Post-Matric Scholarship for Scheduled Caste Students (Gujarat)

What is the Post-Matric Scholarship for Scheduled Caste students in Gujarat?

Post-Matric Scholarship for Scheduled Caste Students is a centrally sponsored scholarship of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment that Gujarat implements through the Social Justice and Empowerment Department and its Director, Scheduled Caste Welfare. The scheme covers the cost of studying beyond Class 10 so that Scheduled Caste students do not drop out at the point where education stops being free. Gujarat receives and disburses the funds, verifies applicants through the District Deputy Director (Scheduled Caste Welfare) offices, and runs the whole application process on the Digital Gujarat portal.

According to the Director of Scheduled Caste Welfare, Gujarat, the objective is to raise the Gross Enrolment Ratio of Scheduled Caste students in higher education. The scholarship has two parts that are paid together: the admitted course fees, meaning tuition and other compulsory non-refundable charges levied by the institution, and an annual academic allowance that is meant to cover books, stationery, equipment and living costs.

Main features

• Applies to every recognised course after Class 10, from diplomas to post-graduate and professional degrees.
• Family income ceiling of Rs 2,50,000 a year from all sources.
• Academic allowance is paid per year, not per month, under the revised scheme design.
• Students with disabilities receive an additional allowance.
• All payments go by Direct Benefit Transfer to the student's own account.

How much scholarship money will I get?

Courses are grouped into four categories, and the allowance depends on the group and on whether the student stays in a hostel. According to the Director of Scheduled Caste Welfare, Gujarat, the annual academic allowance is:

On top of the allowance the scheme reimburses the tuition fee and other compulsory non-refundable fees actually charged by the institution, which for a professional course is usually far larger than the allowance itself. Students with a benchmark disability receive an additional allowance on top of the group rate.

The hosteller rate applies only where the student genuinely lives in a hostel attached to or recognised by the institution and produces a hostel certificate. Claiming the hosteller rate without that certificate is a common cause of the sanctioned amount being reduced to the day-scholar rate.

Who is eligible for the Gujarat SC Post-Matric Scholarship?

You can claim the scholarship if:

• You belong to a Scheduled Caste notified for Gujarat and hold a caste certificate in your own name.
• You are a resident of Gujarat studying in a recognised institution.
• You have passed Class 10 and are enrolled in a recognised course beyond it.
• Your annual family income from all sources is Rs 2,50,000 or less.
• You maintain regular attendance in the course as certified by the institution.
• You hold a bank account in your own name, seeded with Aadhaar.

You cannot apply if:

• You do not belong to a Scheduled Caste, or your certificate is from another state.
• Your family income exceeds Rs 2,50,000 a year.
• You are studying at or below Class 10. The scheme starts only after matriculation.
• You already hold another government scholarship or stipend for the same course in the same year.
• You were admitted through a management or NRI quota outside the merit-based admission criteria.
• You are repeating the same year of the same course after failing, unless the institution certifies otherwise under the applicable rules.

What documents do I need?

How to apply for the Post-Matric Scholarship in Gujarat

1. Open the Digital Gujarat portal at digitalgujarat.gov.in and click Register if you are a first-time user; use your own mobile number and email, then verify the OTP.
2. Log in and complete My Profile in full, name exactly as on Aadhaar, caste, district, bank account and IFSC. Save the profile before going further.
3. Open Services, then Scholarship Services, and select the current academic year followed by the Scheduled Caste (SC) scholarship group.
4. Choose Post-Matric Scholarship for SC students from the list of services and open the application form.
5. Fill in your course details: institution name, course group, year of study, hosteller or day scholar, and the fees charged this year.
6. Upload the scanned caste certificate, income certificate, Class 10 mark sheet, fee receipt, bonafide certificate, bank passbook and, if applicable, the hostel or disability certificate.
7. Read the declaration, tick the confirmation and submit. Note the application number shown on the acknowledgement.
8. Take the printed application with original documents to your institution's scholarship clerk if the institution asks to verify it before forwarding to the District Deputy Director (Scheduled Caste Welfare).

Only one application per student per year is allowed. There is no offline application route for this scholarship in Gujarat.

How do I check my scholarship status?

1. Log in to digitalgujarat.gov.in with the credentials you registered with.
2. Open My Applications from the dashboard.
3. Read the status against your application number: Draft, Submitted, Verified by Institute, Verified by District Office, Sanctioned, Payment Released or Rejected.
4. If the status shows a query or a "sent back for correction", open the application, fix the flagged field or re-upload the document, and resubmit before the correction window closes.

Payment is released to the student's own Aadhaar-seeded bank account. If the status shows Sanctioned but no money arrives, the problem is nearly always at the bank end — a closed account, wrong IFSC, or an account not seeded with Aadhaar.

Why Post-Matric Scholarship applications get rejected

• Income certificate above Rs 2,50,000 or expired at the time of scrutiny.
• Bank account in a parent's name instead of the student's own name.
• Name mismatch between Aadhaar, the caste certificate and the bank account.
• Fee receipt missing or from a previous year, the receipt must be for the current academic session.
• Hosteller claimed without a hostel certificate, which usually results in the amount being cut to the day-scholar rate rather than outright rejection.
• Duplicate applications submitted for the same year, or a second government scholarship already drawn for the same course.
• Institution not recognised or the course not covered under any of the four groups.

Most of these are correctable. Check the portal weekly during the scrutiny period rather than waiting for the sanction list.

Key dates

Applications open each academic year on Digital Gujarat, usually after admission season, and the last date is announced by the Social Justice and Empowerment Department for that year. There is no permanent annual date, so students should check the Scholarship Services page on Digital Gujarat at the start of each session rather than assuming last year's window. Late applications are generally not accepted after the announced closing date, and a fresh application is required for every year of a multi-year course.

Help and grievance redressal

• Digital Gujarat helpline: 1800-233-5500 for portal, login and application problems.
• District Deputy Director (Scheduled Caste Welfare) office in your district. The verifying and sanctioning authority, and the right place for questions about a rejection or a delayed sanction.
• Directorate of Scheduled Caste Welfare, Gujarat, Block 4, 2nd Floor, Dr. Jivraj Mehta Bhavan, Gandhinagar, phone 079-23253229.

Application is free. No institution or agent may charge a fee for filling the Digital Gujarat scholarship form, and no official will ask for your portal password or OTP.