No creamy layer for pre-matric students' scholarships soon

The creamy layer concept in scholarships to pre-matric students may become a reality, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Published on: Nov 24, 2006, 24:48:00 IST

None | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The creamy layer concept in scholarships to pre-matric students may become a reality.

In the final approach paper, the Planning Commission has recommended a scholarship scheme for all "bright poor students" irrespective of their caste and creed. "We don't want to widen the divide between the backwards and forward castes which has come into open after the reservation for OBCs in educational institutions," explained a Planning Commission official.

When contacted Planning Commission member BC Mungerkar, said, "It is a way to include poor bright children from all communities for building a knowledge society."

As per the new policy initiative, the only eligibility criteria for getting the national scholarship would be annual income of their parents. "The commission and HRD ministry has agreed in principle to give scholarships on the basis of 'mean test'," he informed.

The mean test is the average annual income for a particular section of the society. For instance, the mean test for Scheduled Caste students would be different from the mean test for an OBC student. Similarly the mean test for forward classes and Muslims would also vary. Moreover, the mean test for any community may differ from one state to another.

Though the concept of mean test has been agreed, the commission officials say, the final decision on what would be the mean test for each community will be decided by the government. "We expect the issue to be discussed in the next National Development Council meeting slated for December 9," an official said.

HRD minister Arjun Singh had earlier proposed a mean test for providing pre-matric scholarship to the educationally backward sections of the society including Muslims, SC/ST, OBCs and girl children. As per HRD ministry's estimate, over a crore students at the primary level will be eligible for scholarships if the mean test is not applied.

Already, a Planning Commission sub-group has recommended pre-matric scholarships ranging between Rs 500 to Rs 700 per year for backward Muslims, SCs, STs and OBCs. "We expect more sub-groups on education to submit their report by the end of November. Only after that a concrete plan on educational scholarships will be framed," an official said.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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