About the Scheme :

The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment is running a scheme namely ‘Free Coaching for SCs, OBCs and beneficiaries of PM CARES Children Scheme’. It was decided that from the year 2023-24, this scheme will be implemented by Dr. Ambedkar Foundation (DAF) on the pattern of DAF’s scheme namely ‘Dr. Ambedkar Centre for Excellence’ (DACE) in accordance with revised scheme guidelines of Free Coaching Scheme of the Ministry. For implementation of the scheme, Ministry will provide funds to Dr. Ambedkar Foundation (DAF). Dr. Ambedkar Foundation (DAF) has been appointed as Central Nodal Agency (CNA) for running the above scheme.

The empowerment of the weaker sections has been a priority area for the Government since independence. A number of schemes and programmes are being implemented for assisting them so as to enhance their skills and capabilities for ensuring rapid economic development and integration in the national main stream

A scheme for providing free coaching to students belonging to Scheduled Castes (SCs) was started during the 6th Five Year Plan. Similar schemes were also being implemented to provide free coaching to students belonging to Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and Minorities. With a view to ensure effective implementation and monitoring and to assist the students in a better manner, the separate coaching schemes for SCs, OBCs and Minorities were amalgamated and a combined Scheme, namely, 'Coaching and Allied Assistance for Weaker Sections' including Scheduled Castes, Other Backward Classes and Minorities was introduced with effect from September,2001.

After creation of a separate Ministry to handle matters relating to the Minorities viz the Ministry of Minority Affairs, the Scheme underwent further revision in April 2007 for removing the Minorities component from the ambit of the scheme and to accommodate other changes deemed necessary at that point of time. The last revision of the Scheme came into effect in 2023-24.

Objective:

The objective of the Scheme is to provide coaching of good quality for economically disadvantaged Scheduled Castes (SCs), Other Backward Classes (OBCs), and beneficiaries of PM CARES Children Scheme (included from 2024-25) to enable them to appear in competitive examinations for obtaining appropriate jobs in Public/Private Sector and/or for securing admission in reputed technical and professional higher education Institution.

Courses for Coaching:

The courses for which the Coaching will be imparted shall be as follows:

• Group A and B examinations conducted by the Union Public Service Commission(UPSC), the Staff Selection Commission (SSC), State Public Service Commissions and the various Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs)
• Officers’ Grade examinations conducted by Banks, Insurance Companies and Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs).
• Premier Entrance Examinations for admission in (i) Engineering (e.g. IIT-JEE), (ii) Medical (eg. NEET), (iii) Professional courses like Management (e.g. CAT) and Law (e.g. CLAT),and (iv) Any other such disciplines as Ministry may decide from time to time.
• Eligibility tests/examinations like SAT, GRE, GMAT, IELTS and TOEFL.
• Entrance examination tests for CPL courses/National Defence Academy and Combined Defence Services.

Category-wise Ratio of Candidates:

3500 students will be selected under this scheme annually. The detailed bifurcation of these slots is in para 7(e) of Scheme Guidelines.

Eligibility Criteria for Students and Selection Procedure for the Free Coaching:

For students belonging to SCs and OBCs Category:

• Students belonging to SCs and OBCs, having total family income of Rs. 8.00 lakh or less per annum from all sources will be eligible for benefits under the Scheme.
• SCs/OBCs candidate belonging to a Minority community may apply under the similar scheme(s) of Ministry of Minority Affairs, or the State Govts., as the case may be.
• Income Certificate: Income declaration of self-employed parents/guardian should be in the form of a certificate issued by a Revenue Officer not below the rank of Tehsildar. Employed parents/guardians are required to obtain income certificate from their employer and submit consolidated certificate from Revenue Officer including any other additional source of income.
• For beneficiaries of PM CARES Children Scheme:

All beneficiaries of the PM CARES Children Scheme who have a certificate (with beneficiary ID) issued by the Central Government confirming their status as beneficiaries are eligible.There will be no income or caste-related restrictions for such beneficiaries to avail of the benefits under this scheme.

Other Mandatory Conditions:

