Savitribai Jyotirao Phule Fellowship For Single Girl Child (SJSGC)

What is the Savitribai Jyotirao Phule Fellowship for Single Girl Child?

Savitribai Jyotirao Phule Fellowship for Single Girl Child (SJSGC) is a scheme of the University Grants Commission (UGC), which functions under the Ministry of Education. Named after the 19th-century social reformer and educator Savitribai Phule, the fellowship funds the doctoral studies of a girl who is the only child of her parents, so that a family with a single daughter is encouraged to support her to the highest level of study.

According to UGC guidelines, the fellowship pays Rs 31,000 per month for the first two years (the Junior Research Fellow, or JRF, stage) and Rs 35,000 per month for the remaining tenure (the Senior Research Fellow, or SRF, stage), subject to satisfactory progress. It also carries a contingency grant and, for Divyang (differently abled) scholars, escort or reader assistance of Rs 3,000 per month. The total tenure is five years.

The fellowship replaced and built on earlier UGC support for single girl children and is administered through the UGC's Fellowship and Research Grant portal.

Who is eligible for the Savitribai Jyotirao Phule Fellowship for Single Girl Child?

You can apply if:

• You are a single girl child of your parents, the only child, or one of only daughters. Girls who are one of twins or fraternal daughters are also eligible.
• You are enrolled in a regular, full-time Ph.D. programme in any subject at a recognised university, college or institute.
• You are below 40 years of age (general category) or below 45 years (SC, ST, OBC and PwD candidates).

You cannot apply if:

• Your family has one or more sons — a girl with a brother is not eligible.
• You are enrolled in a part-time or distance-mode Ph.D. programme.
• You are above the applicable age limit for your category.
• You are pursuing a course below the Ph.D. level; this fellowship is only for doctoral research.

The single-girl-child condition is the defining eligibility test, and it is what most applicants need to confirm carefully, usually through a self-declaration or affidavit.

What documents are required?

How to apply for the Savitribai Jyotirao Phule Fellowship for Single Girl Child

1. Confirm you meet the single-girl-child condition, the full-time Ph.D. requirement and the age limit for your category.
2. Watch the UGC website (ugc.gov.in) and the Fellowship and Research Grant portal (frg.ugc.ac.in) for the open call and the last date.
3. Register and log in on the FRG portal and select the Savitribai Jyotirao Phule Fellowship for Single Girl Child.
4. Fill the online form and upload the single-girl-child declaration, Ph.D. registration proof, age and category documents, and bank details.
5. Submit before the deadline and save the acknowledgement. Selection and the provisional result are published by the UGC on its portal.

How much benefit does the fellowship provide?

Per UGC guidelines, the fellowship provides, over a five-year tenure:

• Rs 31,000 per month for the first two years (JRF stage).
• Rs 35,000 per month for the remaining tenure (SRF stage), subject to satisfactory research progress.
• Contingency grant, for Humanities and Social Sciences, Rs 10,000 per year for the first two years and Rs 20,500 per year thereafter; for Science, Engineering and Technology, Rs 12,000 per year for the first two years and Rs 25,000 per year thereafter.
• Escort/reader assistance of Rs 3,000 per month for Divyang scholars.

The tenure runs from 1 April of the selection year or the date of joining, whichever is later, and only up to the date of thesis submission. Applicants should confirm the current rates against the live UGC notification, as fellowship amounts are periodically revised.

Help and where to check details

The scheme is administered by the UGC through its portal, not through a public call centre. The authoritative references are the UGC fellowship page (ugc.gov.in/Fellowship/stu_Fellowship3) and the Fellowship and Research Grant portal (frg.ugc.ac.in), where applications and results are handled. The UGC has not published a dedicated phone helpline for this scheme; queries are routed through the FRG portal and the applicant's university. Because this is a narrowly defined fellowship, applicants should verify the amount, age limit and single-girl-child conditions against the current UGC guidelines before applying.

How to check your application status

The Savitribai Jyotirao Phule Fellowship for Single Girl Child has no separate tracking number or SMS system of its own. Status updates flow entirely through the UGC's Fellowship and Research Grant portal and, once an award is made, through the applicant's host university.

1. Log in to frg.ugc.ac.in with the credentials created at the time of application. The applicant dashboard shows the current stage of the form: submitted, under scrutiny, shortlisted, or selected.
2. Watch for the provisional and final result lists that UGC publishes on the portal after scrutiny is complete. These are usually posted as PDFs listing selected candidates by name and application number, not through individual emails or texts, so applicants need to check the portal rather than wait for a notification.
3. Check the registered email inbox and its spam folder. UGC and the FRG portal occasionally send system-generated acknowledgements or requests for clarification to the email used at registration.
4. After selection, follow up through the university's research or fellowship cell, since disbursement of the monthly fellowship amount is routed through the Ph.D. scholar's institution once UGC releases funds, not paid directly by UGC to the scholar's account without the university's involvement.
5. For a stalled or unclear status, raise a query through the FRG portal's grievance or contact option rather than searching for a phone helpline, since UGC has not published a dedicated call centre number for this fellowship.

Because selection cycles for this fellowship are infrequent and cohort sizes are small, applicants should expect the gap between submission and a published result to run into several months, and should treat the portal login as the only reliable source of status rather than assuming silence means rejection.

Common reasons for rejection

• Family has a son. The single most common ground for rejection is that the applicant is not actually the only child, or is one of several daughters with a brother in the family. The declaration or affidavit is checked against this condition, and any discrepancy disqualifies the application. There is no fix once this condition is not met; the fellowship is structurally limited to only-daughter families.
• Not enrolled in a regular, full-time Ph.D. Applications from candidates registered in part-time, distance, or online doctoral programmes are rejected because the scheme is restricted to regular full-time research scholars. The fix is to confirm the mode of registration with the university before applying and to apply only once regular full-time enrolment is confirmed in writing by the institution.
• Age limit exceeded for the category claimed. Applicants above 40 (general category) or above 45 (SC/ST/OBC/PwD) at the relevant cut-off date are disqualified. A frequent error is calculating age against the wrong reference date; applicants should check the exact cut-off date stated in the specific year's UGC notification rather than assuming it is the date of submission.
• Incomplete or inconsistent single-girl-child proof. A self-declaration that is unsigned, undated, or that conflicts with other documents (such as a category certificate listing siblings) leads to rejection at the scrutiny stage. The fix is to have the affidavit properly notarised or attested as required and to cross-check that no other submitted document contradicts the only-child claim.
• Application submitted after the call for that cycle has closed. Because this fellowship is not open for continuous, year-round applications, submitting a form outside an active notification window results in the application not being considered at all. Applicants should track the "Fellowship and Research Grant" section of frg.ugc.ac.in and the UGC website directly for the announcement of a fresh call rather than assuming an evergreen application window.
• Missing or invalid bank account details. Since the fellowship is disbursed to an Aadhaar-seeded account, an account that is not linked to Aadhaar, or bank details entered incorrectly on the form, can delay or block disbursement even after selection. The fix is to verify Aadhaar seeding with the bank before submitting the application.
• Category certificate not provided when claiming age relaxation. Candidates who claim the extended age limit for SC, ST, OBC, or PwD status but fail to upload a valid, current category certificate are evaluated under the general category age limit instead, which can result in rejection on age grounds alone. The fix is to ensure the category certificate is valid on the date of application and uploaded in the correct section of the form.