Post Doctoral Fellowship to Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe Candidates

What is the Post Doctoral Fellowship to SC/ST Candidates?

Post Doctoral Fellowship to Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe Candidates is an affirmative-action research fellowship of the University Grants Commission (UGC), which functions under the Ministry of Education. The scheme gives unemployed SC and ST scholars who already hold a PhD the means to pursue advanced, post-doctoral research, so that more researchers from these communities move into teaching and research careers.

According to the UGC fellowship portal, the scheme offers roughly 100 fellowships a year. A selected fellow receives Rs 38,800 per month for the first two years and Rs 46,500 per month from the third year, for a fixed, non-extendable tenure of three years. In addition, UGC pays a contingency grant of Rs 50,000 per year to cover books, travel and other research costs, and differently-abled fellows receive an escort/reader allowance of Rs 2,000 per month.

The fellowship is entirely funded by the Government of India through the UGC and is intended to raise the number of SC/ST scholars engaged in high-level research across disciplines.

Who is eligible for the SC/ST Post Doctoral Fellowship?

You can apply if:

• You belong to the Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe category and hold a valid caste certificate.
• You have been awarded a PhD degree in a relevant subject.
• You are unemployed; not in any regular salaried job.
• You meet the minimum marks requirement in your qualifying degrees.
• You are not more than 50 years old (55 for women) as on the last date of application.

You cannot apply if:

• You are employed in a regular position anywhere.
• You do not hold a PhD or are outside the eligible subjects.
• You are not from the SC or ST category, or cannot produce a valid caste certificate.
• You exceed the age limit on the application deadline.

The scheme is meant to be held on its own. A fellow cannot draw this fellowship along with another fellowship or scholarship, and taking up employment ends it.

What does the fellowship provide?

• Fellowship amount: Rs 38,800 per month (years 1-2), Rs 46,500 per month (year 3).
• Contingency: Rs 50,000 per year for books, travel and research expenses.
• Escort/reader allowance: Rs 2,000 per month, fixed, for differently-abled fellows.
• Tenure: Three years, non-extendable.

Fellows are attached to a university department or recognised research institution where they carry out their post-doctoral work under a supervisor.

What documents are required?

How to apply for the SC/ST Post Doctoral Fellowship

1. Wait for the annual UGC notification, normally published around April on the UGC website and fellowship portal.
2. Go to the UGC official portal and open the Scholarship/Fellowships section, then the Post-Doctoral Fellowship page.
3. Register with your details to create a login ID and password.
4. Fill in the online application form completely and upload your PhD certificate, caste certificate, mark sheets, age proof and unemployment declaration.
5. Submit the application and retain a printout for your records.
6. If selected, join within three months of the award letter, failing which the fellowship is forfeited.

Selection is made by an expert committee following the UGC's prescribed procedure, on the basis of academic record and research potential.

How is this different from the UGC PDF for the general category?

The general UGC Dr. D.S. Kothari Post-Doctoral Fellowship is open to all candidates on merit and carries different, higher revised rates. The SC/ST Post Doctoral Fellowship is a reserved, category-specific scheme designed to widen participation from Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities, with its own notification, its own quota of around 100 seats and its own stipend structure. Applicants should apply under the stream that matches their category and eligibility.

Help and where to check

• Official portal: ugc.gov.in (Scholarship/Fellowships section)
• UGC toll-free helpline: 1800-11-7800

Because the number of fellowships and the stipend rates are revised by UGC from time to time, always confirm the current figures and the last date on the live UGC notification before applying. Do not rely on third-party portals for the official deadline.

