National Commission for Minorities Member Syed Shahzadi has said more than 23.18 lakh students in Kerala benefited from the Pre- Matric Scholarship Scheme for Minorities of the Union government over the last four years.
She was addressing the media here after a review meeting of the Prime Minister's New 15-point Welfare Programme and Prime Minister's Jan Vikas Karyakram with the State government.
Ms. Shahzadi said that more than 2.62 lakh minority students had benefited from the Post-Matric Scholarship scheme and 11,820 minority students were beneficiaries of the Merit-cum-Means scholarship.
Prime Minister’s Awaz Yojana (Urban) witnessed 36,991 minority beneficiaries from 2019-2022 with a total budget of ₹4,921.92 crore.
Other schemes of Central government such as National Urban Livelihoods Mission and DDUGKY benefitted 1.6 lakh people and 70,348 persons of minority communities respectively in the same period.
Ms. Shahzadi also discussed with the State government the need for the inclusion of Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains and Parsis in the State Minorities Commission. She also took up the issue of Dalit Christians not getting minority certificates.
