(a) the reasons for lower allocation for the National Merit-cum-Means Scholarship during the financial year 2021-2022 budget as compared to financial year 2020-2021 as this has negative effects on the education of disadvantaged youths; and
(b) the details of the measures put in place to ensure the smooth and timely functioning of the National Merit-cum-Means Scholarship and other schemes as students have reported bureaucratic hurdles that prevent full uptake?
THE MINISTER OF MINORITY AFFAIRS
(SHRIMATI SMRITI ZUBIN IRANI)
(a): Ministry of Minority Affairs implements a number of Educational Empowerment Schemes, namely Pre-Matric Scholarship Scheme, Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme, Merit-cum-Mean based Scholarship Scheme (MCM), Begum Hazrat Mahal National Scholarship (BHMNS), Maulana Azad National Fellowship Scheme (MANF), Padho Pardesh, Naya Savera and Nai Udaan for Educational Empowerment of students belonging to the economically weaker sections of the six notified minority communities i.e. Buddhist, Christian, Jain, Muslim, Sikh and Zoroastrian (Parsi) in all States across the country.
The Budget Estimate (BE) for a Fiscal Year is firmed up on the basis of expenditure made under a Scheme up to the 3rd quarter of the previous fiscal whereas in the year 2020-21 more than 70% of the expenditure under the Merit-cum-Means based Scholarship Scheme (MCM) Scheme was booked in the last quarter. Nonetheless, higher numbers of Scholarships (1,31,810) were sanctioned under MCM in 2021-22 compared to 2020-21 (1,20,371).
(b): All the 3 Scholarship Schemes of this Ministry, including MCM, are implemented through the online Portal i.e. National Scholarship Portal (NSP) along with other Scholarship Schemes of the Government and the Scholarships are disbursed directly in the bank accounts of beneficiaries under Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mode ensuring transparency in the implementation process. Further, in order to enable maximum number of students to apply the Portal was kept open in 2021-22 for almost 5 months from 18.08.2021 to 15.01.2022. In 2021-22 the process for payment of renewal scholarships was also started early in November, 2022.
*****