Post Matric Scholarship for ST Students: Eligibility, Rates and State Overlap

Two schemes that look the same are run by different ministries

The SC post-matric scheme belongs to the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. This one belongs to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs. On the National Scholarship Portal they appear as separate schemes with separate application forms, and an ST student who applies under the SC scheme because the description matched has applied for the wrong thing.

It matters again when an application is stuck. Grievances route to the administering ministry and, below it, to the state's tribal welfare department — not the social welfare department. Students lose weeks writing to the wrong office. If you are unsure which department handles your district, the district welfare office will tell you in one visit.

Hosteller and day scholar are the rate that changes

The maintenance allowance is paid monthly for the duration of the academic session, at a rate that depends on two things: your course group, and whether you live in a hostel. Hostellers receive materially more, because the allowance is meant to cover the cost of living away from home.

The definition of "hosteller" is narrower than students assume. It normally means residence in a hostel attached to or recognised by your institution, and it is certified by the institution. Renting privately near campus does not usually qualify, however far you have moved. If you are choosing between a college hostel and a private room, the allowance difference is part of the arithmetic and it runs for every month of every year of the course.

Course groups matter too: professional and postgraduate courses sit in higher bands than general degree courses. The exact figures are revised periodically, which is why they are not printed here as fact — the scheme page linked at the top of this page carries the current table.

Your state probably runs a second scheme

States with large Scheduled Tribe populations — Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, the north-eastern states — generally operate their own tribal welfare scholarships in addition to this central one, and some have separate provision for students from Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups.

Whether you can hold both is a state question, not a central one, and the answer genuinely varies. Some state schemes are explicitly a top-up on the central award; others are alternatives. Ask the state tribal welfare department directly and get the answer before you file, because a student who has drawn from two schemes that were not meant to combine is asked to return one of them.

One thing is common to all of them: state schemes often have their own portal and their own deadline, usually earlier than NSP's. Applying on NSP does not enter you for the state scheme.

The certificate must match the state list

Scheduled Tribe status is notified state by state. A community listed as ST in one state may not be listed in the neighbouring one, and the list that applies is the one for the state that issued your certificate — your state of origin, not the state you are studying in.

This catches migrant families more than anyone else. If your family moved a generation ago and your certificate was issued in the state you now live in, check that your community is on that state's list before you rely on it. A certificate issued in error is discovered at verification, which is the worst possible moment.

The income rules, the annual renewal cycle and the DBT payment mechanism work exactly as they do for the SC scheme — that page explains the renewal traps in detail and they apply here unchanged.

यह योजना अनुसूचित जनजाति के छात्रों के लिए है और जनजातीय कार्य मंत्रालय चलाता है — SC वाली योजना सामाजिक न्याय मंत्रालय की है। दोनों दिखने में एक जैसी हैं, पर पोर्टल पर अलग-अलग फ़ॉर्म हैं। ग़लत फ़ॉर्म भरना सबसे आम ग़लती है।

आय सीमा ₹2.5 लाख सालाना है। फीस की प्रतिपूर्ति के साथ हर महीने निर्वाह भत्ता मिलता है, और छात्रावास में रहने वालों को ज़्यादा मिलता है। लेकिन "छात्रावास" का मतलब कॉलेज से मान्यता प्राप्त हॉस्टल है — किराए का कमरा नहीं।

ज़्यादातर राज्यों की अपनी जनजातीय छात्रवृत्ति भी होती है, अलग पोर्टल और अलग तारीख़ के साथ। NSP पर आवेदन करने से राज्य वाली अपने-आप नहीं भरती। दोनों साथ मिलेंगी या नहीं, यह राज्य तय करता है — पहले पूछ लीजिए।

जाति की सूची हर राज्य की अलग है। जो समुदाय एक राज्य में ST है, ज़रूरी नहीं पड़ोसी राज्य में भी हो। प्रमाणपत्र उसी राज्य का मान्य होगा जिसकी सूची में आपका समुदाय है।