Prof. Joseph Mundassery Scholarship Award

What is the Prof. Joseph Mundassery Scholarship Award?

Prof. Joseph Mundassery Scholarship Award, usually shortened to PJMS, is a merit scholarship of the Directorate of Minority Welfare, Government of Kerala. It is named after Professor Joseph Mundassery, the writer and critic who served as Kerala's first Education Minister and drove the state's Education Bill of 1957. A name deliberately attached to a scholarship about educational access.

The Directorate of Minority Welfare was formed under the General Administration Department in 2008 and describes its mandate as the overall welfare and advancement of the notified minority communities of Kerala. PJMS is one of the awards it runs from the 4th floor of Vikas Bhavan, Thiruvananthapuram, alongside the Post-Matric Scholarship, the APJ Abdul Kalam Scholarship for polytechnic diploma students and the civil service coaching fee reimbursement.

PJMS is designed around academic excellence combined with financial need. It rewards minority community students who reached the top of their examination; full A+ at SSLC, Plus Two or VHSE, 80 percent at undergraduate level, 75 percent at postgraduate level, and whose family income is below Rs 8,00,000 a year. The award is reported at up to Rs 15,000 and is paid as a one-time amount rather than a recurring annual scholarship.

Key features

• A one-time merit award, not a continuing scholarship.
• Confined to Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain and Parsi students.
• Requires native Kerala status.
• Family annual income ceiling of Rs 8,00,000.
• Selection within the eligible pool is on financial need.
• Covers students at school, undergraduate and postgraduate levels, with a different marks bar at each.

Who is eligible for the Joseph Mundassery Scholarship?

You can apply if:

• You are a native of Kerala and can produce a nativity or domicile certificate.
• You belong to a notified minority community: Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain or Parsi, evidenced by a community certificate.
• Your family annual income is below Rs 8,00,000, evidenced by an income certificate from the village officer.
• You meet the marks bar for your level:
• SSLC, Plus Two or VHSE; full A+ in all subjects
• Undergraduate to 80 percent
• Postgraduate to 75 percent
• You are currently enrolled and studying, and your institution will issue a bonafide certificate and forward the application.
• You have a bank account in your own name, seeded with Aadhaar.

You cannot apply if:

• You do not belong to a notified minority community. This is the core condition of the scheme and there is no relaxation.
• Your family income exceeds Rs 8,00,000 a year.
• You fall short of the marks bar. A student with A+ in most but not all SSLC subjects does not qualify, the condition is full A+, not near it.
• You are not a native of Kerala.
• You have discontinued studies. The award goes to students who are continuing their education, which is why a bonafide certificate from the present institution is required.
• You conceal another scholarship. Declare every other award you hold on the form; an undeclared second scholarship is a standard ground for cancellation and recovery.

How much does PJMS pay?

The Prof. Joseph Mundassery Scholarship Award is reported at up to Rs 15,000, paid once rather than annually. Widely circulated summaries of the scheme also put the SSLC, Plus Two and VHSE full A+ tier at Rs 10,000.

Be careful here, and treat the notification as the authority. The Directorate of Minority Welfare fixes the amount payable at each level of study in the circular it issues for the academic year, and the tier amounts have moved over the years. What is safe to rely on is the Rs 15,000 upper figure and the fact that the award is one-time. For the exact figure applicable to your level in the current cycle, open the notification on mwdscholarship.kerala.gov.in before you apply.

Payment is by direct transfer into the student's own Aadhaar-seeded bank account. An account in a parent's name will not be credited, and this is one of the most common reasons a sanctioned award never arrives.

How to apply for the Joseph Mundassery Scholarship

PJMS is applied for online first, then confirmed on paper through the institution. Both steps are compulsory; an online submission alone is not processed.

1. Assemble the certificates before the window opens. Qualifying mark list, community certificate, income certificate showing family income below Rs 8,00,000, nativity or domicile certificate, bonafide certificate from your present institution, Aadhaar and a bank passbook copy in your own name. Village office certificates take days to weeks, so this is the step to start early.
2. Register on the scholarship portal. Go to mwdscholarship.kerala.gov.in and create an account with a working mobile number and email address. Keep the login details — you will need them to check status later.
3. Open the PJMS application from the scholarship dashboard. Select the Prof. Joseph Mundassery Scholarship Award from the list of scholarships available to you.
4. Fill the personal, educational and bank sections. Enter marks exactly as they appear on the mark list and the account number and IFSC exactly as printed in the passbook. A single wrong digit in the IFSC stops the payment at the last step.
5. Upload the photograph, signature and supporting documents. Follow the size and format limits the form states, and check that each scan is readable before uploading.
6. Submit online and print the application. The portal produces a printable application once the submission is final.
7. Hand the printed application to your institution. Attach self-attested copies of all supporting documents and submit to the head of the institution before the closing date. The institution verifies the details and forwards them to the Directorate of Minority Welfare.

How do I check my PJMS application status?

The Kerala Minority Welfare scholarship portal at mwdscholarship.kerala.gov.in carries an application status tracker. Log in with your registration credentials and check whether the application shows as submitted, verified by the institution, or sanctioned. The portal also publishes news, updates and notification tabs where the final selection lists appear.

If the portal is not enough:

• Ask your institution's scholarship section first. Institution-level verification is where the largest number of applications stall, and only the institution can clear its own pending list.
• Contact the Directorate of Minority Welfare helpdesk on 0471-2300524, 0471-2300523 or 0471-2302090, or email scholarship.mwd@gmail.com, quoting your application number. The directorate is at Vikas Bhavan, 4th Floor, Thiruvananthapuram 695033.

Why do PJMS applications get rejected, and how do I fix it?

What are the key dates for PJMS?

The Directorate of Minority Welfare announces the application window for each academic year, and the closing date shifts. In the 2025-26 cycle the last date was 20 January 2026, which places the PJMS window in the second half of the academic year: well after results are published and admissions are settled.

Two practical consequences follow. First, an income certificate taken out early in the year may have lapsed by the time the window opens, so plan to obtain it close to the application date. Second, because the window is short and falls mid-year, students who wait for a college announcement often miss it; check the notifications tab on mwdscholarship.kerala.gov.in from November onwards.

Where do I complain if the award is not paid?

Escalate in this order:

1. The head of your institution, since the institution verifies and forwards the application and holds the acknowledgement.
2. The Directorate of Minority Welfare helpdesk on 0471-2300524, 0471-2300523 or 0471-2302090, or scholarship.mwd@gmail.com, with your application number.
3. The Director of Minority Welfare, Vikas Bhavan, 4th Floor, Thiruvananthapuram 695033, in writing, if the helpdesk does not settle the matter.
4. The Chief Minister's public grievance portal at cmo.kerala.gov.in, which accepts online petitions against any Kerala government department and issues a tracking number.

An application under the Right to Information Act to the Public Information Officer of the Directorate of Minority Welfare is the further step where a file cannot be traced at all.

What else can a Kerala minority student apply for?

PJMS is a one-time merit award, so it is worth pairing with the recurring scholarships the same directorate runs:

• Minority Welfare Post-Matric Scholarship, tuition support plus a monthly maintenance allowance for minority students after Class 10.
• APJ Abdul Kalam Scholarship: Rs 6,000 a year for minority students in three-year polytechnic diploma courses.
• Civil Service Examination fee reimbursement: support for minority candidates preparing for the civil services.

All of these use the same portal, the same Rs 8,00,000 family income ceiling and substantially the same certificate set, so a student who has assembled documents for PJMS can usually apply for the others without fresh paperwork.