Indian government introduces ₹50 million scholarship for minority students — dedicating half of it to girls

• The Indian government has announced a scholarship of ₹50 million for the education of minorities over the next five years.
  
• Scholarships worth ₹25 million will be dedicated to education among minority girls.
  
• The programme will provide free coaching for competitive exams — banking, Staff Selection Commission, railway exams.

In a bid to boost education and employment, the Narendra Modi government introduced scholarships for minorities — especially girls.

The government announced a scholarship of ₹50 million for the education of minorities over the next five years, dedicating half of this amount for girls, Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said. He was attending a general body meeting of Maulana Azad Education Foundation.

The programme will cater to all students in the economically-weaker sections, regardless of caste.

The outreach programme, which aims at inclusive growth will provide scholarship schemes across courses like pre-matric, post-matric and merit-cum-means, he added. The merit-cum-means scholarship was introduced by the Ministry of External Affairs for meritorious minority students to pursue technical courses.

Students will also be encouraged to take up government jobs after their education. In this regard, the programme will provide free coaching to students to prepare for competitive exams in — banking, Staff Selection Commission, and Railways.

Empowering girls

The government is set to launch a campaign to spread awareness amongst families that refuse to educate their daughters.

The programme will also introduce bridge courses to engage female school dropouts, and steer them towards education and employment by aiding enrollment into reputed universities.

The government also announced a programme to train Madrasa teachers across the country in subjects like English Mathematics and Computers, ANI reported.


The Modi government also expanded the scholarships programme under the ‘Prime Minister Scholarship Scheme.’


The Ministry of External Affairs too rolled out an educational scheme — Scholarship Programme for Diaspora Children (SPDC) — for overseas Indian students, enabling admissions into India’s premier institutions.

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