Initiatives taken by the Ministry of Education

Education for Girls

Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Abhiyan

The Department of School Education and Literacy has supported the Ministry of Women and Child Development for roll out of “Beti Bachao Beti Padhao” Abhiyan in the country to enhance the sex ratio and the status of the girl child. An award is being instituted from the “Beti Bachao Beti Padhao” Abhiyan for School Management Committees which achieve 100% transition of girls at different levels of education.

Swachh Vidyalaya

The Department is committed to the provision of a functional girls toilet in every school. Swachh Vidyalaya Initiative (SVI) works for the provision of
separate toilets for girls and boys in all Government schools. 

Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV)

Bridging gender and social category gaps at all levels of school education is one of the major objectives of the Samagra Shiksha. Consequently, to encourage the participation of girls in education, the existing Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBVs) at upper primary level and Girls Hostels at secondary level have been extended/converged to provide residential and schooling facilities upto Class-XII under the Scheme.

Thus, the Scheme now provides for access and quality education to girls from disadvantaged groups of girls in the age group of 10-18 years aspiring to study in Classes VI to XII; belonging to SC, ST, OBC, Minority communities and BPL families to ensure smooth transition of girls from elementary to secondary and upto class XII wherever possible. KGBV provides the facility to have at-least one residential school for girls from Classes VI-XII in every educationally backward block (EBBs).

Enhanced financial support for existing Stand-alone Girls' Hostels for classes IX to XII (KGBV Type IV) of upto Rs 40 lakh per annum.

National Scheme of Incentive to Girls for Secondary Education (NSIGSE)

The centrally sponsored “National Scheme of Incentive to Girls for Secondary Education (NSIGSE)” was launched in May 2008, to give incentive to students enrolled in class IX. 

The scheme covers (i) all girls belonging to SC/ST communities who pass class VIII and (ii) all girls who pass class VIII examination from Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (irrespective of whether they belong to SC/ ST), and enroll in class IX in State/ UT Government, Government-aided and Local Body schools.

Incentive Amount: A sum of Rs. 3000/- is deposited in the name of eligible unmarried girls as fixed deposit on enrolment in class IX, who are entitled to withdraw it along with interest thereon upon reaching 18 years of age and passing Class X examination.

Rani Laxmibai Atma Raksha Prashikshan

Under the Scheme, Self-defense training is provided for three months per Government schools having girls enrollment. The training is meant for girls student from class VI to XII. The girls are trained to use every day articles such as, Key chain, duppata, Stole, mufflers, bags, pen/ pencil, notebook etc. as weapons of opportunity/improvised self-defence weapons to their advantage. 

CBSE Single Girl Child Merit Scholarship

The objective of CBSE merit scholarship scheme is to provide scholarships to the meritorious Single Girl Students, who are the only child of their parents; and have passed the CBSE Class X Examination with 60% or more marks and are continuing their further school education of Class XI and XII. The rate of scholarship shall be Rupees Five Hundred (Rs. 500/-) per month.

PRAGATI - Providing Assistance for Girls’ Advancement in Technical Education Initiative

The AICTE scheme envisages selection of one girl per family where family income is less than 8 lakhs / annum on merit at the qualifying examination to pursue technical education. 5000 girls are expected to benefit of scholarships available per annum. The scholarship amount is Rs. 50,000 per annum.

Post Graduate Indira Gandhi Scholarship for Single Girl Child

In order to achieve and promote girls education, UGC has introduced a Post Graduate Indira Gandhi Scholarship for Single Girl Child with an aim to compensate direct costs of girl education to all levels especially for such girls who happen to be the only girl child in their family. Amount of fellowship: Rs.36,200/- p.a. for a period of two years only i.e. full duration of a PG course. Every year, 3000 girls are provided scholarships. 

Girl Children with Special Needs s

Separate provision of stipend for CwSN girls @ Rs. 200 per month for 10 months, in addition to student component from pre-primary to senior secondary level.

Persons with Special Needs

SAKSHAM

Scholarship for Differently-abled children AICTE has decided to award scholarships per annum to all eligible differently abled students to pursue technical education.  The scholarship amount would be Rs. 50000 per annum.

