Amit Shah disburses Rs 116 crore worth student scholarships in Gandhinagar

The event was attended by Gujarat’s Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Education Minister Kuber Dindor, Minister of State for Education Praful Pansheriya, and other prominent ministers and officials.

Amit Shah disburses 116 crores student scholarships in Gandhinagar

Amit Shah reflected on Gujarat’s impressive transformation in education, noting that before the early 2000s, the school enrollment rate stood at 66%, with a dropout rate of 37%.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah has disbursed scholarships worth Rs 116 crore to students from government and government-aided schools in classes 9 to 12. These scholarships have been disbursed under the Namo Laxmi and Namo Saraswati Vigyan Sadhana schemes.

The Namo Laxmi scholarship scheme, aimed at reducing dropout rates among girls in higher secondary education, benefits over 1.1 million girl students across Gujarat. Through this initiative, girls in classes 9 and 10 receive Rs 500 per month for 10 months and additional Rs 10,000 on clearing board examinations, while those in classes 11 and 12 are granted Rs 750 per month for 10 months and additional Rs 15,000 on clearing board examinations. Overall, girl students can receive up to Rs 50,000 over a period of four years, for supporting their education from classes 9 to 12.

This scheme incentivises girls to pursue higher education, empowering them to become self-reliant and financially independent in the future.

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Similarly, the Namo Saraswati Vigyan Sadhana scheme, which promotes science education, provides Rs 1,000 per month to over 250,000 students in classes 11 and 12. This initiative encourages enrollment in science streams to develop a skilled technical workforce, supporting the Viksit Bharat vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to meet the needs of India’s growing manufacturing sector.

Since the launch of the Namo Laxmi scheme, approximately a 6 per cent increase in school enrollments has been observed for girl students in classes 9 to 12 from the academic year 2023-2024 to 2024-2025. Similarly, the Namo Saraswati scholarship scheme has led to approximately a 10 per cent increase in the percentage of students opting for science streams in classes 11 to 12, an official release stated.

The release also stated that since June 2024, approximately Rs 157 crore out of the budgeted Rs 1,250 crore has been disbursed for the Namo Laxmi scheme, while Rs 46 crore out of the budgeted Rs 250 crore has been disbursed for the Namo Saraswati scheme. Both scholarship schemes serve as a vital incentive for students to continue their education, maintain regular school attendance, and excel academically. To motivate students, only students with over 80 per cent attendance receive scholarships directly into their or their mothers’ bank accounts via Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) every month. The scholarship application and verification system, powered by SwiftChat App by ConveGenius.AI, enables real-time tracking and validation of student attendance, leveraging continuous data monitoring under the Vidya Samiksha Kendra (VSK) in Gujarat.

The event was attended by Gujarat’s Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Education Minister Kuber Dindor, Minister of State for Education Praful Pansheriya, and other prominent ministers and officials.