Prime Minister's Scholarship Scheme for the Wards of States/UTs Police Personnel

What is the Prime Minister's Scholarship Scheme for wards of States/UTs Police Personnel?

The Prime Minister's Scholarship Scheme for the Wards of States/UTs Police Personnel is a welfare scholarship administered under the Ministry of Home Affairs. It was introduced in the academic session 2019-20 to encourage higher technical and professional education among the dependent wards of state and union territory police personnel who were martyred during terror or Naxal attacks.

According to the scheme details, it pays Rs 2,500 per month to male students (up to Rs 30,000 a year) and Rs 3,000 per month to female students (up to Rs 36,000 a year), released through Direct Benefit Transfer into the student's own Aadhaar-seeded bank account. The scholarship is paid for the full duration of the approved course or up to five years, whichever is shorter.

The scheme is deliberately narrow. A total of 500 scholarships are awarded each year, divided equally between boys and girls at 250 each. It should not be confused with the larger PMSS for wards and widows of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and Assam Rifles, which is a separate scheme, or with the Ministry of Railways scholarship for RPF/RPSF wards.

Who is eligible for this scholarship?

You can apply if:

• You are a dependent ward of a States/UTs police officer who was martyred during a terror or Naxal attack.
• You secured at least 60% marks in the qualifying examination; Class 12, a diploma or graduation, depending on the course.
• You are pursuing your first professional degree in an approved course such as Engineering, Medicine, Dental, Veterinary, B.Pharma, B.Sc (Nursing, Agriculture and similar), BBA, BCA, MBA or MCA.
• You have an Aadhaar-seeded bank account in your own name.

You cannot apply if:

• The parent died in circumstances other than a terror or Naxal attack, since the martyrdom condition is central to this scheme.
• You scored below 60% in the qualifying examination.
• You are pursuing a course not on the approved list, or a second degree rather than a first professional degree.
• You are a ward of CAPF, Assam Rifles or RPF/RPSF personnel — those families are covered by separate PMSS schemes, not this one.

What documents are required?

How to apply for the police wards scholarship

1. Visit the National Scholarship Portal at scholarships.gov.in and register as a new applicant, or log in with your existing One-Time Registration (OTR).
2. Select the Prime Minister's Scholarship Scheme for the Wards of States/UTs Police Personnel under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
3. Fill in your personal, educational, Aadhaar, contact and bank details, ensuring the bank account is Aadhaar-seeded.
4. Upload the martyrdom certificate, state government confirmation, qualifying marksheet, bonafide certificate, Aadhaar and bank passbook.
5. Review every entry carefully and submit the application before the annual deadline (typically 31 October).
6. Your claim is then verified by the institution and the competent State/UT and MHA authorities before the scholarship is sanctioned and paid by DBT.

How the scholarship is paid and renewed

The scholarship is credited directly to the student's bank account through DBT. It must be renewed each year on the portal, and continuation depends on the student progressing satisfactorily through the course. The maximum support period is five years, which covers most professional degree programmes.

Help and where to get it

• National Scholarship Portal helpline: 0120-6619540 (8:00 AM to 8:00 PM)
• Portal: scholarships.gov.in
• For questions about the martyrdom certificate or state confirmation, contact the concerned State/UT police welfare authority that issues it.

No agent can secure this scholarship for a fee. Every genuine application and renewal is processed on the National Scholarship Portal.

How to check your application status

1. Go to the National Scholarship Portal at scholarships.gov.in and log in with the One-Time Registration (OTR) ID, registered mobile number and password you used at the time of application.
2. Open the "Application Status" or "Track Status" section from the student dashboard. This shows which stage your application is at: institution verification, State/UT authority verification, or Ministry of Home Affairs approval for disbursement.
3. If the status shows "pending at institution," the bonafide/admission certificate details you submitted have not yet been confirmed by your college; follow up with the institution's scholarship or nodal officer.
4. If the status shows "pending at state," the martyrdom confirmation is still being verified by the State/UT police welfare authority that issued it; contact that office directly, since the portal itself cannot speed up an external department's verification.
5. Once verification is complete and the scholarship is sanctioned, the DBT payment status can be checked against your Aadhaar-seeded bank account, either through the portal's payment tracking option or by checking your bank statement or passbook for the credited amount.
6. For any stage where the portal shows no movement for an extended period, call the National Scholarship Portal helpline at 0120-6619540 (8:00 AM to 8:00 PM) with your application ID ready, as the helpline can look up the exact bottleneck in a way the dashboard sometimes does not display clearly.
7. There is no separate SMS-based status check for this scheme; the portal login is the only online source of truth, so keep your registered mobile number active since the portal also sends status-change notifications to it.

Common reasons for rejection

• Bank account not Aadhaar-seeded. DBT payments fail or the application is held up if the student's bank account is not linked to their own Aadhaar. Fix this before applying by visiting the bank branch to seed Aadhaar, rather than discovering the problem after sanction.
• Marksheet shows below 60%. The scheme has a hard cutoff of 60% in the qualifying examination. There is no relaxation category mentioned in the scheme rules, so an application below this threshold is rejected regardless of other merits; the only fix is to reapply in a later cycle after improving results, if the course allows it.
• Course not on the approved professional list. Applications for degrees outside the listed professional courses (engineering, medical and allied fields, BBA, BCA, MBA, MCA and similar) are turned down because the scheme funds a first professional degree specifically, not general arts, commerce or science degrees. Confirm your course is on the approved list before applying rather than after rejection.
• Martyrdom certificate does not establish a terror or Naxal attack. Since this scheme is restricted to wards of police personnel martyred specifically in a terror or Naxal attack, a death certificate or service record that shows death in another line-of-duty circumstance (accident, illness, other operations) does not qualify. The state police welfare authority's confirmation certificate must explicitly state the cause was a terror or Naxal attack.
• Applying under the wrong PMSS scheme. Wards of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) or Assam Rifles personnel, or of Railway Protection Force (RPF/RPSF) personnel, sometimes mistakenly apply here instead of under their own separate PMSS scheme. The application is rejected on eligibility grounds; check which force your parent served in before selecting a scheme on the portal.
• Missing or mismatched documents. Applications with a bonafide certificate that does not match the admission details entered on the portal, or with an incomplete State/UT martyrdom confirmation, are sent back for correction or rejected outright. Cross-check every uploaded document against the form fields before final submission.
• Applying for a second degree. The scheme funds a first professional degree only. A student who has already completed one professional degree and is pursuing a second one is not eligible, and such applications are rejected at the institution or state verification stage.
• Missed the annual deadline. The National Scholarship Portal closes scheme-wise applications on a fixed date each year (typically around 31 October, though this should be confirmed on the portal for the specific academic year). Late submissions are not accepted, so applicants who miss the window must wait for the next academic year's application cycle to open.