Scrapped scheme for minority students to study abroad benefitted 15,000 over 5 years: Ministry

NEW DELHI: More than 15,500 minority students benefited from the central government’s Padho Pardesh scheme which provided education loan subsidies for overseas studies in five years from 2017-18 to 2021-22. Even though there was a consistent increase in the number of beneficiaries in five years, on December 15, the ministry of minority affairs (MoMA) discontinued the ‘Padho Pardesh Scheme’ from 2022-23.

The minority affairs ministry, now led by BJP’s Smriti Irani, had cited overlap with similar schemes of other ministries, “limited benefits” and “ease of availing education loans on lower rate of interest” as reasons for scrapping it. The central sector scheme was providing interest subsidies to the students belonging to minority communities to study abroad, pursuing masters, MPhil and PhD level courses overseas.

In response to a question by Achyutananda Samanta, Biju Janata Dal (BJD) Lok Sabha MP from Odisha’s Kandhamal during the ongoing monsoon session of Parliament, minority affairs minister Smriti Zubin Irani on Thursday shared with Lok Sabha the data on beneficiaries of ‘Padho Pardesh Scheme’ for its last five years. The data shows that a total of 15,722 students benefited from the scheme and that there had been a gradual increase in the number of beneficiaries with 1,711 in 2017-18 to 4,622 in 2021-22.

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Minority Affairs Ministry: Padho Pardesh Scheme beneficiaries (2017-18 to 2021-22)

Scrapping of Padho Pardesh Scheme

Minority affairs minister Irani said the scheme was discontinued because it has been observed that benefits of interest subsidy that accrued to the beneficiaries under the Padho Pardesh scheme were “limited” and also that there is an “overlap with other similar schemes” being implemented by other ministries which are applicable to eligible minority community students as well.

She said that National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation (NMDFC), a PSU under MoMA, provides educational loan for education abroad, at low rate of interest, exclusively to students belonging to minority communities.

Also Read | 215% rise in students taking education loans to study abroad since 2012

The scholarships for minority communities also saw a massive cut in scholarship funds this year’s Union Budget 2023, most of the cuts were in scholarships for marginalised or minority communities. By March 17, 2023, the ministry of minority affairs was "yet to implement" three scholarship schemes for children from minority communities for 2022-23.