Post Matric Scholarship To Students Belonging To Scheduled Castes (PMS-SC)
Part of: GS Prelims and GS-II – Policies and Interventions
In news
The Union Cabinet has recently approved major changes in the Centrally Sponsored Scheme ‘Post Matric Scholarship to students belonging to Scheduled Castes (PMS-SC)’ to benefit more than 4 Crore SC students in the next 5 years so that they can successfully complete their higher education.
Key takeaways
A campaign will be launched to enrol the students, from the poorest households passing the 10th standard, in the higher education courses of their choice in the next 5 years.
The scheme will be run on an online platform with robust cyber security measures that would assure transparency and timely delivery of the assistance.
The States will undertake fool-proof verification of the eligibility, caste status, Aadhar identification and bank account details on the online portal.
Transfer of financial assistance to the students under the scheme shall be on DBT mode, and preferably using the Aadhar Enabled Payment System.
It shall start from from 2021-22.
The Central share shall be 60% in the scheme.
Monitoring mechanism will be further strengthened through conduct of social audits, annual third party evaluation, and half-yearly self-audited reports from each institution.
The Central Assistance which was around Rs 1100 crore annually during 2017-18 to 2019-20 would be increased more than 5 times to be around Rs 6000 core annually during 2020-21 to 2025-26.
