C. H. Muhammed Koya Scholarship (CHMS)

What is the C. H. Muhammed Koya Scholarship?

C. H. Muhammed Koya Scholarship; usually shortened to CHMS, and transliterated on some sites as C H Muhammedkoya Scholarship, is a scholarship of the Directorate of Minority Welfare, Government of Kerala, named after the former Chief Minister of Kerala. The Director's signed 2025-26 guidelines state the objective directly: "To support the education of female students belonging to notified minority communities (Muslims, Christians (all sects), Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, and Parsis) studying in Government / Government-aided colleges in Kerala."

CHMS is the Directorate's flagship award by volume at the college level. In a normal year it selects 5,000 day scholars from undergraduate, postgraduate and professional courses and a further 2,000 hostellers who receive a hostel stipend, which puts around 7,000 women through the scheme each academic year.

Rates fixed by the guidelines

The hostel stipend is the largest single amount, and the guidelines note it is inclusive of the scholarship amount, a hosteller is not paid Rs 7,000 plus Rs 13,000. That distinction catches out a lot of applicants, so decide which track you belong to before you submit.

Who is eligible for the C. H. Muhammed Koya Scholarship?

You qualify if all of these are true:

• You are a female student.
• You belong to one of the six notified minority communities, Muslim, Christian (all sects), Sikh, Buddhist, Jain or Parsi.
• You are a permanent resident of Kerala, evidenced by a nativity certificate.
• You are currently studying an undergraduate, postgraduate or professional course in a Government or Government-aided college in Kerala.
• You secured at least 50 percent marks in the qualifying examination.
• Your family is in the BPL category, or in the APL category with annual family income up to Rs 8,00,000.

A special window for self-financing colleges. Students in self-financing medical or engineering colleges who obtained admission on a merit seat are also eligible to apply, even though the general rule points at Government and aided colleges. Their applications travel by a different route: the head of the institution must send the approved applications directly or by post to the Director, Minority Welfare Department, Vikas Bhavan, Thiruvananthapuram 33.

For the hostel stipend, the additional condition is that you stay in a Government, Government-approved or University-approved hostel, and the head of your institution certifies that you are a hosteller.

Who cannot apply:

• Male students are not eligible under CHMS, whatever their community or income.
• Students who are not from a notified minority community cannot apply.
• Students who scored below 50 percent in the qualifying examination are not eligible.
• Students in self-financing colleges outside medicine and engineering, or who took a management or NRI seat rather than a merit seat, are not eligible.
• Students who are not permanent residents of Kerala, or who study outside Kerala, cannot apply.
• APL families with annual income above Rs 8,00,000 are not eligible.
• Students in private hostels cannot claim the Rs 13,000 stipend, even if they are otherwise eligible for the course-wise scholarship.

How selection is made. The guidelines say selection is made on the basis of family annual income and marks, in proportion to the population of the communities. Preference goes to BPL applicants; where BPL applicants are insufficient, APL applicants from minority communities with family income up to Rs 8,00,000 are considered.

What documents are required for CHMS?

How to apply for the C. H. Muhammed Koya Scholarship

1. Open mwdscholarship.kerala.gov.in, the Directorate of Minority Welfare scholarship portal.
2. Click "One-time registration" and create your account. The same registration works for every Minority Welfare scholarship.
3. Log in with your username and password.
4. Complete your profile: personal details, community, address, Aadhaar and bank account details.
5. Add your qualification details, including the marks of the qualifying examination.
6. Click "Apply for scholarship" and choose the C. H. Muhammedkoya Scholarship, selecting the Fresh track if this is your first application or the Renewal track if you are continuing.
7. Click "Final submit" and download the printout.
8. Submit the printout with all supporting documents to the head of your institution before the notified date. The income certificate and the allotment memo must be enclosed.
9. Follow up so the head of the institution verifies and approves your application online before the institutional deadline. An application that is submitted but never approved by the college does not go forward.

Step 9 is where most otherwise-eligible applications die. Government and aided institutions retain applications for inspection by the Minority Welfare Department, but the online approval by the head of institution is what moves your name into the selection pool.

What are the key dates for CHMS?

The 2025-26 guidelines set a four-stage timeline:

The portal's general scholarship window for the same cycle ran from 20 December 2025 to 20 January 2026, covering both the Fresh and Renewal tracks of CHMS. Dates are re-notified every academic year, so treat the table above as the shape of the calendar rather than a fixture, and check the portal for the live dates.

How do you check your CHMS application status?

Use the Application Status link on mwdscholarship.kerala.gov.in and log in with your one-time registration credentials. The status moves through submission, institutional verification, departmental verification and finally sanction. If it is stuck at submission, ask your college office whether the head of institution has approved it online.

Once sanctioned, the amount is credited by Direct Benefit Transfer to the account recorded in your application. The guidelines are blunt about the risk here: the head of the institution must verify that account number, IFSC code, bank name and branch name are correct, and "the department will not be responsible for rejection of scholarships due to incorrect bank details."

Why do CHMS applications get rejected?

• Application not approved online by the head of the institution within the institutional deadline.
• Bank details wrong, or the account is not in the applicant's own name.
• Below 50 percent in the qualifying examination.
• Allotment memo or income certificate not enclosed, the guidelines name these two specifically as documents that must accompany the application.
• Management or NRI seat in a self-financing college instead of a merit seat.
• Private hostel claimed for the Rs 13,000 stipend, which only covers Government, Government-approved and University-approved hostels.
• Nativity certificate missing, leaving Kerala residence unproven.
• Expired income certificate, a common and easily avoided failure.

Where do you get help with CHMS?

• Directorate of Minority Welfare, Kerala: 0471-2300524, 0471-2300523, 0471-2302090.
• Email: scholarship.mwd@gmail.com.
• Office and postal address for self-financing college applications: The Director, Minority Welfare Department, 4th Floor, Vikas Bhavan, Thiruvananthapuram 695033.

Raise college-level problems, an unapproved application, a wrong course category, a bank detail typed incorrectly, with your college office first, because only the institution login can correct a submitted record. Take unresolved cases to the Directorate with your registration number in hand. Applying is free at every stage, and the Directorate appoints no agents.