Over Rs 2,300 crore has been allocated for the education of SC and OBC students under the SHREYAS scheme since 2014, ministry of social justice & empowerment said. 

Scholarships for Higher Education for Young Achievers Scheme (SHREYAS) is an umbrella scheme which comprises four central sector sub-schemes. 

They are: 

i) Top Class Education for SCs

ii) Free Coaching Scheme for SCs and OBCs

iii) National Overseas Scheme for SCs

iv) National Fellowship for SCs.

The main objective of the schemes is educational empowerment of Other Backward Class (OBC) and Economically Backward Class (EBC) students by way of awarding fellowship (financial assistance) in obtaining quality higher education and interest subsidy on educational loan for overseas studies.

i) Free Coaching for SC and OBC Students:

The objective of the scheme is to provide coaching of good quality for economically disadvantaged SC and OBC students to enable them to appear in competitive and entrance examinations for obtaining appropriate jobs in public/private sector as well as for securing admission in reputed technical and professional higher education institutions. The ceiling of the total family income under the scheme is Rs 8 lakh per annum. As many as 3,500 slots are allotted per annum. The ratio of SC and OBC students is 70:30 and 30 per cent slots are reserved for females in each category. In case of non-availability of the adequate number of candidates in SC category the ministry can relax this ratio. However, in no case, less than 50 per cent SC students shall be permitted. From 2014-15 till 2022-23 a total of Rs 109.77 crore have been released to benefit 19,995 beneficiaries.

ii) Top Class Education for SCs:

The scheme aims at recognising and promoting quality education amongst students belonging to SCs, by providing full financial support. The scheme covers SC students for pursuing studies beyond Class 12. The scholarship, once awarded, will continue till the completion of the course, subject to satisfactory performance of the student. The ceiling of the total family income under the scheme is Rs 8 lakh per annum. There are 266 institutions spread all over the country in the list of notified institutions. Notified institutions include all the IIMs, IITs, NITs, IIITs, AIIMS, NIFTs, NIDs, NLUs, IHMs, CUs and institutes of national importance, NAAC A++ accredited institutes and top 100 National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) ranking institutes. The overall number of scholarships would be capped at 21,500 for the period of 2021-22 to 2025-26. From 2014-15 till 2022-23 a total of Rs 398.43 crore have been released to benefit 21,988 beneficiaries.

iii) National Overseas Scheme for SCs:

The Central Sector Scheme of National Overseas Scholarship is to facilitate the low income students belonging to the Scheduled Castes, Denotified Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes, Landless Agricultural Labourers and Traditional Artisans category to obtain higher education by studying abroad, thereby improving their economic and social status. At present, 125 slots are allotted under the scheme. From 2014-15 till 2022-23 a total of Rs 197.14 crore have been released to benefit 950 beneficiaries.

iv) National Fellowship scheme for Scheduled Caste Students:

It is a Central Sector Scheme introduced during the financial year 2005-06 to provide opportunities to Scheduled Castes students for pursuing higher education leading to M.Phil/Ph.D degrees in sciences, humanities and social science streams. The scheme provides for 2,000 new Fellowships per year (500 for science stream and 1,500 for humanities and social sciences) who have qualified the National Eligibility Test-Junior Research Fellowship (NET-JRF) of UGC and Junior Research Fellows for science stream qualifying UGC-Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (UGC-CSIR) joint test.

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