Jharkhand Scholarship Funds: Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and asked for more money for scholarship schemes in the state. He said many students from Scheduled Tribe, Scheduled Caste, Backward Class and minority groups are not getting help on time because the Centre is releasing much less money than what Jharkhand actually needs. Soren said this shortage is affecting lakhs of students and is disturbing their education.
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Jharkhand’s way of Giving Scholarships
Soren said Jharkhand uses an income-based system for scholarships. That means the state checks the yearly income of parents or guardians instead of looking only at community identity. He said this is meant to keep the system fair and linked to social justice. At the same time, he pointed out that Jharkhand has tough geography, limited resources and a large poor population. Because of this, the state depends a lot on proper support from the Centre for student welfare work.
The chief minister also gave exact numbers to show the gap. For post-matric scholarships, Jharkhand asked for ₹370.87 crore in 2025-26 but got only ₹58.22 crore. In 2024-25, the state sought ₹353.21 crore and received just ₹33.57 crore.
For the pre-matric scholarship scheme for Backward Class students, Jharkhand wanted ₹66.14 crore in 2024-25 but got only ₹12.61 crore. For 2025-26, it requested ₹45.91 crore and received just ₹3.95 crore. Soren said this kind of shortage has delayed payments and put student education at risk.
Problems For ST and Minority Students
Soren also said Scheduled Tribe students are facing a separate problem. He claimed that no central funds were released for ST pre-matric or post-matric scholarships in 2025-26. He added that the ₹200 crore released in 2024-25 was not fresh money. According to him, it mostly covered old dues from 2022-23 and part of the Centre’s share for 2023-24. He also said ST students get ₹3,000 a year, while SC students get ₹3,500 and Backward Class students get ₹4,000, and he asked the Centre to remove this gap.
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The letter also talked about minority students. Soren said minorities make up 23.29% of Jharkhand’s population, but scholarship support for them has not been released since 2021-22. He asked the Prime Minister to restart this help and create a special policy for weaker and developing states so that students do not have to stop their studies because of money problems.
