Ultimate Guide to Minority Scholarships in India – Pre-Matric Scholarships

“The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.”

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– Hans Hoffman

Although minority scholarship options are abundant in India, access to information about them is limited. Interested candidates find it difficult to gather all the required information and often miss out on one or the other aspect of filling the application form. This leads to rejection of minority scholarship applications and ultimately drop-outs due to non-availability of funds to pursue education.
Government websites like Ministry of Minority Affairs (MoMA), National Scholarship Portal (NSP) or MHRD often carry all the information but the structure and presentation of content are not easy to decipher. Students or their parents who come from notified minority communities face multiple challenges like lack of access to such portals or inability to comprehend the complex information required for the scholarship application.
Buddy4Study aims to simplify the process of scholarship application and that is why we decided to prepare an ultimate guide for Minority Scholarship in India that would help students and parents alike.
With 20.20% of its total population accounting for minorities, India is one of the foremost countries with a rich mix of citizens practising different religions. Before we start, let us gather an understanding of what exactly does the term ‘minority/minorities’ denote as per the Indian law.
What/Who is a minority?
The word ‘minority’ was first officially used in the Motilal Nehru Report in the year 1928 when he drafted a 10 point outline for the Constitution of India. The report mentioned protection of the rights of the minorities but did not elaborate on what constitutes the term ‘minorities’.
The Constitution of India adopted the term minorities under sections under Article 20 to 30 and 350 A to 350 B but did not define the constituents. After numerous amendments, the Government of India now recognizes Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, and Zoroastrians as being awarded the notified ‘National Minority Community’ status.
Breakdown of religious communities in India (Minorities)
The Census of 2011 identified the following distribution of minority community in India:
What is Ministry of Minority Affairs?
Formed out the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, the Ministry of Minority Affairs was constituted in the year 2006. The ministry works with a focused approach towards the notified minority communities and is involved in the formulation of overall policy and planning, coordination, evaluation and review of the regulatory framework and development programmes for the benefit of such communities.1 Read more about the Ministry of Minority Affairs here.
Current Office Holders (Year 2018)
  • Union Minister for Minority Affairs – Hon’ble Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi
  • Minister of State for Minority Affairs – Dr Virendra Kumar
  • Secretary of the Ministry – Ameising Luikham
What is minority scholarship?
Under its various schemes for the welfare of minorities, the Ministry of Minority Affairs offers three scholarships schemes as a part of Educational Empowerment initiative. These schemes are:
In this guide, we will explore Pre-matric scholarship scheme for minorities in detail. Keep watching this space for our in-depth post on Post-matric and Merit-cum-Means scholarships schemes as well.
Pre-matric Scholarship Scheme
Empowerment through education, the key objective of the Pre-matric scholarship scheme, enables parents to fulfil the dream of sending their wards to educational institutions without worrying about financial constraints.  It aims at improving the socio-economic conditions of the minority community by empowering the students to gather skills and education required to make a place among the financially stable counterparts.
What is the scheme?
The scheme allows meritorious students from minority communities to apply for scholarship.
Who can apply?
Minority Community: Students hailing from Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, and Zoroastrians (Parsis) backgrounds notified under the Minority Communities under section 2 (c) of the National Commission for Minorities Act 1992 are eligible to apply.
Students from the residential government institutes and private institutions who wish to pursue studies from Class I to Class X and fall under the minorities category are eligible to apply for Pre-matric scholarships.
Who is eligible?
Eligibility is defined by two key criteria
Family income: Family income of the candidate applying for the Minority scholarship should not exceed more than one lac from all sources. Family income implies income of the candidate’s parents or guardian.
Merit: Only those students who have scored 50% or above marks in the previous year final examination are eligible to apply.
What is the amount of Minority scholarship?
Ministry of Minority Affairs offers the following benefits as a part of the Pre-matric scholarship scheme
  1. Admission/Tuition fee
  2. Maintenance allowance
For reference, hostellers imply students who are studying in the hostel of their school/institute or those provided by the Government.
S.No. Item Hostellers Day Scholars
1 Admission Fee – From class VI to class X Rs. 500/- per annum subject to actual Rs. 500/- per annum subject to actual
2 Tuition Fee – From class VI to X Rs. 350/- month subject to actual Rs. 350/- month subject to actual
3 Maintenance allowance is payable for a period not exceeding 10 months in an academic year
3 (i) Class I to class V Nil Rs. 100/- per month
3 (ii) Class VI to class X Rs. 600/- per month subject to actual Rs. 100/- per month

How to apply?

The procedure for applying is completely online. Students are required to visit the National Scholarship Portal (NSP) at www.scholarships.gov.in to submit their applications. Here is how the website of NSP looks like:
Step 02: Navigate to Pre-matric scholarship scheme section and click on the Apply Now link
Step 03: It will lead you to the login page asking for your credentials. If you have not yet registered on NSP, you will need to create your profile.
Step 04: New user registration: Click on New User? Register Here
Step 05: It will lead you to a new user registration page. It looks like this
Step 06: Fill in your details and register. You are all set to apply now.
What is the tenure of the Minority scholarship or for how long the scholarship will be provided?
The Minority scholarship is provided for the entire course i.e. one academic year. Thereafter, candidates need to renew their scholarship for the next academic year. Maintenance allowance is only provided for a period of 10 months in an academic year.
Are there any reservations?
30% of the scholarships are reserved for female students. The ministry may take a call of utilizing the funds for male students in case there aren’t enough applications from girl students.
What is the process of renewal of scholarship?
Candidates who have successfully obtained the scholarship are eligible to apply for renewal in the next academic year. For this purpose, they are required to submit proof of mark sheet. The candidate must have scored more than 50% of marks to be eligible to apply for renewal of scholarship.
How are the scholarships awarded?
Scholarships are awarded directly to the bank accounts of successful applicants via Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mode.
What documents are required?
No documents are required to be uploaded online on the national Scholarship Portal (NSP) for scholarship claims up to Rs. 50000/-.
The list of documents that the applicants are required to submit for verification of their online application at their respective schools/institutions are as follows:
  1. Student photo (mandatory)
  2. Institution verification form (mandatory)
  3. Income certificate: Income certificate issued by the competent authority in the State Government (mandatory, if the school/institution asks for this document)
  4. Declaration of the student (mandatory)
  5. Self-declaration of community certificate for Class I to Class X given by the parent/guardian (mandatory)
  6. Self-attested certificate of previous academic year’s qualifying exam (mandatory)
  7. Fee receipt of current academic course year (mandatory)
  8. Proof of Bank account (mandatory)
  9. Residential/Domicile certificate (mandatory)
  10. Aadhar Card (optional, however, we highly recommend submitting a copy of your Aadhar card to improve your chances of qualifying for the scholarship)
Buddy4Study hosts many other such scholarships in various academic streams. If you wish to empower your future path of education, if you wish to create a future you desire, register with Buddy4Study and explore the world of scholarships that change life.

Disclaimer

  1. Source of Information: Buddy4Study app compiles details on scholarships/fellowships from government websites and private scholarship sources. Links to the official sources accompany each listing detail pages.
  2. Non-affiliation: The Buddy4Study app is not associated with any government entity in India or elsewhere. When featuring government scholarships, we rely on publicly accessible information from central and state government websites in India.

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Upto Class 8 Class 1 to10 (Pre-Matric) Class 9 to 10 (Pre-Matric) Post-Matric(Class 11-12) Class 11 & 12 Class 12 passed Polytechnic/Diploma/ITI ITI Diploma/Polytechnic Graduation Post-Graduation Medical Engineering Girls NSP Portal Income Based SC/ST/OBC Law

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