• The student should have a valid Aadhar number and a bank account seeded therewith, allotted to him/her. At the time of application, if the student does not have Aadhar number, he/ she can submit his/her EID number. However, the payment shall be released only after obtaining the Aadhar Number and shall be disbursed to the Aadhar seeded bank account of the student only.
• For the competitive exams for which the qualifying exam is class XII, benefits under the scheme will be available to a candidate only if the candidate has passed class XII or is studying in class XII as on the date of receiving the benefit under the scheme. Student will be required to declare the marks obtained by him/her in class X in the application form. Students having less than 50% marks in their class X exam, shall not be considered under the scheme.
• Further, in case of competitive exams for which the qualifying exam is Under Graduate level, only students/candidates having completed the Under Graduate level course or studying in the final year of the Under Graduate course concerned at the time of receiving the benefit under the scheme shall be eligible. Student will be required to declare the marks obtained by him/her in class XII in the application form. Students having less than 50% marks in their class XII exam, shall not be considered under the scheme.
• Benefit under the Scheme can be availed by a particular student not more than twice, irrespective of the number of chances he/she may be entitled to take in a particular competitive examination and irrespective of the number of stages in the exam. The student will be required to provide a declaration that he/she has not taken benefit more than twice under the Scheme or any other similar coaching scheme run by the Central or State Government.
• The candidate shall be precluded from availing benefit under any other coaching scheme of the Centre or State Government and will be required to provide a declaration to this effect. A list of beneficiaries availing the scheme will also be uploaded by DAF on the website of the Ministry and to avoid possibility of the candidate availing benefits of similar coaching scheme simultaneously or more than twice, the same shall be shared with all the empanelled Central Universities in the scheme.

Implementation of the scheme:

• Implementing Agency : The Scheme will be implemented by Dr. Ambedkar Foundation (DAF) through Central Universities empanelled under the Scheme.
• Empanelment of Central Universities : All Central Universities willing and capable of undertaking coaching for the indicated courses may apply online/offline in suitable format to DAF. DAF shall scrutinize all such applications and based on their fulfilling the criteria fixed by the Ministry, shall put up complete applications for consideration of the Selection Committee. However, the already empanelled Central Universities under Dr. Ambedkar Centre of Excellence (DACE) Scheme of DAF, which have been running the classes in 2022 23, shall not require to apply in this manner. Their MoU can be renewed by Dr. Ambedkar Foundation by incorporating suitable provisions as per amended scheme. The coaching centres run by the Central Universities shall be called Dr. Ambedkar Centre of Excellence (DACE).
• Selection Committee : The proposal for empanelment of new Central Universities which were earlier not the part of Dr. Ambedkar Centre of Excellence (DACE) will be considered by a Selection Committee which shall recommend these Universities for selection based on availability of physical and academic infrastructure and other requirements having bearing on implementation of the scheme. The Central Universities willing to provide coaching will be finally selected by Dr. Ambedkar Foundation based on recommendations of the Selection Committee. The composition of the Selection Committee will be as under :

     I. Joint Secretary, SCD-B, MSJE - Chairperson

     I. Financial Advisor, MSJE - Member

     I. Joint Secretary, DoHE - Member

     I. Director, DAF - Member

     I. Director/DS (SCD-1), MSJE - Convener

• Signing of MoU :The Central Universities approved for empanelment and the Central Universities which have been earlier part of DACE shall sign MoU with Dr. Ambedkar Foundation indicating, among other things, the slots allocated, courses to be offered with slots per course, fee to be charged per student, duration of the course, date of commencement and conclusion of the course etc.



Seats per Central University: Seats allotted to each Central University will be as under:

• Total of such students will not exceed 100 (excluding the beneficiaries of PM Cares Scheme) and the ratio of SC:OBC students would be 70:30. The percentage of SC students shall not be less than 70%. In case of non- availability of adequate number of candidates in the SC category, Dr. Ambedkar Foundation can relax this ratio. However, in no case, a less than 50% SC students shall be permitted. Also under each category, 30% of the slots shall be reserved for female candidates. In case sufficient numbers of female candidates are not available under any category, male candidates from the same category shall be considered by Dr. Ambedkar Foundation.
• All willing/eligible beneficiaries of PM CARES Children Scheme would be admitted by the Central University irrespective of crossing the 100 slots allotted.

For the purpose of viability, one Central University shall not have less than a total of 50 students.

