Parliament Question: DBT in Implementation of Scholarship Schemes for Tribals

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF TRIBAL AFFAIRS LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 3091 TO BE ANSWERED ON 06.08.2026 “DBT in Implementation of Scholarship Schemes for Tribals”

3091. Shri PP Chaudhary:

Dr. K Sudhakar:

Shri Jugal Kishore:

Smt. Mahima Kumari Mewar:

Smt. Himadri Singh:

Shri Nalin Soren:

Shri Manish Jaiswal:

Will the Minister of TRIBAL AFFAIRS be pleased to state:

(a) whether the Ministry has undertaken any assessment of the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) Tribal Portal

for implementation of scholarship schemes in the country:

(b) if so, the details thereof, State-wise and district-wise;

(c) the progress achieved in improving transparency and timely disbursement of scholarships through the portal;

(d) whether any measures have been undertaken to strengthen real-time monitoring, authentication of Aadhaar/bank account, beneficiary verification and prevention of fake or duplicate claims under the scholarship ecosystem, if so, the details thereof; and

(e) the observed impact of digitalisation on improving access to scholarships for Scheduled Tribe (ST) students, reducing processing delays and lowering dropout rates across the country, State-wise? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE FOR TRIBAL AFFAIRS (SHRI DURGADAS UIKEY)

(a) Currently, the Ministry is already leveraging the benefit of DBT Tribal Portal by accessing the data of beneficiaries submitted by the respective State/UT for monitoring and generating MIS reports for the implementation of pre-matric and post-matric scholarship schemes. The States/UTs have also been given facilities to upload queries, documents, utilization certificates, statement of expenditure etc. which has reduced processing time and reduced grievances.

(b) The details of the number of beneficiaries reported by the States/UTs on the DBT Tribal Portal for the pre-matric and post-matric scholarship schemes during the last three financial years are given at Annexure-I.

(c) The Pre-Matric and Post-Matric Scholarship Schemes are the Centrally Sponsored Schemes and implemented through respective States/UTs. The disbursement of scholarships is carried out by the concerned State/UT through their own portal or NSP portal. The progress made through the Portal are

given as under: - i.End-to-End Digitization: Transition from paper-based processing to scheme-specific digital portals. ii.Common Data Standard: Implementation of standard data format for seamless web-service API based data sharing between States/UT portals/ National Scholarship Portal (NSP) and the DBT Tribal Portal of the Ministryiii.Faster Communication and Online Processing: Online upload of Utilization Certificates (UCs), Statements of Expenditure (SoE), and queries by States, significantly reducing processing time and administrative delays.

iv.Public Transparency & Outcome Dashboards: Integration of beneficiary and transaction data with the Performance Dashboard of the Ministry, DBT Mission, Prayas Dashboard, and NITI Aayog for outcome tracking.

(d) The data of beneficiaries reported by the State/UTs in the DBT Tribal Portal have been useful for monitoring and generating MIS reports. Integration of National Scholarship Portal with States/UTs scholarship portal enables data validation and automated deduplication checks across schemes and databases.

Under Pre-Matric and Post-Matric Scholarship Schemes for ST students, to eliminate float at State level, minimize delays in release of scholarship, and ensure transparency of fund flow, the Ministry has adopted the SNA SPARSH Model for release of central share under Pre-Matric and Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme. This serves as a Just-in-Time Disbursement Framework under which the Central Share funds are release in "Just-in-time" as and when the bills are raised by respective State Govt for payment of scholarship. Once the bills for scholarship payment is approved, both Central Share as well as State Share fund is directly transferred from RBI account to Student beneficiary account on through DBT. This eliminates the parking of central share funds at state level and minimize delay in disbursement of scholarship.

Under Central Sector Schemes of Scholarship implemented directly by the Ministry, a robust digital mechanism is established through the National Scholarship Portal (NSP), Ministry’s Scholarship Portal and the Public Financial Management System (PFMS) to facilitate Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT).

(e) Removal of physical application process and manual verification by Institute/District/State authorities has streamlined approval workflows and reduced the overall application processing time.

Transfer of Scholarship amount through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) into the beneficiary student bank accounts ensures that financial benefit reaches targeted ST students in time and without involvement of intermediaries.Annexure-I Details of beneficiaries reported by the State/UTs on the DBT Tribal Portal during FY 2023-24 to 2025-26 I. Pre-Matric Scholarship Scheme 2023-2024 2024-2025 2025-2026 Sl.

States/UTs Name No. of No. of No. of No beneficiaries beneficiaries beneficiaries 1 Andaman And Nicobar Islands 141 18 179 2 Andhra Pradesh - - 57788 3 Arunachal Pradesh 5698 635 1694 4 Assam 5625 2132 - 5 Bihar 11363 15319 14069 6 Chhattisgarh 21768 159372 35372 7 Goa 207 1985 369 8 Gujarat 108125 94169 26832 9 Himachal Pradesh 2445 1786 2455 10 Jammu And Kashmir 4665 365 1322 11 Jharkhand 7311 16250 - 12 Karnataka 181152 82316 18199 - - 13 Kerala 1007 14 Ladakh 82 250 2459 15 Madhya Pradesh 35165 411273 328029 16 Manipur 1660 70 3311 17 Meghalaya 1408 19 8 18 Mizoram 465 - 8110 19 Odisha 62105 148166 122800 20 Puducherry - 12 - 21 Rajasthan 129350 - 80125 22 Sikkim 47 134 171 23 Tamil Nadu 6569 - 18285 The Dadra And Nagar Haveli And 24 3319 877 - Daman And Diu 25 Tripura 15017 3054 12152 - - 26 Uttar Pradesh 2329 27 Uttarakhand 516 751 820 28 West Bengal 28290 13345 5090 Grand Total 635829 952298 739639II. Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme 2023-2024 2024-2025 2025-2026 Sl.

States/UTs Name No. of No. of No. of No beneficiaries beneficiaries beneficiaries 1 Andaman And Nicobar Islands 170 2 283 2 Andhra Pradesh 75431 45208 93539 3 Arunachal Pradesh 46386 42586 44163 4 Assam 35135 12582 18456 5 Bihar 2467 3045 9206 6 Chhattisgarh 115067 109041 128661 7 Goa 3824 3128 3175 8 Gujarat 201326 205918 173747 9 Himachal Pradesh 4291 4042 3628 10 Jammu And Kashmir 10399 6591 4548 11 Jharkhand 97440 61098 - 12 Karnataka 140650 118878 87199 - - 13 Kerala 24734 14 Ladakh 2196 10017 139 15 Madhya Pradesh 222333 362065 304520 - - 16 Maharashtra 182192 17 Manipur 40736 29985 29983 18 Meghalaya 59845 57560 78443 19 Mizoram 304 30696 28186 20 Nagaland 40638 42448 64423 21 Odisha 167050 157340 289738 - - 22 Puducherry 8 23 Rajasthan 45352 198676 145124 24 Sikkim 2553 1377 1 25 Tamil Nadu 7902 347 26 Telangana 132617 88534 25560 The Dadra And Nagar Haveli And - - 27 1442 Daman And Diu 28 Tripura 37387 33375 28163 29 Uttar Pradesh 8656 1020 30 Uttarakhand 3398 3233 3710 31 West Bengal 71839 30395 26605 Grand Total 1783768 1659187 1591200 *****