Centre announces SMILE Scholarship for transgender students: Check eligibility and how to apply

Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has announced the SMILE Scholarship Scheme for transgender students.

Under the scheme, the candidates will be awarded Rs 13,500 once in an academic year as a post-matric/pre-matric scholarship.

Eligibility

To be eligible, an applicant must – 

• Be an Indian national
• Be a regular full-time student studying from Class 9 to postgraduate level in a Government School or a School recognized by the Government or a Central/State Board of secondary education
• Not be receiving any other Central or State Government-funded Pre-Matric/Post-matric Scholarship

Benefits:

• The candidates will be awarded Rs 13,500 once in an academic year as a post-matric/pre-matric scholarship.

Note: The candidate can accept free lodging or a grant or ad-hoc monetary help from the State Government or any other source for the purchase of books, equipment, or for meeting the expenses on board and lodging in addition to the scholarship amount paid under this scheme.

Documents:

• Self-attested passport-size photograph of the student
• Self-attested copy of Aadhaar Card
• Transfer certificate (in case the student has migrated to another)
• Institute verification form duly attested by the school/college/institute
• Transgender Identity Certificate issued through National portal for a transgender person of the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment
• A declaration by the parents/guardians stating that their ward is not availing such scholarship in any other scheme of Centre/ State Government for education
• Certificate of previous academic year’s mark sheet attested by Institute

How can you apply?

Eligible students can apply for the scholarship using the below-mentioned steps –

.

• Navigate to ‘Register Here’ and click to ‘Register’ with valid information.
• Click on ‘Scholarship’ on the dashboard and check the eligibility.
• Select the scholarship category to which the applicant wants to apply.
• Further,      select the educational level and click on ‘Get your Application Number.
• After receiving the application number, the applicant will be redirected to the master application form.
• Fill in the required details, upload the relevant documents, and submit.

Note – For detailed information, kindly refer to ‘Application User Manual’.

Important dates:

• Application Deadline – 31st August 2022

Selection criteria:

• The selection of applicants will be done based on total marks secured in the previous academic year as reflected in the mark sheet.
• In case of the same merit, preference will be given based on ‘Date of Birth’ criteria (senior is preferred) and based on the availability of the slots.
• In the Scholarship, students applying for Post-Matric shall be given preference over the Pre-Matric Scholarship.

Terms and Conditions:

• Students who are pursuing their studies through correspondence courses are also eligible. (Note –  The term correspondence includes distant and continuing education recognized by the Ministry of Education or State Government.)
• If a student violates school discipline or any other terms and conditions, the scholarship may be suspended or canceled.
• If a student is found to have obtained a scholarship by false statement, the scholarship will be canceled forthwith and the amount of the scholarship already paid will be recovered by the Ministry with penal interest as per applicable rules. The student concerned will be blacklisted and debarred for future scholarship in any scheme forever.
• The student is liable to refund the scholarship amount in case of discontinuation of studies.
• The student shall submit a certificate from the competent authority in case of migration from one school/institute to another.
• If a student has to repeat a class, the candidate will not receive a scholarship for that class for a second (or subsequent) year.
• Candidates who after passing one stage of education or studying in the same stage of education in a different subject e.g. B.Com after B.A. or M.A in one subject after M.A in other subjects will not be eligible. However, students pursuing L.L.B/B.Ed/B.El.Ed. after passing B.A./B.Sc./B.E. etc. are eligible under the scholarships for students (Postgraduate) under this scheme.
• If the number of applicants is more than the slots available, then those who didn’t receive the scholarship for a particular academic year for which they had applied will be prioritized for the successive academic year in the next financial cycle based on the submission of the application form and mark sheet.
• All Postgraduate degrees recognized by UGC/AICTE shall all be covered under the scheme.