Govt of India uses 16-yr-old data to provide students minority scholarship, RTE group suspects whopping 20% gap

In a shocking revelation, the Government of India relies on more 16 year old data while calculating the number of minority students who should receive scholarship. A recent Government of India circular says that pre-matric and post-matric scholarship schemes for 2017-18 for the country's minorities is to be implemented by the Government of India is "as per the Census 2001".
A cent per cent centrally-funded scheme floated by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as part of 15 point programme to alleviate the plight of the minorities, the Narendra Modi government has continued with it, despite the fact that during his chief ministership he refused to implement it in Gujarat.
Calling it "minority appeasement", Modi had wondered why such a scholarship scheme wasn't being implemented for other sections, till the Gujarat High Court ordered him to begin putting it in place across Gujarat for the state's minorities. The UPA government, on the other hand, basing on information provided by the Sachar Committee, had insisted that minorities, especially Muslims, suffered from backwardness, and special efforts were needed to overcome it.
Based on the "merit-cum-means" criteria, those eligible included minority students from from Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Parsi and Jain communities of "government or private universities/ institutes/ colleges/ schools."
Taking strong exception to the use of old data to provide scholarship to minority students, Mujahid Nafees of the Shala Mitra Sangh, a right to education (RTE) platform in Gujarat, has said that the minority population in 2001 stood at 20,03,03,872, and increased to 24,17,30,321 in 2011, as per the census data.
A nearly 20% rise, Nafees wonders whether this may have become the basis for providing scholarship to a lesser percentage of minorities. "I have asked Union minorities minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi to take note of utter indifference on the part of the administration while calculating those eligible for scholarship."
Providing state-wise and community-wise number of students eligible for scholarship, it provides the all-India number too -- 30 lakh are pre-matric, five lakh post-matric, and 60,000 "fresh cases". All of these, notably, are based on the 2001 Census.
The government providing old data for disbursement of scholarship has come amidst Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal recently taking up the issue of “more than 5 lakh scholarships” to SC/ST and other minority groups not being disbursed, in some cases for over a year.
In a note to Chief Secretary MM Kutty, Kejriwal said the files in this regard were “never put to my minister” during the entire period from 2015 to 2017 and “the elected government was kept in the dark”. Kejriwal mentioned an inquiry by the Dialogue and Development Commission of Delhi (DDC), ordered by him in the matter.
“(Its) report alleges that more than 5 lakh scholarships are yet to be disbursed in Delhi due to complete abdication of responsibilities, apathy, insensitivity & dereliction of duty by the seniormost officials” of the Delhi Government.
Meanwhile, officials in Delhi have said that, overall, the Government of India's pre-matric and post-matric scholarship schemes have seen a decline as compared to last year due to the new registration system for students.
This has happened because, thy say, states have com up with "low registration" under the scholarship schemes, and students are opting for state-run scholarship scheme, and according to rule a student can apply only for one scheme.

Comments

Irrational? Basis for fear among Hindus about being 'swamped' by Muslims

I was amused while reading an article titled "Ham Paanch, Hamare Pachees", shared on Facebook, by well-known policy analyst Mohan Guruswamy, an alumnus of the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University. Guruswamy, who has also worked as an advisor to the Finance Minister with the rank of Secretary to the Government of India, seeks to probe, as he himself states, "the supposed Muslim attitude to family planning"—a theme that was invoked by Narendra Modi as Gujarat Chief Minister ahead of the December 2002 assembly polls.

Why's Australian crackdown rattling Indian students? Whopping 25% fake visa applications

This is what happened several months ago. A teenager living in the housing society where I reside was sent to Australia to study at a university in Sydney with much fanfare. The parents, whom I often met as part of a group, would tell us how easily the boy got his admission with the help of "some well-meaning friends," adding that they had obtained an education loan to ensure he could study at a graduate school.

Tracking a lost link: Soviet-era legacy of Gujarati translator Atul Sawani

The other day, I received a message from a well-known activist, Raju Dipti, who runs an NGO called Jeevan Teerth in Koba village, near Gujarat’s capital, Gandhinagar. He was seeking the contact information of Atul Sawani, a translator of Russian books—mainly political and economic—into Gujarati for Progress Publishers during the Soviet era. He wanted to collect and hand over scanned soft copies, or if possible, hard copies, of Soviet books translated into Gujarati to Arvind Gupta, who currently lives in Pune and is undertaking the herculean task of collecting and making public soft copies of Soviet books that are no longer available in the market, both in English and Indian languages.

Gujarat slips in India Justice Report 2025: From model state to mid-table performer

Overall ranking in IJR reports The latest India Justice Report (IJR), prepared by legal experts with the backing of several civil society organisations and aimed at ranking the capacity of states to deliver justice, has found Gujarat—considered by India's rulers as a model state for others to follow—slipping to the 11th position from fourth in 2022.

Punishing senior citizens? Flipkart, Shopsy stop Cash on Delivery in Ahmedabad!

The other day, someone close to me attempted to order some goodies on Flipkart and its subsidiary Shopsy. After preparing a long list of items, this person, as usual, opted for the Cash on Delivery (popularly known as COD) option, as this senior citizen isn't very familiar with online prepaid payment methods like UPI, credit or debit cards, or online bank transfers through websites. In fact, she is hesitant to make online payments, fearing, "I may make a mistake," she explained, adding, "I read a lot about online frauds, so I always choose COD as it's safe. I have no knowledge of how to prepay online."

A conman, a demolition man: How 'prominent' scribes are defending Pritish Nandy

How to defend Pritish Nandy? That’s the big question some of his so-called fans seem to ponder, especially amidst sharp criticism of his alleged insensitivity during his journalistic career. One such incident involved the theft and publication of the birth certificate of Masaba Gupta, daughter of actor Neena Gupta, in the Illustrated Weekly of India, which Nandy was editing at the time. He reportedly did this to uncover the identity of Masaba’s father.

Of lingering shadow of Haren Pandya's murder during Modi's Gujarat days

Sunita Williams’ return to Earth has, ironically, reopened an old wound: the mysterious murder of her first cousin, the popular BJP leader Haren Pandya, in 2003. Initially a supporter of Narendra Modi, Haren turned against him, not sparing any opportunity to do things that would embarrass Modi. Social media and some online news portals, including The Wire , are abuzz with how Modi’s recent invitation to Sunita to visit India comes against the backdrop of how he, as Gujarat’s chief minister, didn’t care to offer any official protocol support during her 2007 visit to Gujarat.

Area set aside in Ahmedabad for PM's affordable housing scheme 'has gone to big builders'

Following my article on affordable housing in Counterview, which quoted a top real estate consultant, I was informed that affordable housing—a scheme introduced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi—has deviated from its original intent. A former senior bureaucrat, whom I used to meet during my Sachivalaya days, told me that an entire area in Ahmedabad, designated for the scheme, has been used to construct costly houses instead.

Just 5% Gujarat Dalit households 'recognise' social reformers who inspired Ambedkar

An interesting survey conducted across 22 districts and 32 villages in Gujarat sheds light on the representation of key social reformers in Dalit households. It suggests that while Dr. B.R. Ambedkar's photo was displayed in a majority of homes, images of Lord Buddha and the 19th-century reformist couple, Savitribai Phule and Jyotiba Phule, were not as commonly represented.

Search This Blog