Pragati Scholarship Launched for Girls by HRD Ministry

In order to support and encourage girl child to pursue technical education in future the government has launched the ‘Pragati Scholarship’ programme from the year 2014-15. The Union Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani announced about the scholarship in a reply to the Lok Sabha question and made its salient features public.

There would be 4000 scholarships to girls that would be given under this programme every year. The families whose income is less than Rs. 6 lakhs per annum would be eligible to apply for the scholarship for one girl in their family. Upon application the candidates need to go through a qualifying examination and they would be selected according to merit. Those candidates who would be admitted to 1st year of Degree or diploma programme in any AICTE approved institute during the academic year 2014-15 would only be considered eligible for the scholarships. Those students who would finally get the scholarships would get an amount of Rs. 30,000 as the tuition fee or the actual amount of the course, whichever is less and Rs 2000 per month for 10 months as incidentals each year.

The government is not too keen to revise the eligibility criteria or other conditions for the Pragati Scholarship programme at this moment. The HRD minister also pointed out that there are large print books which are being provided to the visually handicapped and blind children who are enrolled in primary and upper primary schools under the influential government programme Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Braille.