Scholarship to Divyang Students (Class 1 to 8)

What is the Scholarship to Divyang Students (Class 1 to 8)?

Scholarship to Divyang Students is a pre-matric scholarship run by the Social Welfare Department, Government of Uttarakhand, through the Directorate of Social Welfare in Dehradun. The scheme, sometimes listed as the divyang chhatravritti or scholarship for persons with disabilities, exists so that a child with a disability is not pushed out of primary or upper-primary school by the small recurring costs of studying, uniform, copies, stationery and travel.

According to the Social Welfare Department's own service page for the scholarship for persons with disabilities, the rates for the primary and upper-primary stage are Rs 50 per month for Classes 1 to 5 and Rs 80 per month for Classes 6 to 8, payable for a maximum of 12 months in a year. Those monthly rates work out to Rs 600 a year for a Class 1 to 5 student and Rs 960 a year for a Class 6 to 8 student, which is how the scheme is usually described on scheme directories.

Scholarship to Divyang Students is one strand of a wider disability scholarship that the department operates from Class 1 through post-graduation. Only the Class 1 to 8 stage is covered by the Rs 50 and Rs 80 monthly rates set out above; higher classes are governed by separate rate tables and, in many cases, by the central pre-matric and post-matric disability scholarships administered through the National Scholarship Portal at scholarships.gov.in.

Key features

• Rs 50 a month in Classes 1 to 5, Rs 80 a month in Classes 6 to 8.
• Maximum 12 months of payment in a year, so Rs 600 or Rs 960 annually.
• Requires a 40 per cent disability certificate issued by the district Chief Medical Officer.
• Family income ceiling of Rs 24,000 a year for the parents or guardian.
• Routed through the school, not applied for individually at a counter.

The rates in the department's published table were fixed for the 2005-06 session and have been carried forward since. Families should treat Rs 600 and Rs 960 as supplementary support toward school costs, not as a substitute for the free textbook, uniform and mid-day-meal entitlements the child also holds under other schemes.

Who is eligible for the Uttarakhand divyang student scholarship?

Your child can be considered if:

• The student is a permanent resident of Uttarakhand.
• The student holds a disability certificate showing at least 40 per cent disability, issued by the Chief Medical Officer of the district.
• The student is a regular, institutional student of a recognised school running in the state, in Class 1 to 8.
• The student passed the previous year's examination. This condition does not apply to a child entering Class 1 for the first time.
• The annual income of the parents or guardian is within Rs 24,000, which the department also expresses as a monthly income ceiling of Rs 2,000.

Your child is not eligible and cannot apply if:

• The disability certificate shows less than 40 per cent disability, or is issued by an authority other than the competent medical board.
• The family's annual income exceeds Rs 24,000.
• The student is studying in more than one school in the same academic year. The department explicitly bars a double enrolment.
• The student failed the previous year's examination and is repeating the class.
• The student is a private candidate and not on the rolls of a recognised institution.
• The student or family is not resident in Uttarakhand.

A separate special scholarship of Rs 8,000 a year with no income limit is available from the same department to children of persons engaged in unclean occupations. Families who fall outside the divyang scholarship should ask the District Social Welfare Officer whether that or another departmental scholarship fits their case.

What documents are required for this scholarship?

Parents should renew the income certificate before each session. A certificate older than the current financial year is one of the routine reasons a school's bundle of applications comes back from the district office.

How to apply for the Scholarship to Divyang Students

1. Collect the prescribed application form for the scholarship for persons with disabilities from your child's school, or from the District Social Welfare Office.
2. Fill in the student's details and attach the disability certificate, income certificate, residence certificate, previous class marksheet, Aadhaar, bank passbook copy and photograph.
3. Submit the completed form to the head of your child's school, which is the institution that certifies enrolment. This scheme is applied for through the institution, not directly at a counter.
4. The institution forwards the verified applications to the District Social Welfare Officer by 31 July.
5. The District Social Welfare Officer verifies eligibility: disability percentage, income, class and regular attendance — and sanctions the amount.
6. The sanctioned money is transferred to the institution or to the student's bank account; there is no cash payment.

Families who prefer a digital route can also look for the scholarship under the Social Welfare Department's services on the state portals ssp.uk.gov.in and eservices.uk.gov.in (Apni Sarkar), where the department lists its online schemes. Where an online form is open for the session, the same document set applies. Post-matric and higher-class disability scholarships are separately handled on the National Scholarship Portal at scholarships.gov.in.

How to get the 40 per cent disability certificate

1. Visit the district hospital or the medical board sitting on the notified day in your district and ask for a disability assessment under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act.
2. Carry the child's Aadhaar, photographs and any existing medical records of the condition.
3. The Chief Medical Officer issues the certificate showing the type of disability and the assessed percentage.
4. Apply for a UDID card as well; the unique disability ID makes later renewals and other divyang benefits easier to claim.

Without a certificate of 40 per cent or more, the scholarship file cannot be sanctioned regardless of the child's circumstances, so this step should be completed well before the 31 July institutional deadline.

How to check the status of the scholarship

1. Ask the head of the school for the date on which the school's bundle was forwarded and the covering letter number.
2. Follow up at the District Social Welfare Office with the student's name, school name and class.
3. Where the application was filed online through a state portal, use the application status link on that portal with your application number.
4. Confirm the credit in the bank passbook of the account given on the form, since the department pays by transfer.

Why divyang scholarship applications are rejected in Uttarakhand

• Disability certificate below 40 per cent, or issued by a doctor who is not the competent authority.
• Income certificate above Rs 24,000 a year, or an expired income certificate.
• Application not forwarded by the institution, or forwarded after the 31 July date.
• Double enrolment, the student's name appears on the rolls of two schools in the same academic year.
• Previous class not passed, so the continuity condition fails.
• Bank account details wrong, a closed account, a wrong IFSC code or an account not seeded with Aadhaar, which makes the transfer bounce.
• Residence certificate missing, so Uttarakhand residence is not established.

Most rejections are curable within the same session if the school reacts quickly. Correct the document and ask the school to re-forward the file to the District Social Welfare Officer with a covering note explaining the correction.

Where to ask questions or complain

• Social Welfare Department toll-free helpline: 1800-180-4236, and the department's mobile and WhatsApp number 63952-21188, which the department advertises specifically for scholarship and pension queries.
• District Social Welfare Officer of your district, who is the sanctioning authority and the first point of appeal for a rejected file.
• Directorate of Social Welfare, Uttarakhand, IT Cell, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Colony, Adhoiwala, Dehradun 248001, email swditcell[at]gmail[dot]com.
• Chief Minister's helpline 1905 for grievances not settled at district level.

Applications for the Scholarship to Divyang Students are free. No school, agent or official may charge a fee for forwarding a scholarship form, and the money is always paid by bank transfer rather than in cash.