The only way of getting rid of poverty is proper education to all. India has focused on the successful enrollment of every student in schools, however, due to various socio economic reasons students belonging to the minority communities face dropouts and not able to continue their education. The dropout of every single child has effected in big way as she/ he can't come to mainstream of growth and development, thus can't contribute to its full potential in country's development. Therefore, it is necessary to aid such students in all means to pursue their education. Government at both levels i.e. Center and State is focusing in creating infrastructure (i.e. construction of new buildings, providing drinking water, providing mid day meal and establishment of sanitation facilities in schools etc.) and to provide financial aid to the students through various scholarships schemes. The efforts made in these directions have reduced the dropout to a large extent in general. Nevertheless, today the dropout rate in minority communities residing in different states of the country is still very large. In order to tackle the problem of dropouts, government has introduced the National Scholarship Portal as a mission mode project. The project aims to integrate various Ministries /Departments at Center and State level and brings them on a single platform so that virtually they all behave as one unit. This is facilitating the Government to disburse the timely scholarships directly into the bank accounts of the beneficiaries/ students. It is a big step towards reducing the dropouts among the students of minority communities studying in pre matric level and thus enabling them to complete at least elementary and secondary education.
Published In:IJCSN Journal Volume 9, Issue 4
Date of Publication : August 2020
Pages : 193-203
Figures :05
Tables : 12
Shyam Bihari Singh :
have 34 years of long experience as IT Change Leader in the govt. sector, pioneered the ICT Govt. Setup/ infra in Bihar, Jharkhand and UP. He has envisioned, conceptualized and realized successfully Nationwide ICT Projects like, Custom, eCourts MMP, and various statutory bodies & tribunals of the country. His exemplary contributions are well acclaimed at apex IT bodies of National repute. He is Recipient of Prime Minister's Award for Excellence in Public Administration 2006 07. Dedicated entire life to enrich the ICT led public services to the doorstep of those who are unprivileged and neglected, also played a key role by his significant ICT contributions in shaping the 'Digital India Programme' of the country.
Dr. Mrinalini Pandey :
has 17 years of academic experience in teaching various courses on Management both at PG and UG levels as Associate Professor in Department of Management Studies, IIT(ISM), Dhanbad. She is actively involved in taking MDP and EDP classes and has delivered invited lectures at many public sector organizations. In pursuance of her academic aim she has reviewed many books of HR and marketing and supervised various research projects relating to the field. As member of leading professional bodies of management, she has contributed papers in management journals and presented papers in international and national conferences in India and abroad. She has won many awards which include two best paper Awards for her research work, best case study award. She is the recipient of Aprajita Award. She has chaired sessions and given invited talks and keynote addresses at International and National Conferences.
Dropout, elementary education, secondary education, scholarship, Pre matric, National Scholarship Portal
As per MHR report the average dropout rate in India is approximately 25 percent that means approximately 1.5 crore students belonging to minority communities need scholarship every year to continue their education at primary level. Currently the National Scholarship portal is distributing the scholarship to 91.34 Lakhs students (including pre matric and post matric) every year. There is need of establishing proper marketing strategies so that more and more awareness could be created, and more students could apply for the scholarships. As more students would apply for scholarship through National Scholarship Portal, the Ministries/ Department distributing the scholarships to the minority communities would be requiring more funds and the same could be met with the
harmonization of the schemes. Distribution through national scholarship portal is the only resort for timely disbursement of the scholarship as the portal is integrated with public finance management system (PFMS) of the central government and other payment gateways. It has facility to directly link to the treasuries of the government to directly make the scholarship transactions into the bank account of the beneficiaries/ students through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT).
As per the study conducted, the system is robust and effective in terms of availability, understandability, suggestibility delightfulness and bringing happiness by assuring the students that they are being heard, and they are not left alone. Government is supporting their education through eGovernance. It is evident from the study that financial assurance of timely payment of students' school fees and other dues through the medium of scholarship is helping the students to do better in their academics and reducing the dropouts as well.
[1] Govinda, R. and K. Biswal, 2005, "Mapping Literacy in India: Who are the illiterates and where do we find them", background paper for the Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2006, Literacy for Life, UNESCO.
[2] Sandeep Kaur, and Mamta Murthi, 2009 "Literacy in India"
[3] Murthi, M., Guio, A-C. and J. Drèze, 1995. "Mortality, Fertility and Gender Bias in India", Population and Development Review
[4] Public Report on Basic Education in India, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 1999.
[5] Census of India 2011, The First Report on Religion Data
[6] Annual Report 2012 13, Ministry of Minority Affairs, GOI
[7] Report of the National Commission for Religion and Linguistic Minorities, 2007.
