Karnataka Post-Matric Scholarship for Scheduled Caste Students

What is the Karnataka post-matric scholarship for SC students?

Karnataka Post-Matric Scholarship for Scheduled Caste students is the state's main education support for SC students after SSLC, that is, from PUC and ITI upward through diploma, degree, postgraduate and professional courses. The Department of Social Welfare administers it, and all applications are made online through Karnataka's unified State Scholarship Portal (SSP) at ssp.karnataka.gov.in.

The scholarship has two parts. First, the fee component: tuition fee and other non-refundable, compulsory fees charged by the institution are reimbursed, which for a professional course is by far the larger sum. Second, the maintenance allowance: a monthly amount paid to the student to cover the cost of living and studying, at a higher rate for a hosteller than for a day scholar, and graded by the course group. Both flow to the student's own Aadhaar-seeded bank account by direct benefit transfer.

Karnataka runs post-matric scholarships for several communities through the same portal, and the SSP lists participating departments including Social Welfare, Scheduled Castes Welfare, Backward Classes Welfare, Minority Welfare, Technical Education, Medical Education, Agriculture, Labour, Fisheries, Textiles and Handlooms, and Transport. A Scheduled Caste student applies under the Social Welfare Department stream.

Who is eligible for the Karnataka SC post-matric scholarship?

You can be considered if:

• You belong to a Scheduled Caste notified in Karnataka, evidenced by a caste certificate issued by the tahsildar through Nadakacheri, with a valid RD number.
• You are a resident of Karnataka.
• You have passed SSLC or an equivalent examination and are enrolled in a post-matric course; PUC, ITI, diploma, undergraduate, postgraduate, professional or technical.
• You are studying in a recognised institution that appears on the SSP list and is able to verify your application online.
• Your family income is within the ceiling notified by the Social Welfare Department for post-matric scholarships, confirmed by a current Nadakacheri income certificate.
• You hold a savings bank account in your own name, seeded with your Aadhaar.

You cannot apply, or you will not be sanctioned, if:

• You are not from a Scheduled Caste notified in Karnataka. Certificates from other states are not accepted for the Karnataka stream.
• Your family income exceeds the ceiling in force for the year.
• You are studying below post-matric level, in which case the pre-matric scholarship on the same portal is the correct application.
• You are repeating the same year of the same course. Scholarships are for progression, not repetition.
• You are already drawing another government scholarship or stipend for the same course in the same year. Double benefit is not allowed.
• Your institution is not recognised or is not enrolled on the SSP, so no verification is possible.
• The course is not covered, for example some short-term certificate programmes and distance or correspondence programmes, depending on the year's guidelines.
• Your attendance falls below the institution's requirement, which the college certifies at verification.

Nothing here depends on gender or on the type of institution being government or private aided, private unaided institutions are covered where recognised and enrolled on the portal, subject to the fee rules for that category.

What documents are required?

The portal works on RD numbers, not scanned certificates. Get the caste and income certificates issued at Nadakacheri, or online at the Nadakacheri portal, well before you sit down to apply, and keep both RD numbers on paper.

How to apply for the Karnataka SC post-matric scholarship

1. Get your Nadakacheri certificates first. Apply for a current Scheduled Caste caste certificate and an income certificate, and note the RD number printed on each. Without these numbers the SSP form cannot be completed.
2. Open ssp.karnataka.gov.in and create a student account. New students must register before applying; students who applied in an earlier year sign in with the existing account rather than creating a second one.
3. Complete the registration details; Aadhaar number and name exactly as on Aadhaar, mobile number, email ID, SSLC registration number, caste and income certificate RD numbers, district and address. Verify the OTP sent to your mobile number.
4. Select the post-matric application under the Social Welfare Department, then enter your institution, course, year of study, college enrolment number, hostel details if you are a hosteller, and your bank account details.
5. Check every field and submit. Save or print the acknowledgement with the application number. There is no fee at any stage.
6. Follow up with your college. The application must be verified online by the institution before the department can sanction it. An application that sits unverified is the single most common reason a scholarship never arrives.
7. Track the application on the SSP status screen through the year, and check that the sanctioned amount has been credited to your own account.

What are the key dates?

According to the Karnataka post-matric scholarship portal, the 2026-27 last dates on the State Scholarship Portal are:

• Social Welfare Department to 31 January 2027. This is the stream a Scheduled Caste student applies under, and it is the most generous window on the portal.
• Most other departments to 31 August 2026.
• Minority Welfare Department — 30 September 2026.

Do not treat the January date as a reason to wait. Colleges verify applications in batches, Nadakacheri certificates take days to issue, and a rejected application discovered in January leaves no time to fix and resubmit. Apply as soon as your admission is confirmed and your certificates are in hand.

How to check your scholarship status

1. Sign in at ssp.karnataka.gov.in with your registered credentials.
2. Open the application status screen for the current academic year.
3. Read the stage carefully, the meaningful checkpoints are submitted, verified by institution, sanctioned and amount released. An application stuck at "submitted" is waiting on your college, not on the department.
4. Confirm the bank account shown is your own and is Aadhaar-seeded.
5. If the status has not moved for weeks, call 1902, the State Scholarship Portal helpline, or the Social Welfare Department on 9482300400 or 080-22634300, and quote your application number.

Why scholarships get rejected or delayed

• The college has not verified the application. Go to the scholarship in-charge at your institution with your application number. This fixes most cases.
• Bank account not Aadhaar-seeded. Aadhaar linking is not the same as NPCI mapping; ask your branch for DBT seeding specifically.
• Account in a parent's name. The scholarship pays only into the student's own account.
• Name mismatch between Aadhaar, the caste certificate, the SSLC record and the bank record. Correct Aadhaar first, then get the other records aligned.
• Income certificate above the ceiling, or expired. A certificate from a previous year will not validate; get a current one.
• Wrong department stream selected, for example applying under Backward Classes Welfare with a Scheduled Caste certificate.
• Repeating a year, which makes the application ineligible for that year.
• Duplicate applications created by registering twice with the same Aadhaar. Use the existing login and the renewal route instead.
• Applied after the last date. The portal closes on the notified date and late applications are not accepted for that year.

Renewal in later years of the course

Karnataka treats the post-matric scholarship as an annual application, not a one-time enrolment. In each subsequent year of your course you sign in to the same SSP account, use the renewal option, update the year of study, produce a current income certificate, and have the college verify your promotion and attendance. Students who assume the scholarship continues automatically are the group that most often loses a year of benefit.

Help and grievance redressal

• 1902. The State Scholarship Portal helpline, and also Karnataka's Janaspandana grievance number. Grievances against a department, including Social Welfare, can be registered and tracked online at ipgrs.karnataka.gov.in.
• Social Welfare Department; 9482300400 and 080-22634300, the control-room numbers published on the State Scholarship Portal.
• swdcontrolroom@gmail.com, the Social Welfare Department control room email listed on the portal.
• Your institution's scholarship section, the correct first stop for verification delays, fee-head disputes and hostel status.
• Taluk or district Social Welfare Officer, for caste and income certificate problems and for cases the portal helpline cannot resolve.

Registration and application on ssp.karnataka.gov.in are completely free. No agent, cyber centre or college official may charge a student to "get the scholarship sanctioned", and such demands should be reported on 1902.