Scholarship: Kerala government set up scholarship for SC, ST students of aviation

NEW DELHI: The Kerala government will take care of the complete expenses of students from Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) communities who clear the entrance examination to the Rajiv Gandhi Aviation Academy.

The Rajiv Gandhi Aviation Academy is a state-run institute that provides training for a Commercial Pilot License (CPL).

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“The state government is ready to fund the entire fees which come to around Rs 25 lakh”, K Radhakrishnan, state minister for SC, ST said.

Hereafter, students from the SC, ST community who get admission will be able to study for free. Previously, the scholarship was limited to one or two cadets and from now on this would be given to all from the SC, ST communities.

"This is going to benefit the new generation of a community who not long ago could not even utter the word of education even," Radhakrishnan wrote on his Facebook post.

He also advised the five successful students to become role models for their community. The five students who got admission are Sharnya from Wayanad, Sankeerthana from Kannur, Adithyan from Alappuzha, Vishnu Prasad from Kozhikode and Rahul from Thiruvananthapuram, reported the Times of India.

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This comes at a point when the Post Matric Scholarship for Scheduled Caste students is underfunded. The scholarship schemes to support the historically marginalised dalit communities through higher education are facing insufficient budget allocation and underutilisation.

A National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR) report revealed that expenditure on the post-matric scholarship scheme has exceeded the budget allocation. This shows a shortage of funds. Over the years, the budgets for scholarship schemes administered by the ministry of social justice and empowerment (MSJE) have either witnessed a marginal increase or no change at all. The underfunding has affected the implementation of SC and ST schemes, including scholarships.