35 lakh minority students to be provided scholarship in 2017-18
New Delhi: The Minister of State for Minority Affairs (Independent Charge) & Parliamentary Affairs Shri Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi has said that the Central Government has been working on priority basis to provide better education as well as job-oriented skill training to the Minority Communities.
Chairing the 53rd General Body Meeting of Maulana Azad Education Foundation in New Delhi today Shri Naqvi said the Government is committed to provide modern education and skill development training to youths of the Minority. Ministry of Minority Affairs is establishing 5 world class educational institutes to provide better traditional as well as modern education to students belonging to Minority communities. These world class institutions will provide education in technical and medical fields including Ayurvedic and Unani way of medicine. A high-level committee is preparing framework of these institutes and will submit its report soon. The government is working on a strategy to start them in 2018. It has proposed 40 per cent reservation for girls in these institutes.
Shri Naqvi said that in the Budget allocated to Minority Affairs Ministry has been increased to Rs. 4195.48 crore for 2017-18. This is Rs. 368.23 crore more than 2016-17 Budget of Rs. 3827.25 crore. More than 70 per cent of this Budget would be utilised for educational empowerment of Minorities and job-oriented programmes for them.
Hundreds of crores of rupees has been provided for various scholarships and skill development schemes such as “Seekho aur Kamao”, “Nai Manzil”, “Nai Roushni”, “Usttad”, “Garib Nawaz Skill Development Centre” and “Begum Hazrat Mahal Scholarship for Girls”. Besides this, funds under Multi-sectoral Development Programme (MsDP) will also be utilised for various educational development activities. Rs. 393.54 crore has been given for Merit-cum-Means based scholarship; Rs. 950 crore for pre-matric scholarship; Rs 550 crore for post-matric scholarship; Rs. 250 crore for “Seekho aur Kamao); Rs. 176 crore for “Nai Manzil”; Rs. 113 crore for Maulana Azad Education Foundation and Rs. 170 crore as equity for NMDFC.
Shri Naqvi said that for 2017-18, we have set a target to provide scholarships to about 35 lakh students. Employment oriented training will be provided to more than 2 lakh youths belonging to Minority communities. We have also approved 16 “Gurukul” type residential schools across the country. We have also decided to help those Madrasas who are also providing mainstream education.
Shri Naqvi said that our efforts for educational empowerment of Minorities include establishing “Garib Nawaz Skill Development Centre”, “Begum Hazrat Mahal Scholarship” for girls, and establishing 500 quality residential schools and job-oriented skill development centres.