Kathmandu ( 30 July 2015): A stakeholder’s meeting held on Wednesday 29 July 2015 at the Ministry of Education in presence of education minister honorable Chitra Lekha Yadav. The meeting mainly discussed scholarships provided to Dalit students from school to Ph.D. level, with a special focus on a scholarship given by Higher Secondary Education Board (HSEB) and Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training (CTEVT). This meeting was coordinated by the National Dalit Commission (NDC).

After raising practical problems faced by Dalit students while accessing the above-mentioned scholarships, the Ministry of Education has asked the delegation to come up with issues categorically and also assured for revisiting the policy, if required. The ministry also assured to include Dalit’s representation from the center to the local level in relation to the education of Dalit. Meanwhile, CTEVT made a commitment to revisit its 9% scholarship provision for Dalit in the diploma course. The ministry has also taken the issue of Dalit hostel in Bijeshwori seriously.

Among the participating organizations were Ministry of Education (Honorable minister accompanied by joint and deputy secretaries), National Dalit Commission (member secretary), Dalit Bikas Samiti (vice-chairman), University Grant Commission, HSEB, HISSAN, CTEVT, PABSON, Badi Bikas Samiti and PDRC. From PDRC, president Kamala Hemchuri and executive director Birendra Biswakarma participated in the meeting. Both urged concerned authorities to make scholarship provisions trouble-free and accessible by addressing policy faults and loopholes.  For example, HSEB can provide as much as 12000 scholarships to study 10+2 across the country annually. However, last year’s data reveals that only one-third of the total scholarships are being distributed.