Scholarships not reaching India's minorities

The disparity has prompted Sikh, Buddhist, Christian and Muslim leaders to demand a mechanism to monitor the implementation of the new scholarship scheme, which was approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) in June last year.

 

Against an entitlement of 840 merit-cum-means scholarships for Buddhists given by the ministry of minority affairs, only five students - two from Orisssa, and one each from Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Assam - got scholarships.

 

Muslim and Christian students were given 4,344 and 1,189 scholarships respectively in 35 states and union territories as against the entitlement of 14,585 and 2,540 scholarships for the two communities.

 

The number of Sikh beneficiaries stood at 50 as against a quota of 2,540 for the community.

 

"The government must put in place an effective monitoring mechanism to ensure that the benefits of scholarships do reach the targeted groups. The whole purpose will be defeated if implementation is not ensured at the ground level," Mahendra Pratap Rana, director, Delhi-based Buddha Smriti Sansthan (BSS), told IANS.

 

Experts believe lack of awareness among minority community students and bureaucratic hurdles are holding back the scholarships for which applications are processed at the state level.

 

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