The center to promote education in India has come with a proposal of Rs 7,200 crore scholarship plan for a reserved class.
The scheme is for deserving students from class 9 to postgraduate level that belongs to OBC, SC, Denotified, Nomadic and semi-Nomadic Tribe (DNT) and economically backward caste (EBC) categories.
The other proposal is for the welfare of senior citizens to engage them in mentoring and tutoring students for the proposed scholarship scheme which has been tentatively termed as PM-Yasasvi (PM Young Achievers Scholarship Award Scheme for Vibrant India).
As said by an official, both the plans were discussed at a review meeting with the sectoral group of secretaries chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this month. The proposal is expected to get approval soon and maybe announced during next month’s budgets.
The government has a list of pre-matric and post-matric scholarship schemes for SCs, OBCs, DNTs, EBCs, and other disadvantaged sections. All the schemes have different results due to differences in implementation in different states For example in some states merit-based processes didn’t work and renewals are complicated.
In 2017, 90% of the sates got overburdened for implementing these schemes and this badly affected their implementation as many times, funds didn’t reach the beneficiaries.
The Center to overcome this overburden state announced a uniform scheme and raised central funding from a 10% to 60:40 Centre-State ratio.
The task of bringing all existing scholarship schemes under PM-Yasasvi has been assigned to the social justice and empowerment ministry. The department will select students based on the merit-test to be held in June-July 2020.
It is expected that around 85 lakhs students will be given a scholarship in the first year.
Scholarship amount will cover tuition and maintenance fees with some extra amount for study material will be transferred to student’s bank account directly. To keep a check on accountability, an online monitoring tool will be introduced to access student’s progress.
It is estimated that the scheme will cost Rs 7,200 crore per year which exceeds the sanctioned budget of Rs 6,000 crore for the current set of schemes.
The PM- Yasasvi scheme also focuses on unlocking the potential of the older population of the country. Therefore is being liked with a national action plan for senior citizens. This will include pay from self-help groups or educational groups or may opt to work as a volunteer for this or any other social cause.
By 2050, it is estimated that the percentage of senior citizens will increase from 8.6% in 2011 to 19.1%.
Last year in December. PM Modi launched PM scholarships for class 10th and 12th passed students. The award of Rs 25,000 was announced for the higher studies of eligible students. Besides this, financial help will be given to 82 thousand students which will be divided equally among 41000 boys and 41000 girl students. The award will be given to students every year to help them in pursuing their higher studies.