The Department of Social Justice and Empowerment implements the Central Sector Scheme of 'National Fellowship for SC Students' to provide fellowship in the form of financial assistance to students belonging to Scheduled Castes (SC) category to pursue higher studies leading to M.Phil/Ph.D in Indian Universities/Institutions/Colleges recognized by University Grants Commission(UGC). This is a Central Sector scheme directly implemented by the Ministry without involvement of the State Governments and since the year 2018-19 the selection of students is done on the basis of merit determined through the National Eligibility Test(NET) examination of the UGC and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research(CSIR). Therefore, State/District wise allocation of funds is not done and district-wise data of beneficiaries is not maintained. However, the details of the number of SC students from the State of Tamil Nadu, who were granted financial assistance under the scheme and the funds disbursed/utilized thereon, for the last five years, are as under:

 

Year	Funds disbursed/Utillized in Cr.)	No. of beneficiaries
2016-17	22.13	744
2017-18	20.31	713
2018-19	23.92	662
2019-20	21.03	497
2020-21	11.77	326
Total	99.16	2942

 

This information was given by Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, Shri.A.Narayanaswamy in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today.

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MG/SB

(Release ID: 1796875)