Narendra Modi government to give scholarships for 5 crore students from minority communities 

Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.

New Delhi: In order to reach out to minority communities, the Narendra Modi government has set a new target – to give out scholarships to five crore students from those communities in the next five years. This scholarship scheme will have a big focus on girls, who will get 50 per cent of these scholarships.

Minority affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, on Tuesday, announced the programme with various scholarships for before and after school board exams.

Naqvi said, “The outreach is part of the government's efforts to create an atmosphere of healthy inclusive growth by eradicating the ‘disease of communalism’ and appeasement politics,” and added, “The Narendra Modi government is a dispensation committed to samaveshi vikas, sarvsparshi vishwas (inclusive growth with trust).”

Under the new programme, girls from minority communities who have dropped out of schools will be linked to education and employment. They will also be provided with “bridge courses” from reputed educational institutions of the country.

At a later stage, students will be also coached for free if they want to sit for competitive exams including in central and state administrative services, banking services, staff selection commission and railways exams.

The programme will be launched next month, with scholarships including more than 10 lakh Begum Hazrat Mahal Girls Scholarship for the economically weaker sections.

The government has allocated ₹93,847 crore in this year’s interim budget announced in February, which is a jump of ₹10,000 crore from previous year’s allocation.

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