For three years now, Bihar has not received a single application for the Post-Matric Scholarship, a Centrally Sponsored Scheme for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe students.

Officials blame it on “technical issues with the National Scholarship Portal” but are unable to explain why this has not been sorted out in three years, and why other states, including neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, have done exceedingly well in providing benefits of this scheme to SC/ST students.

In a state where SCs make 16% of the population and the STs 1%, an estimated 5 lakh students are eligible for this scholarship every year. In fact, most Bihar SC/ST students have been denied this scholarship for six years now – and for an entirely different reason from 2016-17 to 2018-19.

In 2016, the Bihar government’s SC/ST welfare department capped the fee, saying there was a difference in fee structures of government and private colleges within and outside Bihar, so the state needed to rationalise the fee (ranging from annual Rs 2,000 to Rs 90,000) -- unlike other states.

Several students claimed that the fee capping put enormous financial burden on their families, forcing several of them to discontinue higher education or professional courses.

The Post-Matric Scholarship, a Centrally Sponsored Scheme which benefits an estimated 60 lakh students across the country is available to an SC/ST student whose family’s annual income is up to Rs 2.5 lakh.

In Bihar alone, about 5 lakh Plus Two to post-graduate SC/ST students are eligible for scholarship under this scheme.

The scheme works