: Scheduled Tribe candidates from deprived families and a disadvantaged environment find it difficult to compete with candidates from a socially and economically advantageous background, so the state buys them the same coaching that better-off candidates buy for themselves.

Scheme of Coaching and Allied for Scheduled Tribes works through two parties at the same time. Registered private coaching institutions and NGOs receive a 100 per cent grant on a per-student cost basis. Scheduled Tribe candidates selected by the department receive that coaching free, along with a monthly stipend and, where they are outstation students, a boarding allowance.

Key features

• Coaching centres selected under the scheme must run the programme at Ranchi and Dumka.
• Grants are sanctioned for one financial year or the course period, whichever is earlier; fresh proposals are invited for the next financial year.
• Funding is contractual and on a per-student cost basis, with no committed liability on the State Government.
• The department, not the institute, selects the candidates and sends the list to the institute.

Who is eligible for the ST coaching scheme?

A candidate can be selected if:

• The candidate belongs to a Scheduled Tribe 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. Financial assistance is given only to eligible ST candidates resident in the state.
• Annual income of the candidate, and of the parents where the candidate is dependent on them, is up to Rs 2.50 lakh.
• The candidate holds the qualification prescribed for that particular competitive examination.

A candidate is not eligible if:

• Annual income of the candidate or dependent-on parents exceeds Rs 2.50 lakh per annum.
• The candidate has already taken departmentally assisted coaching for the same competitive examination once, or has already used two coaching courses in all under the scheme.
• The candidate is already receiving a stipend or scholarship under another scheme of the organisation or Government: such candidates cannot draw the scheme stipend.
• The candidate is not a Scheduled Tribe or not a resident of Jharkhand.

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

Batch composition is also fixed. Total students in a class, including non-ST students, cannot exceed 40. Among ST students admitted, the guidelines say the batch should preferably contain 30 per cent women ST candidates and 5 per cent disabled ST candidates, and a maximum of 10 per cent of the batch may come from any one district of Jharkhand.

What are the benefits under the scheme?

Beyond the coaching fee paid to the institute, the guidelines provide:

• A stipend of Rs 1,000 per month, fixed, for the entire coaching period.
• Rs 2,000 per month per student for boarding and lodging of outstation students. The coaching institute must arrange the boarding and certify that the candidate is genuinely an outstation student.
• The grant covers coaching fees including faculty charges, the candidate stipend and the boarding assistance.

Private institutions and NGOs receive a 100 per cent grant. Stipend and boarding support must be disbursed by the institute monthly through account payee cheques, from the date of actual admission until the last date the candidate attends the course.

What documents are required?

Coaching institutions must attach a heavier set: 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 qualifications, details of ST beneficiaries, confirmation of genuineness from the concerned Deputy Commissioner as per Annexure III, the registration certificate, the list of the management committee, a surety bond signed by the full executive committee, 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 department.

How to apply for the ST coaching scheme

1. Watch for the advertisement. The Department of Welfare publishes an advertisement in leading national dailies published in Jharkhand and on the Welfare Department website inviting applications. Nothing can be submitted before this.
2. Candidates apply to the Department of Welfare. Any ST candidate holding the eligible qualification for the particular competitive exam applies to the department when applications are invited, enclosing the ST certificate, income certificate, residence proof and qualification documents.
3. Give the required undertakings. Submit the undertaking that you have not availed more than one departmentally assisted coaching earlier and are not drawing similar coaching or stipend under any other government scheme.
4. Wait for departmental selection. A separate committee formed at department level scrutinises documents and selects the beneficiaries. The department then sends the list of selected candidates to the selected coaching institute.
5. Report to the allotted institute at Ranchi or Dumka. Within one week of classes starting, the institute must send the department the course-wise names of enrolled candidates with photographs, addresses and other details in the prescribed format.

