Stipend to Scheduled Caste Trainees in Technical Training Institutions

What is the stipend for SC trainees in technical training institutions?

The Stipend to Scheduled Caste Trainees in Technical Training Institutions is a monthly payment made by the Adi Dravidar Welfare and Scheduled Tribes Welfare Department, Government of Puducherry, to Scheduled Caste candidates undergoing training in government technical training institutions in the Union Territory.

The Department states the objective as giving financial support to Scheduled Caste candidates and trainees who are undergoing training in technical training institutions in Government, and fixes the rate: the stipend is paid at the rate of Rs 170 per month for the whole period of training.

The scheme is deliberately narrow. It does not fund fees, tools or hostel charges, and it does not cover private institutes. It is a small maintenance allowance for a trainee who has taken a place at a government technical training institution, an Industrial Training Institute or an equivalent government technical institution, and needs a little cash in hand through the course.

The stipend's most useful feature is not its size but its duration. Where most scholarships run for one academic year and must be renewed, this stipend runs for the whole period of training, so a trainee in a two-year trade course is covered end to end on one sanction.

The scheme belongs to the students' welfare wing of the Adi Dravidar Welfare Department, alongside the Retention Scholarship for SC and ST girl students, the pre-matric and post-matric scholarships, the Award of Opportunity Cost to Parents of SC Girl Students, the Dr Ambedkar financial assistance for professional college students, the ad-hoc merit grant, the Dr B.R. Ambedkar Memorial Award, reimbursement of college fees for the top twenty SC students in professional colleges, hostels and vocational training.

One point of clarification is worth making, because scheme directories are inconsistent on it. The Department publishes this head under the title Stipend to S.C. trainees in Technical Training Institutions, and its objective refers to Scheduled Caste candidates and trainees. Some secondary listings describe the beneficiaries as Scheduled Tribe candidates. The Department is the same Adi Dravidar Welfare and Scheduled Tribes Welfare Department for both communities, and a Scheduled Tribe trainee should ask the Students Wing directly which head applies to them rather than relying on a third-party listing.

Who is eligible for the stipend?

A trainee can receive the stipend if:

• The trainee belongs to a Scheduled Caste, evidenced by a caste certificate issued by the competent revenue official.
• The trainee is undergoing training in a government technical training institution in the Union Territory of Puducherry.
• The trainee holds a nativity certificate issued by the competent revenue official for the region.
• The trainee has an operative bank account and an Aadhaar card.

A trainee is not eligible and cannot apply if:

• The trainee does not belong to a Scheduled Caste.
• The training is at a private institute rather than a government technical training institution. The Department's wording is confined to government institutions.
• The trainee cannot produce a nativity certificate for the Union Territory.
• The trainee has completed the training. The stipend runs during the period of training, not afterwards.
• The trainee is pursuing a degree or professional course rather than technical training. Students in professional colleges are covered instead by the Grant of Dr Ambedkar Financial Assistance and by the reimbursement of college fees to the top twenty deserving Scheduled Caste students, both run by the same department.

There is no income limit for this stipend, which the Department states explicitly. A trainee from a household with a salaried earner is as eligible as one from a household without.

What documents are required?

The Department's own enclosure list for this scheme is short — the caste and nativity certificates issued by the competent revenue officials, and copies of the bank account and Aadhaar card. That is noticeably lighter than the enclosure list for its school scholarships, which also call for an income certificate, because this scheme applies no income test at all.

How to apply for the stipend

1. Secure admission to a government technical training institution in the Union Territory of Puducherry. The stipend follows the training place; it cannot be applied for in advance of admission.
2. Obtain the caste certificate and the nativity certificate from the competent revenue officials for your region: Puducherry, Karaikal, Mahe or Yanam. Apply for these as soon as admission is confirmed, because they take several weeks and the stipend runs from the training period.
3. Collect the application form from the head of the training institution. The Adi Dravidar Welfare Department states that all scholarship applications should be sent through the head of the institution in which the candidate is studying.
4. Fill in the form and attach the enclosures. The caste certificate, the nativity certificate, a copy of the bank account passbook and a copy of the Aadhaar card, along with the admission or joining record.
5. Submit the completed application to the head of the institution for verification and signature, and let the institution forward it to the Adi Dravidar Welfare Department at Thattanchavady, Puducherry 9, or to the Assistant Director at Karaikal or Yanam for those regions.
6. Apply early in the course. Because the stipend covers the whole period of training, an application filed at the start of the course captures the full entitlement, while a late application may reach the Department only after part of the training is over.
7. Follow up through the institution, and with the Deputy Director, Students Wing, on +91-413-2275631 if the institution cannot trace the proposal.

