No domicile certificate needed for SC, OBC students seeking scholarships: Centre
New Delhi, June 19
The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has dropped the requirement of submitting a domicile certificate for applying under the scholarship schemes for Scheduled Caste and Backward Classes students, an official said on Friday.
The decision is part of the steps undertaken by the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment for major reforms and digital initiatives to improve accessibility and streamline scholarship processes for Scheduled Caste (SC) and Backward Classes students, the official said in a statement.
The removal of the requirement to submit a Domicile Certificate for applying under the scholarship schemes is expected to reduce the compliance burden on students, the statement said.
The decision is also likely to simplify the application process, enabling easier access to benefits, it said, adding that this will benefit thousands of eligible applicants across the country who study in institutions outside their States.
Under the Pre-Matric and Post-Matric Scholarship Schemes for SCs and OBCs, nearly 1.2 crore students receive scholarship benefits annually, said the statement.
Until now, a domicile certificate has been an essential requirement under these schemes. The removal of this requirement is expected to make the application process more student-friendly by reducing documentation requirements, lowering compliance costs, and facilitating easier access to scholarship benefits, said the statement.
Further strengthening digital governance, the Department has launched SETU (Scholarship for Educational Transformation and Upliftment) on the UMANG platform as a comprehensive solution for scholarship-related services, it said.
The platform provides a single interface for eligible applicants, Institutional Nodal Officers, District Nodal Officers, and State officials for application registration, tracking, and validation of other services, improving transparency and efficiency, it said.
These initiatives align with the government's broader objective of promoting inclusion, reducing procedural barriers, and ensuring the effective delivery of welfare schemes.
The Department remains committed to leveraging technology-driven reforms to enhance outreach and provide timely support to students, the statement said.
— IANS
Reader Comments
Finally some common sense! My cousin had to travel 300 km back to our village just to get a domicile certificate for her post-matric scholarship. This bureaucratic red tape was killing opportunities for poor kids. But let's see if the digital system actually works without glitches.
Good step but honestly, the real issue is not just documents. Many SC students from my village don't even know these scholarships exist. The government needs to do proper outreach in local languages, especially in remote areas. SETU app sounds nice but whose phone will a daily wage labourer's child use?
As a college professor, I welcome this. Many of my OBC students were losing scholarships because their parents couldn't take time off from work to get domicile certificates from other districts. But I worry about misuse - how will they verify residency for state-specific quotas? Hope there are safeguards.
About time. My friend from Tamil Nadu studying in Karnataka had to pay Rs 500 to a tout just to get his domicile certificate expedited. This digital reform should bring transparency. But I wish the article mentioned if the SETU platform works on basic smartphones and slow internet - not everyone has high-speed data.
Good decision but let's be honest - the major bottleneck was never just the domicile certificate. Even after removing it, students still need income certificates, caste certificates, and often these are stuck with corrupt officials. The government should make all these documents automatically verifiable through DigiLocker integration.
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