Centre approves major changes in PMS-SC, ensuring greater education access for SC students

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Wednesday approved significant changes in the centrally sponsored 'Post Matric Scholarship to students belonging to Scheduled Castes' (PMS-SC). These reforms are said to benefit over four crore scheduled castes students in successfully completing their higher education in the next five years. The cabinet meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The prime minister took to Twitter to state that the scholarship will ensure greater access to students belonging to Scheduled Castes. Also, BJP National President JP Nadda took to Twitter to state that the scheme will 'ensure timely payment to beneficiaries'.  

Total investment to the tune of Rs 59,048 crore has been approved by the Cabinet, of which, Rs 35,534 crore would be spent by the Centre while the remaining balance would be spent by the state governments, Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment, Thawarchand Gehlot said while addressing media.

These reforms would replace the existing committed liability system and would lead to greater involvement of the Centre in the scheme. With the help of the PMS-SC, Scheduled Castes students would be able to pursue any post-matric course starting from class 11 with the government meeting the cost of education. The focus of the scheme would be on enrolling poorest students, timely payments, comprehensive accountability, continuous monitoring and total transparency, an official release from the government stated.

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Highlights of the PMS-SC scheme

• A campaign will be launched to enrol the students, from the poorest households passing the 10th standard, in the higher education courses of their choice. It is estimated that 1.36 Cr such poorest students, who are currently not continuing their education beyond 10th standards would be brought into the higher education system in the next 5 years. 
• The scheme will be run on an online platform with robust cybersecurity measures that would assure transparency, accountability, efficiency, and timely delivery of the assistance without any delays.
• The States will undertake fool-proof verification of the eligibility, caste status, Aadhar identification and bank account details on the online portal.
• Transfer of financial assistance to the students under the scheme shall be on DBT mode, and preferably using the Aadhar Enabled Payment System. Starting from 2021-22, the Central share (60%) in the scheme would be released on DBT mode directly into the bank accounts of the students as per fixed time schedule, after ensuring that the concerned State Government has released their share.
• Monitoring mechanism will be further strengthened through the conduct of social audits, annual third party evaluation, and half-yearly self-audited reports from each institution. 
• The Central Assistance which was around Rs 1100 crore annually during 2017-18 to 2019-20 would be increased more than 5 times to be around Rs 6000 core annually during 2020-21 to 2025-26.

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