PM YASASVI Scholarship: Entrance Test, Categories and What It Pays

EBC and DNT are not OBC, and they are not the same as each other

Economically Backward Class (EBC) covers students from families that are economically disadvantaged but not covered by a caste-based reservation category. It is defined by state notification and it is distinct from the central EWS quota used in recruitment — different criteria, different certificate, different purpose.

De-notified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes (DNT) covers communities that were labelled "criminal tribes" under colonial law and de-notified after independence, along with nomadic and semi-nomadic communities. Many are not on the SC or ST lists and so fall outside those schemes entirely. This is one of the few central scholarships that names them explicitly, and it exists partly because they were consistently missed by everything else.

If a grandparent's community was historically nomadic or was de-notified, it is worth finding out whether it is on your state's DNT list. Families often do not know, because there has rarely been a reason to ask.

A note on this site's own limits: our eligibility checker can represent OBC but not EBC or DNT. If either applies to you, treat a "not eligible" result on category as unreliable and read the scheme page directly.

Two entry points, and no way in between

YASASVI admits students at Class 9 and at Class 11. Those are the only entry points. A student in Class 10 cannot join, and neither can one in Class 12 — they must wait for the next entry point, and for a Class 10 student that means the Class 11 window.

The two entries pay differently, because they are funding different things. The Class 11 entry, at up to ₹1.25 lakh a year, is sized to cover fees and hostel charges at a good school for the two years that decide a student's higher education. The Class 9 entry, at ₹75,000, runs longer but at a lower rate.

The entrance test decides it

Selection is by a competitive entrance test, and the award goes by rank rather than to everyone who qualifies on category and income. Meeting the eligibility conditions gets you into the examination hall; it does not get you the scholarship.

This is a real difference from the post-matric schemes, which are entitlements: an SC student under the income ceiling receives the post-matric scholarship. A YASASVI applicant under the income ceiling receives an admit card. Families should understand which kind of scheme they are applying to before they build a plan on it.

The registration window for the test is announced separately from the general NSP application season, so watch for it independently. Missing it means waiting a year, and for a Class 11 candidate there is no next year.

Documents you will be asked for

The portal's own checklist governs, and it changes slightly between sessions, but the set below is what every applicant is asked for and the two that hold families up are the first two.

• Community certificate — OBC, EBC or DNT, issued by the competent state authority. A DNT certificate is the one families most often do not have and cannot obtain in a week, so start it before the window opens, not after.
• Income certificate — for the ₹2.5 lakh ceiling, in the format the state accepts. An ITR or an employer letter is usually not a substitute.
• Aadhaar of the student, and a bank account linked to it. Where the student is a minor, the guardian's account is used and the portal asks for the relationship.
• Bonafide or enrolment certificate from the school, confirming the class the student is entering.
• Previous year's marksheet, plus the entrance test admit card and result once that stage is done.
• Passport photograph and, for the fee component, the school's fee receipt or fee structure.

Scan everything before the window opens. Applications fail far more often on an unreadable upload or a name spelled differently across two certificates than on eligibility — and a name mismatch between the Aadhaar and the community certificate has to be fixed at the issuing office, which takes weeks.

The last date to apply — and why it is not on this page

There are two windows, not one: registration for the entrance test, and the scholarship application on the National Scholarship Portal. They open at different times, and the test window is the one that shuts first and is most often missed.

We do not print either date. Session dates get extended, re-notified and occasionally reopened, and a student who trusts a date copied from a website misses the real one — which for a Class 11 applicant means the scheme is gone, because there is no second entry point. Open the portal, look for YASASVI in the current session's scheme list, and read the date from the source that can actually change it.

What it actually pays for

The award covers school fees and, at listed institutions, hostel and boarding charges. That combination is the point of the scheme: it is designed to make it possible for a student from a backward-class family to attend a well-resourced school away from home, which is a different objective from reimbursing the fees at the school they already attend.

Because of that, the institution matters. The full value is available at institutions on the scheme's list, and a student who wins the scholarship should check what is payable at their intended school before turning down a place elsewhere.

The income ceiling is ₹2.5 lakh a year — the same as the SC and ST post-matric schemes, and a lakh higher than the OBC post-matric ceiling. An OBC family between ₹1.5 lakh and ₹2.5 lakh is outside the post-matric scheme and inside this one, which is worth knowing if a school-age child in the family has been told there is nothing available.

PM YASASVI इस पेज की सबसे बड़ी रक़म देती है — कक्षा 11 और 12 में ₹1.25 लाख सालाना तक, और कक्षा 9 व 10 में ₹75,000 सालाना। यह OBC, आर्थिक रूप से पिछड़ा वर्ग (EBC) और विमुक्त, घुमंतू व अर्ध-घुमंतू जनजाति (DNT) के छात्रों के लिए है।

EBC और DNT अलग श्रेणियाँ हैं — SC/ST सूची में न होने के कारण ये समुदाय बाक़ी योजनाओं से अक्सर छूट जाते हैं। अगर आपके परिवार का समुदाय पहले घुमंतू रहा हो, तो राज्य की DNT सूची ज़रूर देख लीजिए।

चयन प्रवेश परीक्षा से होता है। पात्रता पूरी करने से सिर्फ़ परीक्षा में बैठने का मौक़ा मिलता है, छात्रवृत्ति नहीं — यह पोस्ट-मैट्रिक योजनाओं से बड़ा फ़र्क़ है, जहाँ शर्तें पूरी होने पर पैसा मिलता ही है।

प्रवेश सिर्फ़ कक्षा 9 और कक्षा 11 में मिलता है, बीच में नहीं। आय सीमा ₹2.5 लाख है — OBC पोस्ट-मैट्रिक की ₹1.5 लाख सीमा से ज़्यादा, इसलिए जो परिवार वहाँ बाहर रह जाते हैं वे यहाँ पात्र हो सकते हैं।