As an established scholarship platform, Buddy4Study has been witness to the changing trends in scholarship programmes over the years. These changes are directly or indirectly associated with the constantly evolving norms and values in the country, one of them being the role and participation of women in all aspects of society. Talking only about the last one year, we have been implementation partner of various corporate educational scholarship programs for girls and women. The most prominent ones include:
- IIFL Scholarship
- Rolls-Royce Unnati Scholarships for Women Engineering Students
- “Shiksha ki Udaan” Scholarship Program for Girls (an initiative of Samasta Microfinance Limited)
- Glow and Lovely Career Foundation Scholarship
- Santoor Scholarship Programme
- L’Oréal India For Young Women in Science Scholarships
- Legrand Scholarship Program
Why There’s More Focus on Scholarships for Girls/Women?
There are several short-term and long-term benefits of encouraging girl education. Educating girls can –
- Help decrease child marriages, leading to lower birth rates
- Boost the economy – if India enrols 1% more girls in secondary school, its GDP would increase by $5 billion
- Lead to breaking the cycle of poverty in a family in just one generation
- Decrease the infant mortality rate by half
It has also been widely established that an educated girl has the skills, knowledge and self-confidence that she needs to be a better parent, worker and citizen.
Why the focus on girl education in times of COVID-19?
Currently, the dropout rate of adolescent girls is higher at secondary level (19.8%) than primary (6.3%). In addition, while the net enrolment ratio of girls in elementary schools is 91.58%, it declines as they grow older with 52.57% for secondary and 31.42% for higher secondary. As a result, even though a large proportion of girls enrol in primary schools, very few succeed to higher classes and complete their school education till class 12.
In addition, one cannot ignore that India has the largest number of child brides in the world equalling 23 million. This number is predicted to rise further during the pandemic.
According to a study – ‘Life in the time of COVID-19’ by the Right to Education Forum, Centre for Budget and Policy Studies and Champions for Girls, 37% of girls from poor households are unsure about returning to school after the pandemic.
- Mindset – As per Right to Education Forum policy brief, nearly 10 million secondary school girls in India could drop out of school due to the pandemic. There are varying reasons for this, the most prominent ones being lack of resources and mindset towards girl education, especially during a crisis like COVID. When families, prominently in rural India, cannot afford school and have to make a choice, it mostly favours boys.
- Lack of access to internet – Just 16% of the total female population in India has access to internet, as compared to 36% males, massively impacting their access to education. Such a huge digital gap would lead to educational inequality leading to long term losses in terms of a huge unemployable women force, and disasters like these.
- Stereotypes – Indian homes are not gender-neutral spaces. Girls, from an early age, are taught to wake up earlier to complete household chores. This impedes their personal and academic growth. Among the enrolled women (3-35 years) currently not attending education, 30.2% have reported engagement in domestic activities as their prime reason for discontinuing education.
Under such circumstances, the 3 major solutions that can bring a major change are –
- At a corporate level, we can ensure an unhindered flow of funds for education
- Post-COVID recovery planning for education must account for gender budgeting, tracking students and assessing loss due to school closures
- Providing scholarships and free learning supplies, waiving off the fees for girls’ education can be considered to reduce the financial burden on parents
Scholarships for Women – How can you benefit?
Find below the list of scholarships exclusively for girls. Most of these scholarships are run yearly. In case you have missed the deadline of any scholarship of choice, look out for the application deadlines in the next round of scholarship opening.
For the complete details on scholarships for Indian girls and women, CLICK HERE
| Scholarship Name | Awards |
| IIFL Scholarship | INR 3,500 |
| Rolls-Royce Unnati Scholarships for Women Engineering Students | INR 35,000 |
| Shiksha ki Udaan” Scholarship Program for Girls | INR 5,000 |
| Technip India Limited Scholarship Program | INR 20,000 per annum (one-time) |
| Santoor Women’s Scholarship | INR 24,000 per annum |
| Lady Meherbai D Tata Education Scholarship | Financial assistance |
| Adobe Research Women-in-Technology Scholarship | USD 10,000
A one-year Creative Cloud subscription membership
An Adobe research mentor An opportunity to interview for an internship at Adobe |
| Tata Housing Scholarships for Meritorious Girl Students | Financial assistance of up to INR 60,000 |
| Pragati Scholarship | INR 30,000 or actual tuition fee amount |
| Glow and Lovely Scholarship | INR 25,000 to INR 50,000 |
| Prabha Dutt Fellowship | A reward of INR 1,00,000 |
| CBSE UDAAN | Free online/offline resources through virtual contact classes on weekend
Study materials, tutorials, videos, feedback Mentoring opportunities Remedial steps to correct learning |
| Begum Hazrat Mahal National Scholarship | Up to INR 12,000 |
| L’Oréal India For Young Women in Science Scholarship | Up to INR 2.5 Lakh till the time of graduation |
| Indira Gandhi Scholarship for Single Girl Child | INR 3,100 per month for 2 years |
| Clinic Plus Scholarship | INR 20,000 |
| Internshala Scholarship | INR 25,000 |
| Scholarship for Single Girl Child | INR 500 per month for two academic years |
| DST Women Scientist Fellowship (WOS-B) | Up to INR 40,000 per month |
| DST Women Scientist Fellowship (WOS-A) | INR 55,000 per month as fellowship amount |
| Abhilasha Scholarship | A one-time amount of INR 5000 |
| SOF Girl Child Scholarship Scheme | INR 5000 annually |
| UGAM – Legrand Scholarship Program | INR 60,000 per annum or 60% of the tuition fee (whichever is less) |
| Dr. Reddy’s Foundation Sashakt Scholarship | INR 2.4 Lakh for 3 years |
| Smt. Geeta Lochan Girl Child Scholarship Programme | INR 40,000 per annum |
| Savitribai Phule Scholarship | Financial assistance of INR 100 per month for a period of 10 months |
| Muslim Nadar Girls Scholarship | Financial assistance of INR 125 per annum |
| BNSTS Scholarship – Bigyani Kanya Medha Britti | INR 3000 per month for UG students till they complete MBBS/B.Tech. /B.E. degree
Candidates become automatically entitled to INR 80,000 worth DST-INSPIRE scholarship till M.A. Annual book grant of INR 2000 |
