Mayur Gangadhar, a third-year MBBS student at East Point College of Medical Sciences and Research Centre in Bengaluru, Karnataka, was unable to secure a scholarship or fee reimbursement from the Backward Classes Welfare Department for the academic year 2023-24 as the State Scholarship Portal (SSP) closed even before the university results were announced.
This is not just the case of Mayur, but thousands of others under the Other Backward Class (OBC) category that have been left in limbo.
“Earlier, we could get a fee reimbursement of Rs 55,000 under the scholarship. This used to be very helpful in paying the educational debt that I had taken. This year, it was a big shock; going from Rs 55,000 to zero is a big setback as I wanted to save for my higher education. The government is not ready to extend the dates, no second, third or fourthyear student could avail the scholarship this year, in government or private college,” Mayur said.
The SSP portal set the last date for applications as February 15. However, results for most of the colleges were announced only in the first week of March.
What does data say?
According to data accessed by The New Indian Express, for the academic year 2023-24, only 614 students were awarded scholarships out of 4,074 applications — the lowest in the last five years.
For 2022-23, 7,712 students were covered, for 2021-22, 8,235 were given scholarships, in 2019-2020, 5,911 and in 2019-2020, 5,911 got fee reimbursement.
Officials speak
Pradeep BS, Joint Director, Backward Class Welfare Department, said all departments under state and central governments have to follow the financial year calendar (April to March), and any scholarship applications need to come before that.
“We had set the deadline for all courses as February 15, however, a few universities and colleges missed the date. This is the purview of the universities and they should align their academic calendars to it,” he said.
When the issue was raised with Ramesh MK, Vice-Chancellor, Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS), under which most OBC category MBBS students lost their scholarships, he said the matter was discussed several times, but no resolution has been found.
“The academic calendars are formulated at the university level for different courses such as MBBS, Dental, Pharmacy and more. It is difficult to streamline them,” he said. He added that they have requested the government to find a solution for such occurrences.
Meanwhile, BL Sujatha Rathod, Director of the Directorate of Medical Education said the government should allow one-time measures for such students.
“If not on the portal, hard files (physical applications) can be submitted by the students through universities and the grant allowed. The medical education department has to take up the matter on a war footing,” Rathod said.
