The number of graduates from the Scheduled Caste (SC) and the Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities availing of the State government’s scholarship scheme to study masters or doctoral degrees in top global universities has increased in the past couple of years.
The improvement follows the Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare Department’s intervention in restructuring the scheme.
According to official sources, the State launched the overseas scholarship scheme for SC/ST graduates in 2003. However, only a handful of graduates used to avail of the initiative till 2022-23 due to procedural bottlenecks. In 2023, the Department of Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare restructured the scheme by removing the cap on the number of graduates who could avail of it, and several other provisions.
According to the revised guidelines, any graduate from SC/ST communities with an annual family income of less than ₹8 lakh, irrespective of whether they studied in government or private institutions, was entitled to a scholarship of ₹36 lakh a year towards tuition fee and living expenses, among others, to pursue higher education in the top 1,000 universities abroad. The graduate should be aged less than 35 and 40 for masters and doctoral courses respectively.
The revised guidelines also introduced a slab for graduates with an annual family income between ₹8 lakh and ₹12 lakh to avail of a scholarship of ₹24 lakh. A total of 120 graduates have benefited through this scheme in the last two financial years, the sources added.
G. Laxmi Priya, Secretary, Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare Department, said the process to get the scholarship had been simplified in the last two years, and the selection committee was also scrapped to reduce the time in processing applications.
She said K. Surya, a graduate from Puthirai Vannar community who completed her undergraduate degree in Anna University, got an offer from the Cornell University for Master of Science in Advanced Urban Design this year. She is the first graduate from the community to pursue higher education in a global university.
The State government has also made special arrangements to extend ₹20 lakh towards her education from the Puthirai Vannar Welfare Board, Ms. Priya added.
A total of 75 candidates, who were provisionally selected this year, would join various global universities in September. The scholarship amount would be transferred to their institutions directly, she added.
