Children's Day 2024: List of scholarships to help students to achieve their dreams

Here are some scholarship schemes for students that will help them dream big and achieve them with flying colours.

Every year, on November 14, the country celebrates Children's Day to commemorate the birth anniversary of India's first Prime Minister, Pt Jawaharlal Nehru.

Education becomes an integral part of children's overall development and needs to be available for all children, as it is their right to claim it. (Photo by Bhushan Koyande/HT) (HT PHOTO)

While we celebrate the day keeping in mind the children who will soon grow up to represent our tomorrow, the day also reminds us to pay attention to the overall development of these kids.

Education becomes an integral part of children's overall development and needs to be available for all children, as it is their right to claim it. Here are some scholarship schemes for students that will help them dream big and achieve them with flying colours.

PM CARES for Children Scholarship

Launched on May 29, 2021, the PM CARES for Children Scheme aims to support children who have lost both their Parents or legal guardians or Adoptive Parents or Surviving Parent to the COVID-19 pandemic during the period starting from March 11, 2020.

• Under the Scheme, the Scholarship allowance would be ₹20,000/- per child per annum which will comprise a monthly allowance of ₹1,000 per month and an Annual academic allowance of Rs. 8,000 to cover the entire school fees, cost of the books and uniform, shoes and other educational equipment.
• The Scholarship will be disbursed through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) to the school-going children studying in Class 1-12.

HDFC Bank Parivartan's Educational Crisis Scholarship Support (ECSS)

HDFC Bank Parivartan's Educational Crisis Scholarship Support (ECSS) Programme is an initiative of HDFC Bank and aims to support deserving students belonging to underprivileged sections of society.

• The scholarship programme is meant for school students from Class 1 to 12 and those pursuing diploma, ITI, polytechnic, UG and PG (general and professional) programmes.
• Under the programme, financial assistance of up to ₹75,000 is provided to students who are unable to bear the educational expenses due to financial problems and are at risk of dropping out.

Selection process:

• Shortlisting of the candidates based on the eligibility criteria
• Document verification
• Personal interview of the shortlisted candidates' post document verification
• Announcement of the final list of scholars

Eligibility Criteria:

• The candidate should be an Indian national
• The candidate must be currently studying in Classes 1 to 12, diploma, ITI, and polytechnic courses in private, government, or government-aided schools
• The applicants must have passed the previous qualifying examination with at least 55% marks.
• Annual family income must be less than or equal to INR 2.5 Lakh.
• Preference will be given to those applicants who are facing personal or family crises that have occurred during the past three years due to which they are unable to continue bearing the cost of education and are at risk of dropping out.

National Means-Cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme

An initiative by the Department of School Education & Literacy, Ministry of Education, this scheme aims to offer 1,00,000 scholarships to students whose parental income is not more than ₹3,50,000/- per annum from all sources at the time of selection of awardees for a scholarship.

• As per the scheme, each State /UT has a fixed quota of scholarships for the concerned age group of classes 7th and 8th.
• The Cabinet has approved the continuation of the scheme from FY 2021-22 to FY 2025-26 with a total allocation of Rs.1827 crores.
• Rs. 12,000/- per annum ( ₹1,000 per month) is awarded to meritorious students every year at the Class IX level, which can be continued up to Class 12th.
• The awardees will be required to open bank accounts preferably in SBI, any public sector bank, or any scheduled bank which has a core banking facility.

Selection process:

As per the scheme, each State/UT will conduct its own test at the stage of class 8th for the selection of students. The State Level Examination may consist of the following two tests:

1) Mental Ability Test (MAT), 90 minutes duration: 90 multiple-choice questions testing verbal and non-verbal meta-cognitive abilities like reasoning and critical thinking. The questions in the test may be on analogy. classification. numerical series, pattern perception, hidden figure, etc.

2) Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), 90 minutes duration: 90 multiple-choice questions covering subjects namely, science, social studies, and mathematics as taught in classes 7th and 8th.

For more information, visit the official website.