The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) in February this year announced to make linking of Aadhaar card with scholarship accounts mandatory for college and university students applying to avail benefits under the Central Sector Scholarship Scheme.

With an objective to bring in transparency and enable beneficiaries to get direct benefit transfers (DBT) in a convenient and seamless manner, the MHRD in a notification had said that those who do not have the card and are receiving these scholarships should apply for enrollment by June 30 this year.

Also read: Vice President terms DBT, JAM as helpful tools for scholarships

Linking of Aadhaar card with scholarship in a way removes the compulsion of submitting multiple documents for students to avail scholarships.

If the students do not get Aadhar card, they can apply for scholarship with their Aadhar enrolment ID slip, Aadhar enrolment application, voter identity card, PAN card etc.

As per another notification from the MHRD, students wishing to avail the National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme will also have to apply for Aadhaar.

Step-by-Step guide to Link Aadhaar Card with Scholarship Account

Apply for Aadhaar card

The applicants for different kind of scholarship should first apply for an Aadhaar card. The process is simple and the applicants can be submit the application in various ways.

Open a bank account

The applicants should then open a bank account. Candidates should check with their universities have limited the scholarship benefit to any specific banking institution. This means applicants need to check if the benefits can be transferred to any bank’s account or specific banks’. Once, confirmed, apply for a bank account.

Link Aadhaar card to Bank account

Here comes the most crucial part of linking the Aadhaar Card with Scholarship account. There are various ways to link your Aadhaar to bank account. You can link Aadhaar with your bank account in three ways:

1. Net banking,
2. SMS,
3. Through bank branch.