How to check your application status

Since the fellowship is administered entirely through the UGC portal, there is no separate physical office to visit for a status update. Use these channels in order:

1. Log in to the UGC portal. Go to ugc.gov.in, open the Scholarship/Fellowships section, and sign in with the same login ID and password used at the time of application. Your dashboard shows the current stage of your form: submitted, under scrutiny, shortlisted, selected, or rejected.
2. Check for a downloadable acknowledgement or reference number. When the application was first submitted, the portal generates a reference number and an acknowledgement receipt. Keep this number on hand; you will need it for any follow-up query, whether online or by phone.
3. Watch for committee-stage updates. Selection is done by an expert committee that reviews academic record and research potential. There is no fixed public timeline for this review, so the portal status may stay at "under process" for an extended period between the application closing date and the announcement of results. This is normal and does not by itself indicate a problem with the application.
4. Check the UGC website's notices and results section. Shortlists, interview call letters (where applicable) and final award letters are usually published as notices on the UGC website and fellowship portal, not sent only by individual email or SMS. Applicants should check this section periodically rather than waiting for a personal notification.
5. Call the UGC helpline if the portal status is unclear. The UGC toll-free helpline, 1800-11-7800, can be used to ask about the status of a specific application, quoting the reference number and category (SC/ST Post-Doctoral Fellowship) to the operator.
6. After selection, track the joining deadline yourself. The award letter specifies the window (up to three months) within which the fellow must join their host university or institution. The portal does not send repeated reminders for this deadline, so once selected, the applicant is responsible for tracking and meeting it; missing it forfeits the fellowship.

There is no offline, postal or in-person status-check route for this scheme; all tracking happens through the same UGC portal login used for submission, backed up by the toll-free helpline for queries the portal itself cannot answer.

Common reasons for rejection

Because eligibility and documentation for this fellowship are checked strictly against fixed criteria, most rejections trace back to a small set of avoidable issues:

• Applying while employed. The scheme is open only to unemployed SC/ST PhD holders. Applicants who hold any regular salaried position, including part-time teaching or contractual academic work that counts as regular employment, are disqualified. Fix: apply only when genuinely unemployed, and if a job offer comes in after submission but before selection, inform UGC rather than let it surface later.
• Missing or invalid caste certificate. A caste certificate that is not issued by a competent authority, is outdated, or does not clearly state Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe status is a direct ground for rejection. Fix: obtain or renew the caste certificate from the designated revenue or tehsil authority in your state well before the application window opens, and upload a clear, complete scan.
• PhD degree not yet formally awarded. Some applicants apply while their thesis is still under evaluation or their viva is pending, holding only a provisional or thesis-submission certificate. The scheme requires that the PhD has actually been awarded. Fix: apply only after the university has issued the actual degree certificate or an equivalent provisional degree confirming the award.
• Not meeting the minimum marks requirement. Applicants whose postgraduate or undergraduate marks fall short of the threshold UGC specifies in that year's notification are screened out at the scrutiny stage. Fix: check the exact marks criterion in the current year's notification before applying, since it is confirmed afresh each cycle rather than being a fixed, unchanging number.
• Exceeding the age limit. The cutoff is 50 years for men and 55 years for women as on the last date of application, calculated exactly, not approximately. Fix: calculate your age precisely against the stated last date, not the date you actually submit the form, since delays in filling the form do not extend the age cutoff.
• Incomplete or incorrectly uploaded documents. A common and entirely avoidable rejection reason is uploading the wrong file, an illegible scan, or leaving a mandatory document field blank on the online form. Fix: assemble the PhD certificate, caste certificate, PG and UG mark sheets, age proof and unemployment declaration as separate, legible files before starting the form, so nothing is rushed or skipped at submission time.
• Holding another fellowship or scholarship simultaneously. This fellowship cannot be combined with another central or state fellowship or scholarship. Applicants who are already receiving one and do not disclose or discontinue it risk having their application or award cancelled. Fix: discontinue any other fellowship or scholarship before accepting this one, and declare it honestly on the form if asked.
• Applying after the notification's closing date. Since the scheme runs on a single annual notification cycle, typically opening around April, an application submitted after the portal closes cannot be considered, regardless of how strong the candidate's profile is. Fix: track the UGC website from earlier in the year rather than waiting to hear about the notification informally.

None of these are appealable through the portal itself. If an application is rejected for a documentation reason that the applicant believes is an error, such as a valid certificate being read as invalid, the toll-free helpline (1800-11-7800) is the first point of contact to raise a clarification before the next cycle.