scholarships for girls: how scholarship programs boost girls’ education

To encourage girls to continue their education, the government has taken several initiatives, and the scholarship is one of them. The Maulana Azad Foundation for Education under the Ministry of Minority Affairs launched the Begum Hazrat Mahal National Fellowship for female students from minority communities in 2003-04. As part of this program, the Foundation provides financial assistance to deserving female students from Jain, Muslim, Parsis, Sikh, Christian and Buddhist communities, who cannot continue their studies due to lack of financial support. The National Scholarship Portal (NSP) is the implementing agency for the scholarship.

“Shortlisted applicants for the scholarship are offered financial aid of 5,000 rupees per year for classes IX and X and 6,000 rupees for classes XI and XII as one-time financial aid for each academic year,” said a source on condition of anonymity.

The amount received as the scholarship can be used for expenses related to paying school / college fees, purchasing program books, stationery or equipment required for the course, and paying tuition fees. boarding / accommodation.

According to data available on the ministry’s website, to date 8,844,864 female students have received aid of Rs 669.36 crore from the Foundation. According to the source, out of a total of six notified minorities, the largest number of applicants are from the Muslim community, while applicants from the Jain community are the fewest. On why the lower Jains applications, the source explains that the majority of them are financially strong, resulting in fewer applications for the scholarship.

Last year, nearly 2 lakh of applications in total were received by the Foundation for the scholarship, the source informs.

Selection process


Students are pre-selected based on the percentage of marks obtained in the qualifying exam and the annual income of parents / guardians which must not exceed Rs 2 lakh. To qualify for the scholarship, grantees must re-apply for each class. A renewal is planned.

In addition to the National Begum Hazrat Mahal Scholarship, the CBSE Merit Scholarship Program for a Single Girl is offered by the Board of Trustees. The number of CBSE Merit Scholarships for any given year will be variable and will be awarded to all eligible applicants who have achieved 60% or more grades on the Class X CBSE Exam in that year. Under this scheme, Rs 500 is paid monthly for a maximum period of two years.

Support for the NDA exam


Recently, the Tripura government signed a memorandum of understanding with an Edtech platform to help female students prepare for the NDA exam. A total of 250 students will be offered a free one-year subscription to the Unacademy defense exams.