Akanksha Scheme

What is the Akanksha Scheme?

Akanksha Scheme, or Akanksha Yojana, is a Madhya Pradesh Tribal Affairs Department programme that gives Scheduled Tribe students free coaching for the country's main entrance examinations: JEE, NEET/AIIMS and CLAT, while they study Classes 11 and 12. According to the Madhya Pradesh CM Helpline scheme database, the scheme was launched on 1 January 2018 and its stated objective is to give talented Scheduled Tribe students coming out of Class 10 coaching for national-level examinations alongside classroom teaching in Classes 11 and 12.

The problem Akanksha addresses is a specific one. Tribal students from Madhya Pradesh's districts routinely clear Class 12 with good marks and still do not convert into an IIT, an NIT, a government medical college or a national law university, because entrance coaching is concentrated in a handful of cities and costs more per year than many families earn. Akanksha moves the student to where the coaching is and pays for everything: tuition, schooling and accommodation.

Key features

• Coaching runs alongside Class 11 and 12 schooling, not instead of it, so the board examination is not sacrificed.
• Three streams are offered: engineering (JEE), medical (NEET/AIIMS) and law (CLAT).
• Residential facility is provided at the coaching city.
• The benefit is in kind, not cash. The department pays the institute and the hostel.
• Application is free, and the scheme is listed as available in both online and offline mode.

Where is Akanksha coaching held and how many students are taken?

Akanksha coaching runs at reputed private institutes in four cities; Bhopal, Indore, Jabalpur and Gwalior. The stream is tied to the centre.

For the 2024-25 session, press reporting described the intake as 400 students for JEE coaching at Bhopal, 200 for NEET at Indore and 200 for CLAT at Jabalpur. In the first year of the scheme, 2018-19, each coaching centre took about 200 students — 100 for engineering, 50 for medical and 50 for CLAT.

Intake numbers are set fresh each session, so treat these as indicative of scale rather than as a guaranteed number of seats for the year you apply. The department publishes the year's allocation with the application notice.

What does a selected student receive?

The CM Helpline entry states the benefit plainly: coaching, hostel and school study are all free for the selected student. In practice that means:

• Free coaching at the empanelled institute for the chosen stream, across two years.
• Free schooling for Classes 11 and 12, so the student is not simultaneously paying school fees elsewhere.
• Free hostel accommodation at the coaching city, which is the single largest saving for a family from a rural district.
• Study material and guidance; press coverage of the scheme has described books, stationery, tablets and internet or data plans being supplied to selected students.

No cash is transferred to the student under Akanksha. A student looking for direct cash support after clearing a competitive examination should look at the Tribal Affairs Department's separate Pratibha Yojana, which district pages describe as paying Rs 50,000 where family income is up to Rs 3,00,000 and Rs 25,000 above that, for success in examinations including JEE, NEET and CLAT.

Who is eligible for the Akanksha Scheme?

You can apply if:

• You are a permanent resident of Madhya Pradesh and belong to a Scheduled Tribe notified for the state.
• Your family's combined annual income is below Rs 6 lakh, counting income of parents or guardian from all sources.
• You have passed Class 10 and are entering Class 11. Reported guidance for the scheme sets a minimum of 60 per cent in Class 10.
• You hold a digital caste certificate and an Aadhaar-linked bank account, both of which the department lists as requirements.
• You register a beneficiary profile on MPTAAS before applying.

You cannot apply if:

• You belong to the Scheduled Caste, OBC, de-notified or general category. Akanksha is a Tribal Affairs Department scheme and other categories are not eligible.
• You are a resident of another state.
• Your family income is Rs 6 lakh a year or more.
• You are already in Class 12 or beyond. The scheme is built as a two-year Class 11 and 12 programme and entry is at the Class 11 stage.
• You hold only a paper caste certificate. The MPTAAS profile requires the digital certificate and will not validate without it.

How are students selected?

Selection is merit-based and combines two things:

1. An entrance examination conducted by the coaching institute, and
2. The student's Class 10 board result.

The CM Helpline entry describes selection as being made on merit or through an entrance test. Because both components count, a strong Class 10 result improves your position even before you sit the institute's test. Practically, this means the Akanksha application is decided in the months right after the Class 10 result, which is why you should have your caste certificate, income certificate and Samagra ID ready before the board result comes out rather than after.

What documents are required for Akanksha?

How to apply for the Akanksha Scheme

1. Get your Samagra ID and digital caste certificate ready before the Class 10 result. Both take time at the e-district counter and both block the application if missing.
2. Register a beneficiary profile on the MPTAAS portal at tribal.mp.gov.in/MPTAAS, entering your Aadhaar number, Samagra ID and digital caste certificate number.
3. Log in and open the Akanksha Yojana application for the current year from the scheme list on your dashboard.
4. Choose your stream, JEE, NEET/AIIMS or CLAT. This determines which city you would be coached in, so choose deliberately.
5. Fill in your Class 10 result details and family income, then upload the documents in the sizes and formats the portal specifies.
6. Submit the application and save the acknowledgement number. There is no fee.
7. Appear for the entrance test conducted by the coaching institute when called, and check the merit list published by the department.
8. Complete admission formalities at the allotted institute and hostel if selected.

Students without reliable internet access can seek help at the district tribal welfare office or a nearby MP Online kiosk, the scheme entry records that both online and offline modes are available.

How to check your Akanksha application status

1. Log in to tribal.mp.gov.in/MPTAAS and open your beneficiary profile, where the status of each scheme application is shown.
2. Call the Tribal Affairs helpdesk on 1800-2333-951 or write to helpdesk.tribal@mp.gov.in, quoting your application number.
3. Ask the Assistant Commissioner, Tribal Affairs in your district, who handles local verification of caste and income documents.

Why Akanksha applications get rejected

• Caste certificate not digital, which is the most common single failure. A paper certificate will not attach to an MPTAAS profile.
• Income certificate above Rs 6 lakh, or an income certificate issued too long ago to be treated as current.
• Class 10 marks below the published cut-off for the year.
• Samagra ID missing or not matching the student's name and date of birth, which stalls profile creation.
• Application filed after the window closed for that session.
• Documents uploaded unreadably or in the wrong file format.
• Not appearing for the institute's entrance test after being called, which ends the application even if all documents were in order.

Key dates

Akanksha does not have a fixed statewide calendar date. Applications open each year after the Class 10 board result, because the scheme takes students entering Class 11. Watch the MPTAAS dashboard and the district tribal welfare office notice board from the day the Class 10 result is declared, and complete your Samagra and caste certificate work before that point.

Grievance redressal

• MPTAAS helpdesk: 1800-2333-951, helpdesk.tribal@mp.gov.in.
• Assistant Commissioner, Tribal Affairs, in your district, for document verification problems.
• Commissioner, Tribal Affairs, Satpura Bhavan, Bhopal.
• CM Helpline 181 for complaints about a pending or ignored application.

Akanksha applications are free at every stage. No coaching institute representative or agent can secure a seat for a payment. The merit list is published by the department.