When it comes to Union Government's post-matric scholarship for minority students, Kerala has fared better than other southern states. 55941 students from the state availed the scholarship in 2017-18 compared to 13626 students in Andhra Pradesh, 15465 in Telangana, 32220 in Karnataka and 32690 in Tamil Nadu.
As per the latest data submitted by Ministry of Minority Affairs in the Parliament, Rs 26.68 crore was released as the scholarship fund to Kerala in 2017-18. The amount was Rs 24.97 crore in 2016-17 and Rs 21.04 crore in 2015-16. The data also shows that the number of students benefitting from the scholarship scheme has increased from 46703 in 2015-16 to 55941 in 2017-18.
"It is good to see that more students from the minority communities are getting the scholarships. But a lot of eligible students are still not availing the scholarship in Kerala. There is a lack of awareness among the students and parents on the scholarship programmes offered by the government. We need to sensitise them more about the schemes so that all eligible students avail it," said Muslim Educational Society (MES) general secretary, Professor P O J Lebba.
The post-metric minority scholarship scheme is open to students from Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain and Parsi (Zoroastrians) who have passed their last examination with minimum 50 per cent aggregate score. The process for disbursement of scholarship entails inviting applications online, verification and drawing up the eligible list, which is normally completed in the third quarter of a financial year.
