Government discontinues schemes aimed at the educational empowerment of the minorities

Lucknow. In a step, which is considered to be a part of the onslaught of the government, the government has pulled the plug on schemes, which were aimed at furthering the educational status of Minorities. The government has also diluted the schemes like Pre-matric scholarship which would have helped SC/ST students.

The Key schemes which have been scrapped or limited in scope are…

Padho Pardesh Scheme: The Scheme was launched in 2006, under the 15 point programme, which was initiated after the Sachar Commission report highlighted the backwardness of Indian Muslims. subsidy under the scheme shall be available to the eligible students only once, either for Masters, M.Phil or Ph.D. The reason cited by the government for scrapping the scheme is that it over lapped with Credit Guarantee Fund Scheme For Education Loan.

However, the fact is that the latter scheme is a general scheme available under the Model Education Loan Scheme of Indian Banks’ Association and is available to economically weaker sections from all the sections of the society. And while the Padho Pardesh Scheme imposed no upper limit on the volume of the education loan The Credit Guarantee Fund Scheme For Education Loan is basically aimed at providing collateral free loans upto Rs 7.5 lakh levels.

Maulana Azad National Fellowship Scheme : This was a Fellowship which catered to the minority community students pursuing regular and full time research studies leading to award of M.Phil/Ph.D degree. This enabled them to be eligible for employment to the posts with M.Phil and Ph.D as pre- requisites, including the posts of Assistant Professors in various academic institutions and also researchers. The government scrapped this scheme, applying the same logic of overlapping with other schemes in which minorities students are also beneficiaries. The truth is that the minority students have to compete with eligible students from other categories also and are likely to get elbowed out.

Naya Savera: Implemented through Universities, colleges and Coaching centres, this scheme aimed at providing special coaching for qualifying examinations for admissions in technical and professional courses and also for competitive examination for recruitment to Group A’ ‘B’ & C services and other equivalent posts under the Central and State Governments. The duration of the coaching period under the scheme were from 3 months to 2 years. The government has cited the New Education Policy(NEP) for the discontinuation as NEP does not support coaching programmes.

However the fact is that there is intense competition in the preparation of government jobs which makes the coachings inevitable. Infact, entrance exams like CUET and NEET are also highly competitive and students may find it very difficult to crack these exams without coachings. Also, BJP governments in various states continue to support coachings like Abhyuday Yojana in UP, which supports free coaching centres in all 75 districts of the state.

Pre- Matric Scholarship: In November, 2022, the government discontinued, Begum Hazrat Mahal pre-matriculating scholarships for minorities for classes 1 to 8, retaining them only for classes 9 and 10.

Speaking to The Mooknayak Priyanka Sonkar, Assistant Professor at Banaras hindu University said that “ If you are pulling the plug on the formative education of the students till class 8th how will they manage to reach class 9th . She says that only free education is not sufficient. There are various other needs of the students also for example they have to comply with the dress code for which they need money. I studied in a quasi-government school and I was helped by the scholarship of the government . The government should also do a survey on how its decision to scrap the pre-matric scholarship till class 8th is effecting the education of the students

The government used Right to Education (RTE) as a pretext for discontinuing is saying that the act provided free and compulsory education upto class 8 and hence, this scheme obviated the need for scholarships.

Close on the heels of scrapping of government schemes, the government’s anti-minority stance was further accentuated this year when the Budget allocation for Minority affairs was considerably slashed from ₹5,020.50 crore in 2022-23 to ₹3,097.60 crore in 2023-24.