Vijayamritham Scheme — Cash Award for Meritorious Students with Disabilities

What is the Vijayamritham scheme?

Vijayamritham is a cash award scheme of the Department of Social Justice, Government of Kerala, for meritorious students with disabilities. The department lists it as a "cash award for meritorious CWDs": children and young persons with disability, and it recognises students who have completed a degree, a postgraduate course or a professional course with high marks in a single attempt.

Vijayamritham is deliberately different from the department's other education schemes. Most of those are needs-based: Vidyakiranam supports the children of disabled parents, Vidyajyothi pays for uniforms and study material for students with disabilities, and separate scholarships cover school-level and distance-education students. Vijayamritham is merit-based and competitive. It does not fund a course; it rewards one that has already been finished well.

The award carries a certificate and a memento alongside the money, which is part of the point. For a student who has completed a professional degree while managing a disability, in an education system that is still uneven on accessibility, public recognition at district level has value beyond the cash.

Key features

• Rs 8,000 for degree or equivalent, Rs 10,000 for postgraduate or professional courses.
• 10 degree-level and 5 PG-level awards per district, so 15 per district.
• Single-attempt pass is compulsory.
• Certificate and memento along with the cash.
• Applications are filed online on Suneethi.

Who is eligible for the Vijayamritham award?

You can be considered if:

• You are a person with a disability holding a disability certificate issued by the District Medical Board under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016.
• You are a resident of Kerala.
• You have completed a degree or equivalent course with 60% marks in an arts stream or 80% marks in a science stream; or
• You have completed a postgraduate or professional course with 60% or above.
• You passed the qualifying examination in a single attempt.
• You studied at an accredited Indian university or an institution affiliated to one, with the department's criteria framed around institutions in Kerala.
• You hold a bank account in your own name for the transfer.

You cannot apply if:

• You do not hold a valid Medical Board disability certificate. A hospital letter alone is not eligible as proof.
• You cleared the qualifying examination in more than one attempt, including a supplementary or improvement examination in a single paper.
• Your marks are below the threshold for your stream, for example 70% in a science degree, which is a good result but under the 80% bar the scheme sets.
• You are still studying and have not yet completed the course. Vijayamritham is awarded after completion, not during the course.
• You are not a resident of Kerala, or studied at an institution that is not accredited or affiliated.
• You are the child of a prisoner and are looking for educational assistance on that basis. That is a different Social Justice Department scheme; Vijayamritham turns on disability and merit.

Note that selection is competitive within the district. Meeting the mark threshold makes you eligible to be considered, not automatically a winner. With only 10 degree-level and 5 PG-level awards per district, a strong mark list matters.

How much does Vijayamritham pay?

The award is paid once for the qualifying course. A student who wins at degree level and later completes a postgraduate course with 60% or more in a single attempt can be considered again at the higher level in a later year, since the two are separate award categories with separate slots.

Payment is by transfer to the bank account submitted with the application, which is why the department asks for an attested passbook copy rather than a plain photocopy.

What documents does the Vijayamritham application need?

According to the department's scheme note, applicants must submit:

1. Course completion certificate for the degree, PG or professional course.
2. Mark list of the qualifying examination, showing the percentage and the single-attempt pass.
3. Medical Board disability certificate under the RPwD Act 2016.
4. Aadhaar card.
5. Attested bank passbook copy.
6. Proof of Kerala residence, ration card, voter ID or Village Officer certificate.
7. A passport-size photograph for the online form.

Scan each document cleanly before you start the online application. Suneethi uploads have file-size limits, and a blurred mark list is a routine cause of a file being sent back for clarification.

How to apply for the Vijayamritham scheme

1. Wait for the results and the course completion certificate. Vijayamritham is awarded after the course is finished, so the mark list and the completion certificate must both be in hand before you begin.
2. Obtain or renew the Medical Board disability certificate. If your certificate has an expiry date and has lapsed, get it revalidated at the District Medical Board first — this is the step that takes longest.
3. Register once on the Suneethi portal at suneethi.sjd.kerala.gov.in. The Social Justice Department launched Suneethi as its single citizen window, with 31 services including 14 for persons with disabilities. Registration is a one-time process and there is no fee for applying from your own device.
4. Log in as a citizen and open the Vijayamritham application. The portal's homepage carries video tutorials showing the submission flow, which are worth two minutes before you start.
5. Fill in the personal, disability and academic details, entering the marks exactly as they appear on the mark list, and upload the scanned documents.
6. Submit the application and save the acknowledgement number. Take a screenshot or print the confirmation page.
7. Track the application on your Suneethi dashboard and respond promptly to any clarification the District Social Justice Office raises.

If you cannot apply online, contact the District Social Justice Officer of your district. District offices assist applicants who cannot access the portal directly, and Akshaya centres across Kerala also help with online government submissions.

When does Vijayamritham open, and how do you check status?

Vijayamritham is an annual award tied to the examination cycle, so the application window opens after results are published for the relevant academic year. The Social Justice Department notifies the window on sjd.kerala.gov.in and on the Suneethi portal. There is no permanent standing deadline: check the current year's notification rather than assuming last year's dates repeat.

Status is tracked on the Suneethi citizen dashboard using the login created at registration. The dashboard shows whether an application is submitted, under verification at the district office, recommended, or sanctioned. Keep the registered mobile number active, since queries and the award intimation both go by SMS.

Why are Vijayamritham applications rejected?

• More than one attempt. This is the most common disqualification, and it is not negotiable. Students often overlook that an improvement attempt in a single paper counts.
• Marks just below the stream threshold. The 80% bar for science degrees is high and catches many otherwise strong applicants.
• Disability certificate expired or issued by the wrong authority. Only a District Medical Board certificate under the RPwD Act is accepted.
• Slots exhausted. With 15 awards a district, a technically eligible application can still lose out to higher-scoring candidates. This is a selection outcome, not a defect in the file.
• Illegible uploads or a mark list that does not show the attempt history.
• Bank passbook not attested, or an account name that does not match Aadhaar.

Where the rejection is document-based, correct the defect and reapply in the next cycle. Where it is a merit ranking, there is no appeal on the marks themselves.

Where do you raise a grievance?

1. District Social Justice Officer, the office that verifies and recommends Vijayamritham applications.
2. Directorate of Social Justice, Thiruvananthapuram to 0471-2306040 or 0471-2302887, email swdkerala@gmail.com.
3. Sahajeevanam help-desk for persons with disabilities, which the department operates at block level to help PwD applicants access schemes.
4. The state public grievance system, if the departmental route stalls.

Students with disabilities in Kerala should also look at the department's adjacent schemes while applying for Vijayamritham, the scholarship for differently abled students, Vidyajyothi for uniforms and study material, Athijeevanam for mainstreaming, and Shreshtam for participation in arts and sports. Several of these run on the same Suneethi login, so one registration opens more than one door.