Introduction

With Dalit youth’s rightful access to quality higher education and opportunities for professional development being its main goal, PDRC facilitates scholarships provided by different institutions to our students through information dissemination, documentation, and other services. It is said that information is the most key to unlock one’s future in today’s digital era. Lest any Dalit youth be excluded from the information s/he needs to make his/her future better, PDRC has been providing information dissemination service, whenever institutions like Higher Secondary Education Board, Pokhara University, Indian Embassy announce for scholarship distribution. Similarly, we lobby for fee reduction at various colleges and institutions to help Dalit youths’ education. We also do policy overhaul advocacy to ensure the Dalit community’s rightful and logical representation in the decision-making body.

Procedure

We disseminate information about academic and career opportunities and scholarship support for Dalit youths through social media, newspapers, and telecommunication and one on one meetings with youth. We liaise with different campuses, universities and scholarship granting bodies. In 2013, PDRC’s monitoring and Evaluation Officer Mr. Babu Nepal and Research and Advocacy Officer Mr. D.B. Biswakarma visited different campuses and lobbied for subsidizing fees in support of Dalit students throughout their education. Similarly, PDRC initiated a strong connection with the Higher Secondary Board by conducting a meeting with its chief personnel.

We have been facilitating following national and international scholarships in favor of Dalit youths in Nepal

• Students Scholarship Bank Program by HSEB
• Pokhara University Scholarship
• Mahatma Gandhi Scholarship
• Scholarships provided by the Ministry of Education
• Fulbright Scholarship (Masters, Humphrey, NESA UGRAD)
• Australian Awards