As a part of the National Fellowship Scheme of Government for Other Backward Class students, 1070 OBC students were awarded fellowships in 2022-23.
As per the official press release, the National Fellowship Scheme aims to bring educational empowerment to OBC students by awarding fellowships (financial assistance) to obtain quality higher education.
The data was shared in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha by Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Sushri Pratima Bhoumik.
According to the official figures shared, 1070 OBC students benefitted from the scheme and an amount of 34.90 crores was disbursed to the Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) scholars in 2022-23.
The scheme is designed to provide a total number of 1000 Junior Research Fellowships per year to undertake advanced studies and research leading to M.Phil. /Ph.D. Degrees, who have qualified in the National Eligibility Test – Junior Research Fellowship (NET-JRF) of UGC (for Humanities/Social Sciences) or UGC-Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (UGC-CSIR) NET-JRF Joint Test (for Sciences), informed the press release.