Pre-Matric Scholarship for Scheduled Castes and Others

What is the Pre-Matric Scholarship for Scheduled Castes and Others?

Pre-Matric Scholarship for Scheduled Castes and Others is a centrally sponsored scheme of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment that pays school students a yearly scholarship so that families in the poorest social groups do not withdraw children before Class 10. The Department of Social Justice and Empowerment funds the scheme and state governments and union territory administrations implement it based on the student's domicile.

The scheme has two distinct components, and confusing them is the single biggest source of rejected applications:

• Component 1 covers Scheduled Caste students in Classes 9 and 10 whose parents or guardians earn up to Rs 2.5 lakh a year.
• Component 2 covers children of parents engaged in unclean and hazardous occupations; manual scavenging, tanning, flaying, waste picking and hazardous cleaning: from Class 1 to Class 10, with no income ceiling and no caste restriction.

Key objectives

• Reduce dropout among Scheduled Caste children at the pre-matric stage, where attrition is steepest.
• Offset the direct costs of schooling: books, stationery, uniform and hostel charges.
• Break the link between a parent's stigmatised occupation and a child's educational prospects.

Main features

• Centrally sponsored, with a central share and a state share.
• Paid annually by Direct Benefit Transfer into an Aadhaar-seeded account.
• Applied for on the National Scholarship Portal, free of cost.
• Must be renewed each academic year.

Who is eligible for the Pre-Matric Scholarship for Scheduled Castes and Others?

You can apply under Component 1 if:

• The student belongs to a Scheduled Caste notified for their state.
• The student is studying full time in Class 9 or Class 10 in a government or government-recognised institution.
• Annual income of the parents or guardians does not exceed Rs 2.5 lakh.
• The student has an Aadhaar number and an Aadhaar-seeded bank account.

You can apply under Component 2 if:

• A parent or guardian is engaged in an unclean or hazardous occupation; manual scavenging, tanning, flaying, waste picking or hazardous cleaning, certified by the District Social Welfare Officer or an equivalent authority.
• The student is studying full time in Class 1 to Class 10.
• There is no income ceiling and the child need not be Scheduled Caste.

You cannot apply if:

• The student is in Class 11 or above. Those years are covered by the Post Matric Scholarship, a separate scheme.
• The student is in Classes 1 to 8 and is not covered by Component 2.
• Parental income is above Rs 2.5 lakh under Component 1.
• The student is enrolled part time, through correspondence or in an unrecognised institution.
• The student is already receiving another central government scholarship for the same academic year; double benefit is not permitted.
• The caste or occupation certificate cannot be produced from a competent authority.

What documents are required for the Pre-Matric Scholarship?

How to apply for the Pre-Matric Scholarship online

1. Open the National Scholarship Portal at scholarships.gov.in and complete One Time Registration (OTR) using your Aadhaar number and mobile number.
2. Complete the identity verification step required by NSP for the current cycle and note your OTR number.
3. Log in with your OTR number and select Pre-Matric Scholarship for Scheduled Castes and Others from the list of central schemes.
4. Fill in the application: student details, institution details, class, bank account and whether you are a day scholar or a hosteller.
5. Upload scanned copies of the caste or occupation certificate, income certificate, bonafide certificate, previous marksheet and bank passbook.
6. Check the preview carefully. The day scholar or hosteller flag decides whether you get Rs 3,500 or Rs 7,000 to then submit the application.
7. Take a printout and hand it to your school so the institute nodal officer can verify it online.
8. Track the application on your NSP dashboard until it shows verification by the institute and then by the district or state officer.

How to apply for the Pre-Matric Scholarship offline

1. Ask your school's scholarship nodal teacher whether your state accepts offline pre-matric forms. Most states have moved entirely to NSP.
2. Where an offline route exists, collect the form from the district social welfare office and fill it in.
3. Attach attested copies of the caste or occupation certificate, income certificate, bonafide certificate and bank passbook.
4. Submit through the head of your institution, who forwards it to the district social welfare officer, and keep the receipt.

How much benefit does the Pre-Matric Scholarship provide?

According to the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, the rates applicable from 2022-23 onwards are:

The amount is a consolidated annual academic allowance covering maintenance, books and stationery, and it is credited by Direct Benefit Transfer into the student's Aadhaar-seeded bank account. Because the scheme is centrally sponsored, some states add their own top-up on the central rate; check your state social welfare department's notification for any state supplement.

Important dates and deadlines

The National Scholarship Portal opens a fresh application cycle for each academic year, with the window typically running from mid-year to the end of September, followed by separate deadlines for institute verification and district verification. The exact dates change every year, so confirm the current cycle's closing date on scholarships.gov.in rather than relying on last year's schedule. Renewal applications follow the same calendar as fresh ones.

Common reasons pre-matric scholarship applications are rejected

• Bank account not Aadhaar-seeded, so the DBT transfer bounces.
• Name mismatch between Aadhaar, the bank record and the school register.
• Application not verified by the institute before the verification deadline. The most common single cause.
• Income certificate expired or issued by an authority that is not competent under state rules.
• Wrong component selected, a Class 6 student applying under the SC component instead of the unclean-occupations component.
• Day scholar and hosteller flag set wrongly, which changes the sanctioned amount.
• Duplicate application from the same Aadhaar number in one cycle.

Help and grievance redressal

• National Scholarship Portal helpdesk: 0120-6619540
• Grievance module on scholarships.gov.in, which issues a tracked ticket
• District Social Welfare Officer for caste, income and occupation certificate disputes
• State social welfare department for delays in state-side verification and disbursement

Applying is free at every stage. No school, cyber cafe or agent may charge a fee for filling the form, verifying it or "releasing" the scholarship.