The Union government has raised the stipend being provided to Scheduled Tribe students under two scholarship schemes, from financial year 2022-23, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs informed the Lok Sabha on Monday.
According to a reply tabled in the House by Minister of State for Tribal Affairs Bishweshwar Tudu, the amount has been raised for the National Scholarship Scheme and the National Fellowship for Higher Education of ST students.
The government said the stipend under the National Scholarship Scheme had been increased from ₹26,400 per annum to ₹36,000 per annum. In addition, the allowance for books and stationery had been raised from ₹3,000 to ₹5,000 per annum.
The scheme is available to students doing graduate/ postgraduate courses in one of the 252 selected top-class government and non-government institutes in professional fields such as management, medicine, engineering, information technology, law etc. ST students with annual parental income of less than ₹6 lakh per annum are eligible. In FY 2022-23, the government has released over ₹34 crore under this scheme, which has seen 2,828 beneficiaries in the same time period.
Under the National Fellowship Scheme, meritorious ST students are eligible for scholarships to pursue M. Phil or Ph.D in India after completion of a Master’s degree. For M.Phil fellowship, the amount has been increased from ₹25,000 to ₹31,000 per month. For PhD fellowship, the stipend has been raised to ₹31,000 per month for the first two years; and to ₹35,000 per month for the next three years.
This scheme is fully funded by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs. Every year, 750 scholarships are set aside for fresh M.Phil and PhD students. In this fiscal year, the government has released over ₹105 crore under this scheme, which has seen 2,866 beneficiaries.
In addition to this, the government said it was administering a Pre-Matric Scholarship scheme for ST students in Classes 9 and 10. Under this, a monthly allowance of ₹225 is given to day scholars and ₹525 to hostellers. The last time this amount was revised was in 2019, the Ministry said in its reply.
Published - March 21, 2023 01:17 am IST
