Scholarship is a boon for the students belonging to the weaker sections of the society, inIndia majority of the poor students are from minority and backward community, Scholarship helps these students to pursue their further education.
It’s unfortunate that the scholarship has dramatically decreased in the last year’sModi government. Muslim community as an example, In 2013-14 totally 70,84,527students had appliedfor the scholarship while only 66,67,674 students applied in 2014-15. We have seen 5.88% decline in the number of applications. The reason for the decline was the BJP led central government’s negligence towards minorities. There could be further decline in the number of the applications in this year 2015-2016 of the applications mostly due to the newly introduced “National Scholarship Portal”. The central government has on boarded various scholarship schemes under one central portal. The way this portal has been handled so far by the government foreshadows ability of executing of the “Digital India” plan of the Modi government and it isn’t looking anywhere near optimistic.
Previously, the pre-matric Scholarship(1ststd to 10th std) was directly applied through schools. This time only 1st to 8th standards students can applymanually. The 9th and 10th students are forced to apply via online Portal.
It’s very difficult and tedious to apply via online. One application takes at least around 45 minutes for completion provided the Server is not busy. The server is always busy in few of the places.There are hundreds of the students who are worthy of scholarship and are facing so severe issues and the authorities are also clueless
The portal has become the cause of the distress for many of the students. It doesn’t open the most of the times. Even if it does, the completion of all the steps without any interruptions is impossible. The portal has low bandwidth, low space and a very bad server. It’s very surprising that the central government has not upgraded the server while combining all the schemes into one portal. Each application needs at least 9 documents of less than 100Kb to be uploaded. It’s very difficult ensure this and ensure quality of images.
Along with all the technical issues there are other discrepancies in the portal like various colleges, bank branches, courses are not listed at all.
The last date for the application is fast approaching, even then we see multiple rules being change in the portal. Only 3% of the number of students who applied for scholarship last year have applied so far this year.
This is a country of villages. 70% of this country’s population live in the villages. Most of the demographics are computer illiterate, who are not comfortable with internet and scanning the documents. There have been complaints that brokers are taking huge money from the students for the application. If Karnataka, the technically leading is facing these problems, then what could be the condition of the students in the technologically weak states like Bihar &Assam.
All the issues seen in the portal and the fact that the PM office is directly handling the Minority scholarship schemes makes one think whether the central government is conspiring to curb scholarship given to the minorities.is the Government trying to Reduce the Number of applications submitted so as to reduce the budget for the scholarship can also be reduced. This anti-minority mindset of the Central Govtis clearly visible in this whole scholarship fiasco and this is a bad omen for the secular and social fiber of theNation and a joke of Ek Bharat Shresta Bharat as there are clearly two agendas working here of development and decrement.
We, Campus Front of India are writing this memorandum to bring to your immediate consideration these serious issues regarding the joint national portal of Scholarships. It has been brought into our notice by hundreds of students and we have looked into website to found them true. It is our request that you please look into the problems and technical glitches the website has been showing up.
Technical glitches have been rampant in the new combined portal. Not even a single form is being accepted by website at some places.
With majority of cyber cafes backing out of filling the Pre-Matric, Post-Matric and Merit-Cum-Means Scholarships online. It has become a severe uphill task for students. Currently the forms are not being submitted. On other handit will cause havoc when the forms are submitted. This is like a ticking time bomb which need immediate defusing.
The Union government have a Flawed concept of education which is destroying the education in India. The subsidies are being given in Higher educations while the primary education is being systematically meddled and demolished. This is a policy that favors the rich and elite. And the Poor but worthy students will have to drop out. The Dropout rate of Minorities especially Muslims is too high at School level and depriving them of financial assistance shall be like prompting them to drop out even more.
We Request Hon’ble President of India to step up and resolve the matter before it gets out of hand, we have no one else to look up to as the government seems to be hellbent on demolishing the education system in India in fit of its pro rich education policy.
Demands:
1.) Extension of the final dates of all the scholarships.
2.) Simplified process for the website must be put in place, with consultations from Parent & Students Bodies.
3.) High level official must be appointed to look after the website’s technical glitches.
4.) To rectify the errors that have been occurring in the website
5.) We demand that the authorities must equip the ground level staff and train them and clear out all the technical issues.
6.) The management of the Scholarships must be handed over to state governments with separate servers and equipment.