By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: A high-level delegation of the Students Islamic Organisation of India (SIO) yesterday visited the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs office in New Delhi and had a detailed meeting with officials related to the minority scholarship schemes. The delegation headed by SIO National Secretary Shahnawaz Ali Raihan apprised the ministry about the problems being faced by candidates, and also suggested ways to make the schemes more effective.
While appreciating the scholarship programs as a good step towards eliminating the educational backwardness of minorities in India, the delegation told the ministry there were scopes to make the schemes more outreaching and hassle-free. They urged the ministry to make proper advertisement in local media about the schemes, to enhance scholarship amount, to simplify forms and other procedures and to fix a calendar for the entire process — from announcement to disbursal of funds — of scholarship schemes.
SIO Jharkhand State President Shariq Ansar, a member of the delegation, shared his experience — how SIO played major role throughout Jharkhand to make students aware about scholarship programs and what kind of hurdles his team faced. He said that schemes were not properly publicized.
“Though being a positive and sincere step the scheme to an extent has not been successful in reaching the deserving rural and urban candidates of the country. On the very first year of its inception, the scheme was not advertised by the state authorities and scheme was going unnoticed. In Maharashtra, Bihar, Jharkhand and various other states SIO pressed the state governments to extend the deadline by a month and also advertise it in all the newspapers widely read by the minorities,” Shahnawaz Ali Raihan told TwoCircles.net. Apart from this, there are many hassles and procedures, at the local level, which a common student can surely not sustain and get through the scheme, he added.
“The candidates have to face great hardship in getting the income certificate. At times some colleges do not know about the scheme or they refuse to accept the forms only because they did not receive any GR on it. On the other the pre-condition of opening a bank account has also been a major reason of students not being benefited from the scheme,” Raihan said.
Since its inception in the year 2007, SIO has been propagating the schemes among the minorities throughout the country. During the course, it experienced different odd scenarios and understood the need of candidates. “Therefore, on behalf of the minorities, especially Muslim community, SIO suggested and demanded to the Govt. certain things to make the scheme more outreaching, viable and hassle-free,” Raihan said.
Raihan told TCN that the officials positively listened to their points. They told us that the ministry was thinking on corrections to remove hurdles in the schemes, and thanked the delegation for apprising the ministry of the related issues at the right time.”
Demands/suggestions
Merit-cum-Means Scholarship
● It is the fact that daily need and livelihood in recent days is becoming dearer, therefore, under the merit-cum-means scheme the maintenance allowance should be increased from the present Rs 5000 and should be reviewed as the beneficiary elevates to higher classes.
● Voter ID card should be considered as the residential proof of a candidate and if in any case the candidate does not have a voter ID only than he/she should be asked to file an affidavit of residence.
● There are certain professional courses which are not included under Merit-cum-Means scheme. Therefore, we urge you to extend the purview of the scheme and accommodate a wide range of professional courses.
● The format of application form should be simplified.
● There should be a separate application form for renewing the scheme which should be more simple. And the candidate should not be asked to again file a domicile.
● There should be a fixed calendar for the announcement of scholarship and allotment of the same.
Post-Matric Scholarship schemes
* Rate of scholarship should be enhance as Rs.@2000/month for outside home students and Rs.@1000/month for residential students. This maintenance should be reviewed as per the inflation rate.
* For the religion proof self declaration of student should be accepted.
* For the residential proof certificates regarding voting rights should be allowed. At last affidavit should be must.
* Father/Guardian income cert. /affidavit depending upon the nature of employee of the father/guardian.
* The format of application should be simple.
* The bank account should be demanded only after the grant of scholarship. The process will be allotment of time duration to the selected students for the submission of the bank a/c.
* The format of renewal should be separate with minimum requirement. There should not be demand of domicile and income certificates.
* The last date of submission of form and result should be fixed every year.(Aug to oct)
Pre-matric Scholarship Scheme
● The maintenance allowance for the students from class 1 to class 5 should be Rs 400/ and for class 6 to 10 it should be Rs 600/ a month.
● Under the residential proof, father’s/guardian’s Voter ID should be considered. However, if in any case parents/guardians don’t have the voter IDs only than they should be asked to file an affidavit of residence.
● The format of application form should be made more simple.
● There should be a separate application form for renewing the scheme which should be more simple. And the candidate should not be asked to again file a domicile certificate along with it.
● There should be a fixed calendar for the announcement of scholarship and allotment of the same.
Other demands
The SIO delegation also demanded that there should be regular follow-up from the central government to check whether the state governments are implementing the scheme to the lowest level.
The centre should ensure that the state government widely advertises the scheme at the time of its announcements in all major regional dailies, at least three times, in the course of time.
The centre should ask the state governments to distribute the applications forms and ensure that it reaches up to sub divisional level.
The Central Minorities ministry should check with the state governments that all the DEO, BDO, BEO, DSC, Vice Chancellors and school and college heads also issue notice of the announcements of the scheme.
All the state governments should launch information centre, may be a website, where students can check the announcements and allotments of the scheme.
[Photo: www.asianews.it]