Maintenance Allowance to VJNT and SBC Students Studying in Professional Courses and Living in Hostel Attached to Professional Colleges

What is the maintenance allowance for VJNT and SBC students in professional courses?

Maintenance Allowance to VJNT and SBC Students Studying in Professional Courses and Living in Hostel Attached to Professional Colleges is a scholarship of the Other Backward Bahujan Welfare Department, Government of Maharashtra. In Marathi the scheme is known as vidyavetan; literally a study allowance, and the departmental scheme page dates it to a Government Resolution of 18 July 2003.

The scheme exists because tuition fee reimbursement alone does not keep a student from a Vimukta Jati, Nomadic Tribe or Special Backward Class household in a professional college. Medicine, engineering, agriculture, veterinary science and architecture are long courses, usually away from home, and the recurring cost is food and lodging rather than fees. The maintenance allowance addresses that directly, paying a monthly rate for 10 months of the academic year.

The rate depends on two things: how long the course is, and whether the student is accommodated in a government hostel. Students who are not given a place in a government hostel draw a higher rate, because they are paying market rent.

How much is the maintenance allowance?

For applicants living in a hostel attached to the college (10 months):

For applicants not accommodated in a government hostel (10 months):

Both schedules are published by the Other Backward Bahujan Welfare Department on its post-matric scholarship pages. The allowance is over and above any fee reimbursement the student receives.

Who is eligible for the maintenance allowance?

You can apply if:

• You belong to the VJNT (Vimukta Jati and Nomadic Tribes) or SBC (Special Backward Class) category and hold a valid caste certificate.
• You are a domicile of Maharashtra.
• You are enrolled in a professional course, medicine, engineering, agriculture, veterinary science, architecture, an engineering diploma, MBA, MSW, B.Ed., D.Ed. or a comparable professional programme.
• You are living in a hostel attached to the professional college, or you are a student not accommodated in a government hostel, for the higher rate.
• Your college is recognised and is on the MahaDBT institute list.

You cannot apply / are not eligible if:

• You belong to the OBC, SEBC, SC or ST category. Each has its own parallel scheme, and applying under the wrong one gets the application rejected at verification.
• You are not domiciled in Maharashtra, even if you study in the state.
• You are in a non-professional course such as a plain BA, B.Com or B.Sc. Those students are covered by the ordinary post-matric scholarship, not by this allowance.
• You cannot produce a caste certificate. Many professional colleges also require a caste validity certificate for reserved-category admission.
• You are repeating a year or have broken continuity of study. Renewal depends on satisfactory progress in the previous year.
• Your college is not listed on MahaDBT, so no verification authority exists.

What documents are required?

How to apply for the maintenance allowance on MahaDBT

1. Open mahadbt.maharashtra.gov.in and choose the Post Matric Scholarship section for students.
2. Register a new applicant account using your Aadhaar number and an Aadhaar-linked mobile number, and complete the OTP authentication.
3. Complete your profile; personal details, address, caste category, domicile, Aadhaar-seeded bank account and current course details. The profile must be 100 per cent complete before any scheme becomes selectable.
4. Select the scheme under the OBC, SEBC, VJNT and SBC Welfare Department and pick the maintenance allowance for professional-course students. Answer the hostel question accurately, because it sets your rate.
5. Upload the documents; caste certificate, domicile certificate, hostel certificate, admission receipt, previous mark sheet and bank passbook; as clear scans within the size limits shown on screen.
6. Submit the application and note the application ID shown on the acknowledgement.
7. Get it verified by the college. Take a printout with the documents to the college scholarship section, which verifies the application on its institute login and forwards it to the department. An unverified application never reaches the sanctioning officer.
8. Track the application under "Know Your Application Status" using your application ID until it shows sanctioned and disbursed.

How to check status and payment

• Log in on MahaDBT and open Know Your Application Status with your application ID. The screen shows the stage: pending at institute, pending at desk, sanctioned or disbursed.
• If it is stuck at pending at institute, the college has not verified it. That is fixed at the college, not on the portal.
• If it shows disbursed but no money has arrived, the usual cause is an Aadhaar-to-bank seeding failure at NPCI. Ask your bank to complete NPCI mapping, then raise it with the college.
• Use the MahaDBT contact-cum-help number, 022-49150800, for portal faults.

Why applications get rejected, and how to fix them

• Wrong scheme selected, an OBC student applying under the VJNT/SBC scheme, or the reverse. Re-apply under the correct department scheme in the next window.
• Caste certificate or validity certificate missing or expired. Apply afresh through the Aaple Sarkar / Setu centre and the caste scrutiny committee.
• Hostel certificate not attached, so the office cannot decide your rate and defaults to rejection.
• Bank account not Aadhaar-seeded. This is the single most common reason a sanctioned amount never reaches the student. Complete NPCI mapping at the bank.
• College did not verify in time. Follow up in person; there is no way to bypass institute verification.
• Incomplete MahaDBT profile. The application cannot be submitted at all until the profile is complete and Aadhaar authentication has succeeded.
• Name mismatch between Aadhaar, the college record and the bank account.

Key dates

MahaDBT has notified that fresh applications for academic year 2026-27 opened on 1 June 2026, and that applications for 2025-26, both fresh and renewal, are accepted until 30 September 2026. The portal states that 72 schemes across 12 departments are live on it. Deadlines on MahaDBT are extended often, so check the notices panel on the home page before treating any date as final. The governing Government Resolution for this allowance dates from 18 July 2003.

Grievance and contact

• College scholarship section. The first stop for verification problems, which account for most delays.
• Assistant Director, Other Backward Bahujan Welfare Department of your district. The sanctioning authority.
• MahaDBT contact-cum-help number: 022-49150800, and the grievance link on the portal.
• Maharashtra Citizen Contact Centre: 1800 120 8040 (toll free, 24x7).
• Other Backward Bahujan Welfare Department, 1st Floor, Annexe Building, Mantralaya, Mumbai 400032.

Applying on MahaDBT is free. No college, clerk or agent may charge a student for filing or verifying a scholarship application.