Banishree Scholarship for Students with Disability, Odisha

What is the Banishree Scholarship?

Banishree Scholarship is a scholarship of the Social Security and Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (SSEPD) Department, Government of Odisha, paid to students with disability so that the extra costs of studying with a disability do not end their education. The full name on the Odisha State Scholarship Portal is Banishree, A Scheme of Scholarship for Students with Disability.

The scheme runs on a simple recognition: a student with a disability spends more to study than a student without one. Assistive devices, a reader or scribe, accessible transport to and from an institution, and often a longer time to complete a course all carry costs that a standard merit scholarship ignores. Banishree meets part of that gap with a monthly stipend paid through the academic year, and it is unusual in reaching all the way from Class VI through to doctoral study.

Banishree has been in operation since 2008 and is reported to support more than 23,600 students. The scheme moved onto the common Odisha State Scholarship Portal alongside the state's other scholarships, which means a single Aadhaar-based registration now serves for Banishree and for any other scheme a student qualifies for.

How much does the Banishree Scholarship pay?

The Odisha State Scholarship Portal lists the Banishree scholarship amount as "Per year As Per Course Duration", with the target number set by the applications received, and records that the scholarship may be availed only once in a year. The portal does not print a rate card.

Widely reported rates for the scheme are:

Two additional allowances are reported: a reader allowance of about Rs 400 a month for visually impaired students, and a transport allowance of about Rs 160 a month for orthopaedically handicapped students who need assisted travel to their institution.

These rates come from secondary reporting, not from the department's own listing on the portal. Treat them as indicative. The amount that applies to your case is the one on your sanction order, and the District Social Security Officer can confirm the current rate before you apply.

Payment is made by Direct Benefit Transfer into the student's own bank account, which is why the passbook copy with account number and IFSC code is a mandatory upload.

Who is eligible for the Banishree Scholarship?

You can apply if:

• You have a certified disability of at least 40 per cent, the benchmark disability threshold, evidenced by a certificate from the competent medical authority.
• You are an Odisha domicile holder.
• You are studying in any of the levels listed on the portal: Classes VI, VII, VIII, IX and X; Plus 2 and Plus 3; postgraduate courses including M.A., M.Com, M.Sc, M.Ed and M.Phil; or any course on the scheme's long professional list.
• You belong to any category. The portal names General, SC, ST, OBC/SEBC and EBC as eligible against every one of the four course blocks.
• Your family income is within the published limit. A ceiling of Rs 60,000 a year has been reported for the scheme; the family income column on the portal listing is blank, so verify the current limit with the District Social Security Officer.

The professional course list is genuinely wide. It includes Engineering and B.Tech, Medical, Dental, Nursing, Pharmacy, Para-Medical, Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, Prosthetics and Orthotics, Public Health, Agriculture and Allied Sciences, Animal Husbandry, Fishery, Forestry, Architecture, Law, Management, MBA, MCA, BBA, BCA, M.Tech, B.Ed and Integrated B.Ed, Special Education, Teacher Training, Library Science, Journalism, Social Works and MSW, Hotel Management, Tourism and Travel, Fashion Design and Fashion Technology, Interior Design, Textile Design, Applied Art and Craft, Performing Arts, Visual Arts, Multimedia and Animation, Physical Education, Yoga, Vocational Education, B.Voc and D.Voc, ITI and ITC, Polytechnic and Diploma, PG Diploma, PGDCA, various integrated masters programmes, OSOU diploma and certificate courses, Ph.D and Doctoral study.

You cannot apply if:

• You do not hold a valid disability certificate at the benchmark percentage. This is the qualifying condition and nothing substitutes for it.
• You are studying below Class VI. The portal's class list for this scheme starts at Class VI, even though reported rate cards mention a primary slab, so check with the District Social Security Officer if you are in Classes 1 to 5.
• You are not an Odisha domicile holder.
• You have already availed the scholarship in the same year — the portal records that it may be availed only once in a year.
• Your family income exceeds the published ceiling for the scheme.