Identification Camps for CwSN

Provision of annual identification camps for CwSN at block level @Rs. 10000 per camp and equipping of Block Resource centres for rehabilitation and special training of CwSN.

Initiatives for the North East

ISHAN UDAY - Special Scholarship Scheme For North Eastern Region

Special Scholarship Scheme for students of North East Region. The UGC has launched a special scholarship Scheme for students of North East Region from the academic session 2014-15. The Scheme envisages grant of 10,000 scholarships to students from North East Region whose parental income is below Rs. 4.5 lakh per annum and would be provided scholarship of Rs. 5400/- per month for general degree course and Rs.7800/- per month for technical /medical /professional /paramedical courses.

Ishān Vikās

Ishān Vikās is a comprehensive plan to bring selected students from the school and college levels from the North-Eastern states into close contact with the IITs, NITs and IISERs during their vacation periods. A typical visit is envisaged for a period of ten days to one of these institutions, in the form of either an exposure or an Internship programme. Each school will send one teacher to accompany a group of about 32 students of class IX and X and 8 teachers. The college students would be organised in two groups in summer and in winter, consisting of 32 students each group. About 2016 college students and 504 teachers from N-E will be visiting premier Institutes, like IIT/NIT/ IISERs in an academic year. or Centrally Funded Technological Institutes) with Stipends and Travel will be taken up. 

ICT enabled enhancement of learning opportunities

ICT enabled enhancement of learning opportunities to accelerate outreach, improve quality and promote equity by facilitating access to the best educational resources for learners/ teachers.

SWAYAM (Study Webs of Active –Learning for Young Aspiring Minds) PROGRAMME:

SWAYAM is a programme initiated by Government of India and designed to achieve the three cardinal principles of Education Policy viz., access, equity and quality. The objective of this effort is to take the best teaching learning resources to all, including the most disadvantaged. Under this programme, Professors of centrally funded institutions like IITs, IIMs, Centrally universities offer online courses to citizens of our country. Courses delivered through SWAYAM are available free of cost to the learners, however learners wanting a SWAYAM certificate should register for the final proctored exams that come at a fee and attend in-person at designated centres on specified dates. 

SWAYAM PRABHA

The SWAYAM PRABHA is a group of 34 DTH channels devoted to telecasting of high-quality educational programmes on 24X7 basis using the GSAT-15 satellite. Every day, there will be new content for at least (4) hours which would be repeated 5 more times in a day, allowing the students to choose the time of their convenience. The channels are uplinked from BISAG, Gandhinagar. The contents are provided by NPTEL, IITs, UGC, CEC, IGNOU.

National E-Library

The E-Library has been envisaged as an online portal that will democratize access to knowledge by ensuring that quality content from central universities and premier educational institutions are available in a digital format that can be easily accessed by students, working professionals and researchers across the country through laptops, smartphones, tablets, PC’s. International collaboration has been offered by Israel, Norway, UK, UNESCO. The National E –Library is operational from 2015.

For many more initiatives, click here.

Augmenting Research

Dr. S. Radhakrishnan Post Doctoral Fellows in Social Sciences

The UGC has launched a new scheme, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan Post Doctoral Fellows in Social Sciences including Languages. Under the scheme 300 fellowships would be awarded at the rate of Rs. 25,000 per month + HRA etc. for a period of 3 years to the selected Fellows.

AICTE Scholarship for Ph D Studies

AICTE has announced 1000 scholarships per annum to eligible candidates to pursue Ph D in CSIR / DRDO labs or other reputed institutions: Payment of scholarship is as per the Government norms for the purpose.

Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya National Mission on Teachers and Teaching

The Mission addresses comprehensively all issues related to teachers, teaching, teacher preparation, professional development, curriculum design, designing and developing assessment & evaluation methodology, research in pedagogy and developing effective pedagogy.  It will try to bridge the gap between teachers and teacher educators and provide opportunities for teachers to become teacher educators. 

Quality improvement Programme

This is a program conducted by GOI to promote research amongst the eligible teachers in  AICTE approved Institutions and others and facilitate them to complete a Ph D from the best Institutions in India like the IIT’s and NIT’s or other Nationally important Institutes. This scheme is open only to regular teachers. Financial assistance is provided for teachers to undertake M Tech and PhD under QIP.

For more information Ministry of Education