The Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment is working on to build an inclusive society, wherein members of the marginalised groups can lead productive, safe and dignified lives with adequate support for their growth and development.
Till now the major target groups of the Ministry include: Scheduled Castes, Other Backward Classes, Senior Citizens, Victims of Alcoholism and Substance (Drug) Abuse, Transgender Persons, Denotified, Nomadic and Semi-nomadic Tribes, Destitutes/ Beggars, Economically Backward Classes (EBCs) and Persons with Disabilities.
For this, the Ministry has been making efforts for education empowerment of such groups, providing scholarships to the students belonging to the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) to ensure that education is not denied due to the poor financial condition of their families. Scholarships are provided at pre-matric and post-matric levels and also for obtaining higher education in India and abroad.
The scholarships can broadly be classified into the following three types: Pre-Matric, Post- Matric, for Higher Education and more. During 2014-15, Rs 624.60 crore was spent for providing scholarship to approximately 1.61 crore students under the Pre-matric scholarship. During 2014-15, under the Scheme, Rs2744.31 crore was spent for providing scholarship to approximately 1.44 crore students under post-matric Scholarship.