• Courses per Central University : Not more than 4 courses indicated above guidelines can be assigned to one Central University. For each course not less than 25 students per course shall be permitted.
• Mode of selection of students:The Central University shall issue suitable advertisements inviting willing and eligible students to apply for the coaching. No offline applications will be entertained by the Central University from the students. Only online applications complete in all respects, shall be considered for assistance. All the incomplete applications will be summarily rejected. However, the rejected candidates will have the option to apply in the subsequent years of selection.Beneficiaries of PM CARES Children Scheme will be exempted from selection procedure and all such eligible candidates who apply will be given admission for coaching by respective Central University.
• Preparation of merit list for SCs and OBCs:The empanelled Central Universities shall shortlist SC and OBC students to be imparted coaching in the course(s) allocated to the Central Universities fulfilling the eligibility conditions indicated in para 5 of the scheme and also falling in the merit list prepared by the Central University after following a procedure established by the concerned University itself for screening the eligible candidates. Such procedure shall be pre-informed to Dr. Ambedkar Foundation. However, there will be no merit list for the beneficiaries of PM CARES Children Scheme
• Duration of the course : The duration of the course shall be as per Annexure-A of these guidelines.
• Attendance of students:The Central Universities shall ensure recording of Aadhar based biometric attendance of the students and shall share the same with DAF on a monthly basis with specific mention of the students absenting themselves for more than four days in a month. If any student is absenting himself/herself without acceptable reason like medical or household emergency, his/her candidature for the scholarship shall be cancelled.
• Admissible payments:(i) Course fee as detailed in Annex- A of these guidelines (ii) Stipend @ Rs. 4000 per month for full duration of the course not exceeding 12 months (iii) Rs. 15,000 as incentive to the successful students for coaching for interview for all the students clearing the mains stage of Central Civil Services / State Civil Services Exams for Class 1 and Class 2 posts.
• Mode of payment:All the admissible payments shall be released to the students through DBT in their Aadhar enabled bank accounts. The fee and stipend shall be released in two installments of 50% each of the admissible amount. The first installment shall be released immediately at commencement of course and the second installment will be released after conclusion of more than 75% of the course duration. The students will be required to remit the portion to the University fee immediately and in any case not exceeding 15 days, to the Central Universities where they are receiving coaching.
• Commencement of coaching :The Central Universities shall commence the coaching for the indicated course from the date indicated in the MoU signed between them and Dr. Ambedkar Foundation. The Central Universities shall allow the eligible students to join the coaching irrespective of the fact that they have received the first installment from Dr. Ambedkar Foundation or not.
• Enrollment of other students by the Central Universities : The empanelled Central Universities shall be free to enroll students for coaching beyond the allocated slots subject to availability of adequate infrastructure These students may be from SC, ST, OBC, General or any other category and may charge the fee as fixed by the Central Universities and for this, these Central Universities do not need any permission from the Ministry. However, they may intimate the DAF about enrollment of such students for record purpose. Dr. Ambedkar Foundation shall not release any funds for these additional students, if any, enrolled by these Central Universities.
• Shifting of students from one Central University to other :If the number of students enrolled in a particular empanelled Central University is less than 50 at the preliminary examination stage or unsustainable at the mains stage, the students from such entity may be shifted to other entities with the consent of both the entities, and that of the student concerned, with the approval of Dr. Ambedkar Foundation.
• Forwarding of proposal for release of funds:After shortlisting the candidates, the Central University shall forward a list of all the shortlisted candidates with details of their educational, caste, income, merit and bank related credentials to this Ministry through DAF. Similarly, once 75% of the prescribed duration of the course is completed, the Central Universities shall forward the details of all such students to DAF who have been attending the classes regularly, with details of monthly attendance sheet and shall forward the proposal for release of second installment of balance fund. These proposals shall be considered in the Ministry for release of funds in theCNA bank account of DAF. DAF shall release the amount in the account of eligible students through DBT. The release of second installment of second and third year shall depend upon successful fulfillment of performance criteria by the Central University concerned, in the previous year, as prescribed in para 6(r) and Annexure-B of these guidelines.
• Responsibility of Central Universities about eligibility of students : While forwarding the proposal for release of funds for first and second installments, the Central Universities shall check the credentials relating to educational, caste, income, Certificates of PM Cares beneficiaries etc. of the students coached by them from the originals of such documents and certify that they are satisfied that these students are genuine and eligible. If at any stage it is found out that any or all of such students were not eligible on account of education, caste, annual family income etc., the Central University coaching such student shall be solely responsible. No fee/stipend shall be released in respect of such students and further if any payment has previously released to such students before coming into knowledge of their ineligibility for availing benefits under the scheme, the amount shall be recovered from the University concerned with penalty, if any, decided by the Ministry.
• Performance appraisal : At the time of seeking release of second installment in the second year, the Central University shall require to forward the performance of the students coached by it during the preceding year clearly indicating whether the University has fulfilled the performance criteria fixed as prescribed in Annex-B of these guidelines.
• Renewal of MoU:The signed MoU shall be applicable for a period of three years from the date of its signing. The empanelment can be renewed for a further period of three years subject to fulfillment of performance criteria, willingness of the Central University and other material factor(s).

Performance, Monitoring and Coordination of the Scheme:

The Ministry shall monitor the implementation of the scheme in association with DAF by keeping a regular watch and obtaining periodic reports from the Central Universities. A physical verification of at least 25% of the students / central universities chosen randomly through an algorithm shall be done annually by the Ministry in association with DAF. The DAF shall prepare an Online Learning Management System for the purpose monitoring and coordination of the scheme.

Administrative expenses:

2% of the funds available under the scheme shall be allocated as administrative expenses and shall be used for creation of the learning management system, publicity and awareness generation or any other activity requiredto run the scheme efficiently.

Furnishing of False Information:

If any of University/candidate is reported to have furnished any false information/document having material bearing on the release funds under the scheme which is established as false, he/she/it will be liable for administrative and /or criminal proceedings and action will be initiated for recovery of the amount released, with 15% compound interest thereon.