Only 24 selected for overseas education scholarships for minorities this year

Based on similar schemes for meritorious students coming from marginalised sections of society, this scheme under minority development department is for meritorious students coming from minority communities who have secured admissions to various post-graduate (PG) and PhD programmes in universities abroad which are among the top 100 ranked educational institutions as per the QS World University ranking. Last week, the Minority Development Department declared a list of 24 candidates selected for overseas education scholarships for the academic year 2024-25. This included 23 names for PG courses and 1 selection for PhD programmes abroad.

But soon after the list was out, many disappointed candidates started raising questions. One of the applicants, Kuldeep Ambekar, said, “I had applied under the Buddhist, which is a minority category. During applications, I was asked to submit certain documents to support it which I followed as instructed. But when the list was out, it did not include my name. I was shocked when I was told that the documents submitted by me did not prove that I am from the Buddhist category. This is absurd as I had submitted documents as asked.” An advocate, Ambekar also runs a youth organisation – Student Helping Hand. As he was seeking reasons for his disqualification, a few more students approached him with their complaints.

One of them is Sayed Ansar from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar who has been accepted for admission in John Hopkins Institute, US. His application for scholarship was rejected for not uploading a document – marksheet for degree course and a bond – which Ansar claims was unclear in instructions. “If this is happening for the first time at largescale, the scrutiny team should be more cautious. They could have raised queries on our applications and given time for us to submit. It was a matter of an hour or so to upload those documents, because I have all those. But due to unclear instructions, I have lost the opportunity.”

Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA from Dharashiv, Kailas Ghadge-Patil has written to the Maharashtra government to declare the list of all disqualified candidates along with reasons for their disqualification. “This is a classic example of a big announcement but no delivery on promising schemes,” he said as he also questioned the lukewarm response to the scheme. “The government has failed to create awareness on the scheme. How can the department receive only 50 applications?” he asked. Dharashiv MP Omprakash Rajenimbalkar too has written to the state government regarding the issue.

While questions are already raised on a small number of selected students, a senior research scholar from Mumbai University, Shaihebaj Maniyar pointed out that the scheme is not implemented properly. “Out of the 24 names, only 7 are Muslims which is merely 29 percent allotted scholarships. Whereas Muslims are 70 percent of minority communities in Maharashtra and thus scholarship seats should be reserved accordingly. Central government too followed this practice for Maulana Azad National Fellowship in the past and continues to do so for other minority schemes.”