Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Virendra Kumar.
| Photo Credit: ANI/Sansad TV
Research fellows from other backward class (OBC) communities have not received their scholarship payments under the National Scholarship for OBCs scheme since June 2024, the Social Justice Ministry told the Lok Sabha on Tuesday (February 4, 2025).
Social Justice Minister Virendra Kumar said that this was because the University Grants Commission had, in October 2023, hiked the fellowship amounts for Junior and Senior Research Fellows (JRFs and SRFs) under the scheme, indicating that the Ministry did not have the budget to cover the increase.
The Ministry has asked the Finance Ministry to increase the outlay for the scheme, he said. Budget documents show that the government was unable to find additional funds for the scheme in the revised estimates for 2024-25, but has increased allocation for the upcoming fiscal year, more than tripling the scheme’s funds.
More beneficiaries
The Minister also claimed that the number of beneficiaries had risen from 1,338 to 2,271, though his statement failed to mention the time period of this growth. Ministry documents show that the scheme already had more than 2,000 beneficiaries in 2023-24.
Mr. Kumar’s statement came in response to a query by Kozhikode MP M.K. Raghavan of the Congress.
The scheme is open to students from OBC communities who are pursuing M.Phil or PhD courses in universities, research institutions, and scientific institutions up to a period of five years.
Tripled budget
The Social Justice Minister said that the monthly fellowship amount for JRFs had been hiked from ₹31,000 to ₹37,000, while the amount SRFs got each month was increased from ₹35,000 to ₹42,000. He added that the number of beneficiaries under the scheme had also increased from 1,338 to 2,271. Because of the rise in amounts of fellowships and the number of beneficiaries, the Ministry was only able to disburse fellowships worth ₹54.50 crore until June 2024, he said.
Budget documents showed that the 2024-25 Budget allocated ₹55 crore for this scheme, with no change in the revised estimates. For the upcoming fiscal year 2025-26, however, the allocation has been raised to ₹190.13 crore, a whopping 245% increase.
Published – February 04, 2025 07:34 pm IST