TENKASI: As many as 9,753 minority students across the country benefited under the Padho Pardesh Scheme, which was recently discontinued by the Ministry of Minority Affairs, in the last eight years. The information was obtained by Madurai-based activist S Karthik through an RTI application.
The scheme, introduced in 2006, provided subsidy on the interest payable for the period of moratorium on educational loans obtained by students belonging to notified minority communities for overseas studies. According to the RTI reply, students from non-BJP-ruled states benefited most from this scheme. About 5,510 out of the 9,753 beneficiaries belonged to Kerala. "This is why the union government discontinued the scheme. As many as 437 minority students from Tamil Nadu had also availed benefits of this scheme in the last eight years," Karthik said.
The Central Public Information Officer of the Ministry of Minority Affairs also furnished the religion-wise information of the beneficiaries from 2014-15 to 2019-20. As many as 3,002 Christian, 1,494 Muslim, 715 Jain, 569 Sikh, 109 Buddhist, and 24 Parsi students benefited from the scheme. Karthik urged the union government to continue this scheme for the benefit of minority students.
Padho Pardesh Scheme
Students benefited Year
706 2014-15
1,106 2015-16
537 2016-17
763 2017-18
1,347 2018-19
1,448 2019-20
1,296 2020-21
2,550 2021-22
Total: 9,753 (5,510 from Kerala)