Pre-Matric Scholarship for the Students of Minority Castes

What is the Pre-Matric Scholarship for the Students of Minority Castes?

Pre-Matric Scholarship for the Students of Minority Castes is a school-level scholarship available in Gujarat to children from notified religious minority communities. It is administered by the Directorate of Developing Castes Welfare under the Social Justice and Empowerment Department, Government of Gujarat, and the Directorate's own scheme page describes it as a 100 per cent centrally funded pre-matric scholarship for students of religious minorities.

The scholarship exists because the cost that stops a poor child continuing in school is rarely one big bill. It is an admission fee in June, a term's tuition in September, a uniform, and the daily cost of being in school rather than at work. The scheme therefore pays in three parts. An admission fee, a tuition fee and a maintenance allowance; rather than as a single lump sum.

According to the Directorate's scheme page, the covered communities are Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Jain, Parsi and Buddhist, and the scheme applies to students in classes 1 to 10.

Key features

• Administered in Gujarat by the Directorate of Developing Castes Welfare.
• 100 per cent central funding, with the state government running the selection and disbursement.
• Family income ceiling of Rs 1.00 lakh a year.
• Minimum 50 per cent marks in the previous examination.
• Paid by Direct Benefit Transfer into the student's Aadhaar-seeded bank account.

How much does the scholarship pay?

Two points decide what actually reaches a family. First, the admission and tuition components are reimbursements capped at a ceiling, a school that charges Rs 1,200 in tuition results in Rs 1,200 being paid, not Rs 3,500. Second, the hosteller rate of Rs 6,000 is six times the day-scholar rate, and it is the single largest component of the scheme, so a hostel certificate is worth the effort of obtaining it if the student genuinely stays in a hostel.

A day-scholar in class 8 at a school charging the full fees can therefore receive up to Rs 5,000 in a year (Rs 500 + Rs 3,500 + Rs 1,000), and a hosteller in the same class up to Rs 10,000.

The Directorate publishes its budget lines for the scheme. For 2018-19 the provision was Rs 30 lakh, with allocation and expenditure of Rs 8.82 lakh each. A reminder that in some years the scheme has been under-subscribed in Gujarat rather than over-subscribed, which is an argument for eligible families to apply rather than assume the money has run out.

Who is eligible for the pre-matric minority scholarship?

You can apply if:

• The student belongs to one of the notified minority communities — Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Jain, Parsi or Buddhist.
• The student is studying in a school in Gujarat in classes 1 to 10.
• The student scored at least 50 per cent marks in the previous examination.
• The annual income of the father or guardian does not exceed Rs 1.00 lakh.
• The student has an Aadhaar number and a bank account that can receive Direct Benefit Transfer.
• The school is recognised and willing to verify and forward the application.

You are not eligible if:

• The student does not belong to a notified minority community. Students of other categories should look at the Directorate's parallel schemes, the Pre-SSC Scholarship, the Pre-SSC Scholarship for Nomadic and De-notified communities, or the Pre-SSC Scholarship for Scheduled Caste students.
• Family income exceeds Rs 1.00 lakh a year.
• The student scored below 50 per cent in the previous examination.
• The student has already passed class 10; this is a pre-matric scheme, and post-matric students must apply under the separate Post-SSC Scholarship for Minority Students run by the same Directorate.
• The application is not verified by the school within the scholarship window.
• The details submitted are false. A wrong income certificate or a wrong community declaration leads to cancellation and recovery.

What documents are required?

How to apply for the pre-matric minority scholarship in Gujarat

1. Open the Digital Gujarat portal at digitalgujarat.gov.in, the state's scholarship gateway, and create a citizen account using a mobile number and email you control. Returning applicants should log in to the existing account rather than making a second one.
2. Complete the student profile, name, date of birth, community, Aadhaar number, school, class and bank account: copying each entry exactly from the source document.
3. Choose the Pre-Matric Scholarship for students of minority communities from the scholarship service list for the current academic year.
4. Upload the documents: community proof, income certificate, previous marksheet, Aadhaar, bank passbook, school bonafide, photograph, and the hostel certificate if applicable.
5. Submit the application and note the application number shown on screen. Print or save the acknowledgement.
6. Ask the school to verify and forward the application from its own login. An application the school has not verified never reaches the district office, and this is where most claims stall.
7. Track the application on the same portal until it shows sanctioned, and check your bank passbook for the Direct Benefit Transfer credit.

How to apply offline

1. Collect the printed scholarship form from your school office or the District Social Welfare Officer, or download it through the e-Samaj Kalyan portal at esamajkalyan.gujarat.gov.in, which the department lists alongside Digital Gujarat.
2. Fill the form, attach self-attested copies of every document, and get the school's certification and seal on the form.
3. Submit the set at the school office or the District Social Welfare Officer's office, and take a dated acknowledgement.
4. Follow up with the school for the district office's decision.

The Directorate notes that applications for its schemes are to be made online, so treat the offline route as a fallback where the online window is closed or a document cannot be uploaded.

How do I check whether my scholarship has been sanctioned?

Log in to the Digital Gujarat portal with the account you applied from and open the application status page. The status moves through submitted, verified by school, verified by district and sanctioned. Once sanctioned, the amount is credited by Direct Benefit Transfer to the student's Aadhaar-seeded account. For a file stuck at any stage, contact the Directorate of Developing Castes Welfare, Block 4, 3rd Floor, Dr Jivraj Mehta Bhavan, Gandhinagar on +91 79 23253245, quoting the application number.

Why pre-matric scholarship applications fail

• Bank account not seeded with Aadhaar, so Direct Benefit Transfer cannot reach it. This is the commonest single cause of a sanctioned scholarship not arriving.
• Name mismatch between Aadhaar, the school record and the bank account.
• Income certificate above Rs 1.00 lakh, or issued by an officer not authorised to issue it.
• Marks below 50 per cent in the previous examination.
• School has not verified the application before the closing date.
• Duplicate applications created because the applicant forgot an existing Digital Gujarat account.
• Unreadable uploads, a photograph of a certificate taken at an angle is routinely rejected.

Fix the underlying document first, then correct the application. Reapplying with the same defective document simply repeats the rejection.

Where do I complain or get help?

• Directorate of Developing Castes Welfare, Block 4, 3rd Floor, Dr Jivraj Mehta Bhavan, Gandhinagar: +91 79 23253245
• District Social Welfare Officer of your district, for verification and sanction delays
• Digital Gujarat portal, digitalgujarat.gov.in, for account, upload and status problems
• e-Samaj Kalyan portal, esamajkalyan.gujarat.gov.in
• Social Justice and Empowerment Department, sje.gujarat.gov.in

The scholarship is free to apply for. No school, agent or intermediary may charge a fee for filing or forwarding a scholarship application, and any demand for money should be reported to the District Social Welfare Officer in writing.