For coaching institutions, the route is separate. The organisation submits the application in Form-I directly to the Department of Welfare as soon as the advertisement appears, with a separate proposal for each district or city where it runs a centre. The department may take the view of the concerned Deputy Commissioner on the standing and reputation of the institution. 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. Once a proposal is rejected, the department entertains no further correspondence on it.

Why do applications get rejected, and what fixes it?

• Income above the ceiling. Rs 2.50 lakh per annum is a hard limit. An income certificate that is stale or shows combined household figures beyond the ceiling is the commonest reason a candidate is dropped.
• Wrong caste certificate format. The guidelines require the prescribed proforma from a competent authority. A panchayat-level or informal certificate is not accepted.
• Repeat coaching. Candidates who have already used the scheme for that exam, or have already used two courses, are ruled out at scrutiny.
• Drawing another stipend. A candidate already receiving a stipend or scholarship from another government or organisational scheme cannot be paid the Rs 1,000 monthly stipend.
• Institutional defects. For institutes, missing audited accounts, fewer than three years of coaching experience, blacklisting, or no confirmation from the Deputy Commissioner are standard grounds for rejection.

How is the scheme monitored?

The Tribal Welfare Commissioner monitors the running of the coaching institutions and reports to the department in the prescribed format. Institutes must submit the course-wise list of ST candidates within 15 days of the course starting, and at the end of the course must submit the results declared so far with roll numbers and admit cards. Institutes are expected to achieve at least a 10 per cent success rate for Scheduled Tribe students in each exam, and the department reserves the right to discontinue funding at any point if performance is found unsatisfactory.

Financially, the grantee organisation must keep a separate account in a nationalised or scheduled bank for the grant, route all receipts and payments of Rs 10,000 and above through cheques, submit quarterly progress reports to the Tribal Welfare Commissioner, and file audited accounts with a utilisation certificate as per General Financial Rules after the financial year closes. A bond on non-judicial stamp paper of Rs 10 in favour of the Governor of Jharkhand is executed, making the grant refundable with interest if terms are breached.

Where do I raise a complaint?

Grievances about selection, non-payment of the stipend or boarding allowance, or the conduct 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 lists 0651-2400215 and 0651-2446282 as its contact numbers and secretary-welfare@jharkhandmail.gov.in as its email. The Tribal Welfare Commissioner is the monitoring authority for this scheme specifically, and authorised State Government representatives may inspect the actual working of a funded institute at any time.

How to check your application status

The scheme has no dedicated online tracking portal or application ID system. Selection is done departmentally, not by an applicant-facing dashboard, so an applicant has to follow up directly rather than check a status page.

• Watch the Welfare Department's own announcements first. After the scrutiny committee finishes selecting beneficiaries, the department sends the list of selected candidates to the allotted coaching institute rather than notifying each candidate individually online. Selection results are therefore announced through the same channels as the original advertisement: the Welfare Department website (jharkhand.gov.in/welfare) and the newspapers in which the call for applications ran.
• Contact the office where you applied. Since the application itself is submitted on paper to the Department of Welfare, the fastest way to confirm whether your documents cleared scrutiny is to contact that same office in person or by phone, quoting your name, the competitive exam applied for, and the date of application.
• Use the department's listed contact numbers for a status query. The department can be reached at 0651-2400215 or 0651-2446282, or by writing to secretary-welfare@jharkhandmail.gov.in, for confirmation of whether a candidate has been selected and forwarded to a coaching institute.
• Once selected, check with the coaching institute directly. After selection, the coaching institute (at Ranchi or Dumka) is required to enrol candidates and record their attendance; the institute, not the department, handles the monthly stipend and boarding-allowance payments, so queries about a stipend or boarding payment that has not arrived should go to the institute first, and to the Tribal Welfare Commissioner (the scheme's monitoring authority) if the institute does not respond.
• There is no SMS or portal-login tracking. Applicants should not expect an application number or a status-check webpage for this scheme; treat the advertisement, the Welfare Department office, and the allotted institute as the only three points where status information exists.