Scholarship for Engineering and Medical Education

What is the Scholarship for Engineering and Medical Education?

Scholarship for Engineering and Medical Education is a state scholarship run by the Directorate of Soldier Welfare and Rehabilitation, Government of Uttarakhand. The department Uttarakhand knows as Sainik Kalyan Evam Punarvas Nideshalaya. The scheme supports the higher education of dependents of ex-servicemen who are studying professional and research courses, which are among the costliest streams a family can fund.

The scholarship pays an annual amount fixed by course:

• Rs 12,000 per year for engineering courses
• Rs 15,000 per year for medical courses
• Rs 10,000 per year for PhD study

The amounts are paid by Direct Benefit Transfer into the student's bank account, once a year, after the application has been verified at the District Sainik Welfare Office and cleared at the Directorate in Dehradun.

Uttarakhand is one of India's principal recruiting states for the armed forces, and the Sainik Kalyan department exists to serve that population. According to the directorate's own website, all work relating to soldier welfare is carried out through District Sainik Welfare and Rehabilitation Offices: 16 offices across the state's 13 districts. The directorate sits at 15-C Kalidas Road, Hathibarkala, Dehradun 248001, and can be contacted on 0135-2744208 or at dir.soldierwel-uk[at]nic[dot]in.

Scholarship for Engineering and Medical Education is one item in a larger list of state grants that the same directorate publishes for ex-servicemen, war widows and their dependents. The directorate's schemes page also lists a serious diseases grant, gallantry and non-gallantry award grants, a vocational training grant, an orphan grant, a medical treatment grant, a marriage grant, a penury grant, an education grant and a disabled child grant. Families should read the whole list, because a household that does not qualify for the engineering and medical scholarship often qualifies for one of the others.

Key features

• Annual scholarship, renewable for each year of the course.
• Course-linked rates: Rs 12,000, Rs 15,000 or Rs 10,000 a year.
• Restricted to dependents of ex-servicemen resident in Uttarakhand.
• Verified at district level, sanctioned at directorate level, paid by DBT.

Who is eligible for the Sainik Kalyan engineering and medical scholarship?

You can apply if:

• You are a dependent of an ex-serviceman; typically a son, daughter or spouse, and the ex-serviceman is registered with a Zila Sainik Welfare Office in Uttarakhand.
• Your name is correctly recorded in the ex-serviceman's discharge book as a dependent. This is the specific documentary condition the scheme turns on, and a name recorded wrongly or not at all is the commonest single obstacle.
• You are a permanent resident of Uttarakhand and hold a residence certificate.
• You are pursuing an engineering, medical or PhD course at a recognised institution.
• You are a regular student of the course and can produce the current year's fee receipt and bonafide certificate.

You cannot apply if:

• You are not a dependent of an ex-serviceman. Serving personnel's dependents are covered by separate welfare arrangements, not by this state ex-servicemen scheme.
• Your name does not appear in the discharge book, or appears with a spelling or relationship that does not match your identity documents.
• Your course is not engineering, medical or PhD. Arts, commerce, general science and most diploma courses are outside these three rate categories, though the directorate's separate education grant may cover them.
• Your institution is not recognised by the appropriate regulator or university.
• You are not a resident of Uttarakhand, even if the ex-serviceman served from the state.
• You have discontinued or failed the course year for which the claim is made.

Where a student's name is missing from the discharge book, the correction must be taken up with the record office of the ex-serviceman's parent unit through the Zila Sainik Welfare Office. Do this well ahead of the academic session, since the correction can take months.

What documents are required?

How to apply for the Scholarship for Engineering and Medical Education

1. Confirm the ex-serviceman's registration with the Zila Sainik Welfare Office in your district, and check that your name appears correctly in the discharge book as a dependent.
2. Collect the prescribed application form for the education scholarship from your District Sainik Welfare and Rehabilitation Office, or ask the office which form applies to your course category.
3. Fill in the form with the ex-serviceman's service particulars, your course name and year, the institution's name, and your bank account number with IFSC code.
4. Get the institution to certify the bonafide and fee particulars, and attach the current-year fee receipt and the previous year's marksheet.
5. Attach the documents — discharge book copy, ex-serviceman identity card, residence certificate, Aadhaar, bank passbook and photograph.
6. Submit the complete set at the District Sainik Welfare Office and collect the dated acknowledgement.
7. The district office verifies the claim and forwards it to the Directorate of Soldier Welfare and Rehabilitation in Dehradun.
8. On sanction, the amount is credited to the student's bank account by DBT. Confirm the credit in the passbook.

Applications are handled through the district office rather than through a public self-service portal, so the surest way to file correctly is to visit the Zila Sainik Welfare Office in person with the papers and ask the clerk to check the set before you submit it.

How to renew the scholarship for the next year of the course

Scholarship for Engineering and Medical Education is an annual payment, so a four-year engineering degree or a five-and-a-half-year medical course means a fresh claim each year. For each renewal year, take to the district office:

1. The marksheet of the year just completed, showing you passed and were promoted.
2. The fee receipt and bonafide certificate for the new academic year.
3. The previous year's sanction reference, so the office can link the file.

A gap year, a repeated year or a change of course usually breaks the renewal chain and needs to be explained in writing to the district office.

How to check the status of your application

1. Contact the District Sainik Welfare and Rehabilitation Office where you filed, quoting the acknowledgement number and the ex-serviceman's service number.
2. Ask whether the file has been forwarded to the Directorate and on what date.
3. For a forwarded file, follow up with the Directorate of Soldier Welfare and Rehabilitation on 0135-2744208 or by email at dir.soldierwel-uk[at]nic[dot]in.
4. Check the bank passbook of the account named on the form, since sanction is followed by a direct credit.

The directorate's website at sainikkalyan.uk.gov.in carries a directory of district offices and a contact form, which is the quickest way to find the right office for your district.

Why applications get rejected

• Name not recorded, or recorded incorrectly, in the discharge book. The single most frequent reason.
• Course outside the three categories of engineering, medical and PhD.
• Institution not recognised by the relevant regulator or affiliating university.
• Residence certificate missing, so Uttarakhand residence is not established.
• Fee receipt or bonafide certificate not for the current session.
• Previous year not passed, breaking the renewal condition.
• Bank details wrong, a closed account, an incorrect IFSC code, or an account not in the student's own name, which makes the DBT credit fail.

Fix the defect and resubmit through the same district office. Where the defect is the discharge book entry, raise the correction with the record office through the Zila Sainik Welfare Officer before refiling.

Where to get help

• Directorate of Soldier Welfare and Rehabilitation, Uttarakhand, 15-C Kalidas Road, Hathibarkala, Dehradun 248001 to 0135-2744208, email dir.soldierwel-uk[at]nic[dot]in.
• District Sainik Welfare and Rehabilitation Office in your district; the directorate operates 16 such offices across 13 districts and lists their contacts in the directory on sainikkalyan.uk.gov.in.
• Kendriya Sainik Board, for central schemes such as the Prime Minister's Scholarship Scheme, which is applied for separately from this state scholarship.
• Chief Minister's helpline 1905 for grievances that the district office does not resolve.

The application is free. No official or agent may charge a fee to process an ex-servicemen's scholarship file, and the scholarship is always paid by bank transfer.