One condition works strongly in your favour. The portal carries a rider stating that an applicant is eligible for Banishree irrespective of applying for or availing any other department's scheme. A student already drawing the Post Matric Scholarship from the ST&SC and MBC Welfare Department, or a Higher Education Department merit award, does not have to choose between them.

What documents are required?

The portal's eligibility table lists the same four uploads against every course block:

The disability certificate is not printed in the portal's document column, but it is the substantive qualifying condition for the scheme and will be required at verification. Keep the original and a clean scan ready. A residence certificate is worth carrying too, particularly if your institution is outside Odisha.

How to apply for the Banishree Scholarship

Application is online only and free of charge.

1. Open scholarship.odisha.gov.in and use the Check Eligibility link. Enter your class or course details and confirm that Banishree appears in the list of schemes you qualify for.
2. Complete the one-time Aadhaar registration. Enter your Aadhaar number and the OTP sent to the mobile number linked to Aadhaar; the user ID and password arrive by SMS and email. Your name, gender and date of birth are pulled from the Aadhaar database and cannot be edited later, so check their spelling in Aadhaar first.
3. Log in, then select Social Security & Empowerment of Persons With Disabilities Department as the department and Banishree, A Scheme of Scholarship for Students with Disability as the scheme.
4. Fill the student, academic, eligibility and bank sections. The portal allows saving and returning across as many sittings as you need before submission.
5. Upload the Aadhaar card, bank passbook copy, photograph and the marksheet of the last examination passed, together with your disability certificate.
6. Submit, then download and print the completed form. The application locks once submitted.
7. Give the printout and originals to the scholarship nodal officer at your school, college or institute, who verifies and forwards the case to the SSEPD Department.

If your institution or course is missing from the drop-down list, ask the institute to contact the District Welfare Officer of the district where it is located; the portal states that the DWO will register the institute or course.

How do I check my application status?

Use the Know Your Status link on the portal home page. Enter your Aadhaar number or your application number and confirm with the OTP sent to your mobile. The screen shows the institute-forwarding stage, the department sanction stage and the payment stage separately.

If you find a mistake after submitting, tell your institute's nodal person straight away. The institute has a Revert facility that pushes the application back into your login for editing, after which you resubmit. Do not file a second application, duplicates get rejected.

Why Banishree applications get rejected

• Disability certificate expired or below the benchmark percentage. Temporary certificates carry a validity date; check yours before applying.
• Certificate issued by an authority that is not the competent medical authority for disability certification.
• Bank account in a parent's or guardian's name. The DBT credit needs the student's own account, Aadhaar-seeded.
• Aadhaar details wrong. The portal warns that if the Aadhaar number provided is incorrect or is not yours, the application is liable to be rejected.
• Application submitted but never forwarded by the institution before the deadline. Follow up a week after submitting.
• Institute or course not registered on the portal, so the application cannot be routed for verification.
• Second claim in the same year, which breaches the once-a-year condition.

Key dates and grievance route

The cycle currently listed on the Odisha State Scholarship Portal carries a last date of 10 March 2026 for Banishree. The window reopens each academic year, and every extension is published in the Announcement section on the portal home page. The portal has extended deadlines for several schemes in past cycles, so a date that appears to have passed is worth rechecking there.

For technical trouble with the online form, call the Sanjog Helpline on 155335 or 1800-345-6770, which the portal lists as its toll-free helpdesk, open 9 AM to 5 PM on all government official days. For questions about disability certification, rate slabs or the reader and transport allowances, the District Social Security Officer under the SSEPD Department is the right authority. Written grievances can be filed on the Odisha government's public grievance system at janasunani.odisha.gov.in.

Banishree costs nothing to apply for. No agent can charge a fee to enrol a student with disability in the scheme, and no official will ask for your Aadhaar OTP.