How the stipend is paid

The stipend is Rs 170 per month, paid for the whole period of training. Over a one-year course that is Rs 2,040, and over a two-year trade course roughly Rs 4,080 to modest, but continuous, and not requiring an annual renewal application in the way the school scholarships do.

The Department's standard practice for student welfare payments is to route the amount through the head of the school or institution where the student is studying, and the Department asks for a copy of the bank account with the application, so an operative account in the trainee's own name is needed before sanction.

Why applications fail, and how to avoid it

• The nativity certificate is not ready. Revenue certificates are the usual bottleneck for every scheme of this department, and the fix is to apply for them at the time of admission.
• The institution is not a government technical training institution. A trainee who has enrolled at a private institute on the assumption that the stipend will follow has no claim.
• The application does not go through the head of the institution, and so never reaches the Department.
• The bank account is not in the trainee's own name, or is dormant.
• A name mismatch between the caste certificate, the institution's record, the Aadhaar record and the bank account. Certificates issued in Tamil and training records kept in English frequently differ over an initial or a spelling.
• The application is filed near the end of the course, by which time much of the training period has already run.

What else a Scheduled Caste trainee in Puducherry can claim

The same department runs vocational training and free special coaching for competitive examinations for SC and ST candidates in the Puducherry and Karaikal regions, and maintains boys' and girls' hostels for students who have to travel to attend an institution.

For a trainee who completes an ITI or equivalent course and looks for work, the Union Territory operates its own employment routes, and the Adi Dravidar Welfare Department separately supports SC/ST entrepreneurs. Where the trainee's family also has school-going children, the Department pays the Award of Pre-matric Scholarship to SC students at Rs 1,500 per annum in classes VI to VIII and Rs 2,500 per annum in classes IX and X, and the Award of Opportunity Cost to Parents of SC Girl Students at Rs 3,000 per academic year for each daughter in classes VI to XII, both with no income limit.

Outside education, the Department distributes free house sites, gives a house construction subsidy, financial assistance to poor SC pregnant and lactating women, marriage assistance for poor SC brides, dhotis and sarees, funeral rites assistance, assistance under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, sanitary latrine construction assistance and washing machines to SC families.

Where to raise a grievance

Questions go first to the head of the training institution, then to the Deputy Director, Students Wing, Adi Dravidar Welfare Department, Thattanchavady, Puducherry 9, on +91-413-2275631. The Director's office is on +91-413-2275681, +91-413-2275682 and +91-413-2276375, email adwel.pon@nic.in. The Assistant Director at Karaikal is on +91-4368-222517 and at Yanam on +91-884-2324680. Grievances can also be filed through CPGRAMS at pgportal.gov.in.

There is no fee for the application, and no agent or middleman is involved.

How to check your application status

This scheme has no online tracking portal and no application ID system of its own, because the application moves on paper through the training institution rather than through a web form. A trainee has to check status by asking the people who are actually holding the file, in this order.

1. Ask the head of the training institution first. The institution collects the application, verifies the enclosures and forwards the file to the Adi Dravidar Welfare Department, so the institution's office normally knows whether the file has left the campus yet and, if it has, the date it was sent.
2. Note the date and mode the institution used to send the file (by post or by hand delivery to the Department office) before following up further. Without this, the Department's Students Wing has nothing to search against.
3. Call the Deputy Director, Students Wing at the Adi Dravidar Welfare Department on +91-413-2275631 for candidates in the Puducherry region, quoting the trainee's name, the institution, the course and the date the institution says the file was sent.
4. For Karaikal region candidates, follow up with the Assistant Director, Karaikal, on +91-4368-222517; for Yanam region candidates, follow up with the Assistant Director, Yanam, on +91-884-2324680, since files from those regions are handled through the local Assistant Director's office rather than directly from Puducherry.
5. If the stipend has been sanctioned but a monthly payment is missing, raise it with the institution first, since the amount is routed through the head of the institution and a missed payment is more often a disbursement gap at that level than a rejection at the Department.
6. If neither the institution nor the Students Wing can trace the application after a reasonable wait, file a grievance on CPGRAMS at pgportal.gov.in, naming the scheme, the institution and the date of submission, which puts the follow-up on record and forces a written response.

Because there is no digital reference number, keeping a photocopy of the submitted application and any acknowledgment from the institution is the only way a trainee can prove, later, that the application was filed on time.