New Delhi: Central Government has released an amount of Rs 1300 crore for the quality education of Scheduled Castes (SCs) students under various centrally sponsored schemes and scholarships. According to the reports of Economic Survey for this fiscal, government is committed to the welfare of the marginalized sections of society through public-private partnerships for economic and social development.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee laid the survey reportsin Lok Sabha on Thursday i.e. February 25, 2010, which states that the government is committed towards the educational development of SCs. Also, a number of schemes are being implemented to encourage students to continue their studies from school to higher education level. Further, Public-private partnership approach is also one of the strategies for attaining the objective of development of the targeted groups. Given below is the list of few schemes adopted by the government for encouraging quality education for students belonging to SC category
- An amount of Rs 60.99 crore was released upto December 31, 2009 to target 6.60 lakh beneficiaries under the pre-matric scholarship scheme.
- Under the post-matric scholarships, the government has released Rs 728.91 crore up to December 2009.
- As part of the centrally sponsored scheme of hostels, the government has released Rs 5.98 crore to meet a target for construction of 44 and 30 hostels for SC girls and boys, respectively.
- Similarly, Rs 80 crore was released by December 2009 under the Rajiv Gandhi National Fellowship for SC students for 1,333 new fellowships and 5,332 renewals for those pursuing M.Phil and PhD courses.
- An amount of Rs 2.83 crore was released to assist 1,520 SC students studying in institutions like the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) under the top class education for scheduled castes scheme.
- An amount of Rs 381.60 crore was released up to December 2009 under the Scheduled Caste Sub-Plan, a major scheme for their economic advancement.
