SRINAGAR: As many as 4,548 Scheduled Tribe students in Jammu and Kashmir received post-matric scholarships during 2025-26, while 1,322 students benefited under the pre-matric scholarship scheme, the Government of India informed the Lok Sabha on Thursday.
Minister of State for Tribal Affairs Durgadas Uikey said the scholarships were disbursed through the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) Tribal Portal, which is being used to monitor implementation of the two schemes, generate management information reports and enable online submission of utilisation certificates and expenditure statements by States and Union Territories.
The minister was responding to a question raised by PP Chaudhary, K. Sudhakar, Jugal Kishore, Mahima Kumari Mewar, Himadri Singh, Nalin Soren and Manish Jaiswal.
According to data placed before the House, JK recorded 4,665 pre-matric ST scholarship beneficiaries in 2023-24, which fell to 365 in 2024-25 before rising to 1,322 in 2025-26. Under the post-matric scheme, the number of beneficiaries declined from 10,399 in 2023-24 to 6,591 in 2024-25 and 4,548 in 2025-26.
Ladakh recorded 2,459 pre-matric beneficiaries in 2025-26, compared with 250 in 2024-25 and 82 in 2023-24. Under the post-matric scheme, 139 students benefited in 2025-26, against 10,017 in 2024-25 and 2,196 in 2023-24.
Uikey said the Ministry of Tribal Affairs has adopted end-to-end digitisation, common data standards, online processing and real-time monitoring for the scholarship schemes. The SNA-SPARSH framework has also been introduced for transparent and just-in-time release of funds directly into beneficiaries’ bank accounts through DBT.
The measures, according to the minister, are aimed at reducing processing delays, grievances, duplication and the involvement of intermediaries in scholarship disbursement.
