Lucknow— While political parties across the spectrum vie for the votes of Other Backward Classes in the state, the community continues to be denied their rights. A gross disregard of family circumstances can be seen when it comes to the disbursement of scholarships to the Other Backward Classes category people.

According to reports, a total of 47,161 students applied for scholarships in the district of Kannauj, out of which only 28,556 students received the scholarship, and the remaining 18,605 students could not get it. The scholarship is awarded based on the percentage criteria.

Speaking to The Mooknayak, Anuj Kumar Singh, the Assistant Senior at the District Backward Class welfare department, said that scholarships are provided based on specific criteria.

Students in the first year of graduation are provided scholarships based on the marks received in class 11 and 12, with a cut-off of 50%. A 2nd-year undergraduate needs to have at least 62.06% in the first year, and the cut-off remains the same for the remaining duration of undergraduation. He also mentioned that scholarships were disbursed to 4712 students in degree colleges, 12755 students of class 9-10 at the school level, and 11099 scholarships were disbursed for class 12. The cut-off is decided at the state level.

Speaking to The Mooknayak, Suraj Yadav (name changed), a student of B.Sc. 3rd year at a degree college, said, "I secured 58% in B.Sc and was denied the scholarship. My family doesn’t own any land, and my father works in a shop to eke out a living. I have taken a room on rent in the city because I cannot commute to Kannauj daily from my village, which is around 40 kilometers from here. In such a scenario, it becomes quite difficult to foot the bill of my room and the fees. In my opinion, family income should be the sole criteria for awarding the scholarship or a reasonable percentage should be fixed by the state government. 60% or above is quite high for a graduation student."