Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi claiming that the marginalised students are facing delays in their post-matric scholarships and also, are suffering from unhygienic condition in the hostels.
Gandhi in his letter said that he recently visited Ambedkar Hostel in Darbhanga, Bihar, where the students had complained about alleged lack of basic facilities.
He pointed out that a single room in the hostel was being shared by 6 to 7 students and also the hostel had “unhygienic toilets, unsafe drinking water, lack of mess facilities, and no access to libraries or the internet”.
He further raised concerns about the poor implementation of post-matric scholarships meant for students from the marginalised communities. He pointed out that in Bihar, for example, the scholarship portal was not functional for 3 years and no student had received any scholarship in 2021-22.
Even after the portal became active, the number of Dalit students who got scholarships dropped sharply from 1.36 lakh in FY23 to just 0.69 lakh in FY24. Many students have also complained that the amount they receive is “insultingly low”.
The Congress MP added, “While I have cited examples from Bihar, these failures are widespread across the country.”
In his letter, Gandhi called on the government to take two urgent steps to fix the situation. First, he suggested that hostels for Dalit, ST, EBC, OBC, and minority students across the country should be audited to check the quality of infrastructure, sanitation, food, and study facilities. Also, necessary funds should be allocated to fix any shortcomings.
Secondly, he recommended that the government should ensure that scholarships are disbursed on time and that its amount should be increased.