AICTE – Saksham Scholarship Scheme For Specially-Abled Student (Diploma)(SAK-DIP)

Overview

About SAK-DIP

Two things decide a Saksham claim at diploma level, and neither of them is marks. One is which year of the polytechnic course you were admitted to, because that sets how long the award can run. The other is which examination sits behind that admission, because AICTE issues a single document list for the degree and diploma arms together and only part of it belongs to a polytechnic student.

Saksham is the Ministry of Education's scholarship for specially abled students in technical education. What a polytechnic applicant has to know first is that it is administered in two halves, and the diploma half has a guidelines document, a portal listing and an awardee roll of its own. It pays Rs 50,000 a year, for a maximum of 3 years to a student admitted to the first year and a maximum of 2 years to one admitted to the second year through lateral entry (AICTE Saksham Scheme Guidelines, Diploma).

Nothing in that document sets a number. Clause 3.0 says every eligible specially abled student in those two positions at an AICTE approved institution will get the scholarship, and stops there, so a year's roll is whatever verification passes rather than a target anyone is ranked against. For 2024-25 that came to 634 students, and it was heavily concentrated: 245 of them were at polytechnics in Karnataka and 121 in Tamil Nadu (list of selected students, Saksham diploma, 2024-25). An applicant from a state that barely appears on that list is not losing anything to the two that dominate it, because there is no pool being divided between states.

Who runs it

Provider

At a glance

Key details

Calendar

Important dates

For 2026-27 the portal shows the Technical Diploma entry open from 1 June 2026, student submission closing on 31 October 2026, institute verification on 15 November 2026 and the district, state or ministry nodal officer's scrutiny on 30 November 2026 (schemes on the National Scholarship Portal). Fresh and renewal cases share that closing date.

The Technical Degree entry sitting beside it publishes exactly the same dates, so a polytechnic student gains no extra time by opening the wrong one. What separates the two entries is the form and the documents behind it, not the calendar. Results, by contrast, run a long way behind: the most recent diploma selection AICTE has published is the one for 2024-25 (AICTE Saksham scheme page).

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

A fresh claim rests on the admission, not on being enrolled: the guidelines recognise a polytechnic seat taken in the first year, and a lateral entry seat taken in the second, at an institution AICTE approved for that same year. On top of the admission sit two certificates, one showing a disability of not less than 40 percent and one from the state or UT government putting family income from all sources under Rs 8 lakh for the current financial year (AICTE Saksham Scheme Guidelines, Diploma).

What changes with the route is the examination the claim is measured back to. AICTE's operating manual for Saksham applicants reads a first year diploma admission against the Class 10 pass and a lateral entry admission against the ITI pass, and wants that pass to fall in the admission year or one of the two years before it (operating manual for students, Pragati and Saksham). An ITI holder who worked for three years before taking a lateral entry seat falls outside it with every other test met.

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

The bar that catches the most polytechnic students is about timing rather than disability or income. AICTE is asked directly whether a student in the third year of a diploma course will get Saksham, and answers that they are not eligible (Saksham scheme FAQs). On a three year diploma that puts the final year outside the scheme for anyone who was not already holding the award and renewing it.

One rejection ground belongs to this scheme alone, and it is the document the whole claim rests on. A disability certificate that is not enclosed, or that came from anything other than a competent authority, sits on AICTE's list of direct rejection reasons (Saksham scheme FAQs). The same list tests AICTE approval against the current academic year rather than the year of admission, so a polytechnic whose approval has lapsed since the student joined takes the claim down with it. Failing or dropping out in a later year ends any further entitlement as well.

Continuation

Renewal conditions

Every year after the first is claimed rather than carried. The student files again on the portal with a promotion certificate on AICTE's Appendix-III form, and the FAQ counts a blank or incomplete one, or one missing the college stamp and the principal's signature, among the reasons a renewal is thrown out (Saksham scheme FAQs).

Diploma tenure keeps that sequence short. A first year entrant renews twice and a lateral entrant once, and the scheme is then exhausted (AICTE Saksham Scheme Guidelines, Diploma). A year that is not cleared ends it there, and the forfeited year is not held over to the year the student repeats.

What you get

Award & benefits

The money arrives once a year, as one lump sum through direct benefit transfer. The guidelines are unusually loose about what it is for, naming college fee, a computer, stationery, books, equipment and software, and no documentary proof has to be attached for any of it while the benefit is being availed (AICTE Saksham Scheme Guidelines, Diploma).

What they close off is any addition to it. No further grant is payable in lieu of hostel charges or medical charges, and the figure does not move with the course, the state or the year. The account it lands in is narrow too: AICTE will pay only into a general savings account the student holds in their own name and has seeded with Aadhaar, and the FAQ names three account types that will not be accepted (Saksham scheme FAQs).

• ₹50,000/- per annum for every year of study i.e. maximum 3 years for the first year admitted students and maximum 2 years for the second year admitted students through lateral entry as lump sum amount towards payment of college fee, purchase of computer, stationeries, books, equipment, software, etc.
• After selection, the awardee will be paid a scholarship through DBT mode on annual basis.
• The scholarship will be renewed for the next year of study on receipt of renewal through National Scholarship Portal by submitting a passing certificate/ mark sheet along with a letter from the Head of the Institution on the online portal

What to prepare

Documents required

AICTE prints one document list for both arms of Saksham, and a polytechnic applicant needs about half of it. The Class 10 certificate and mark sheet are everyone's. The ITI certificate and mark sheet are a lateral entrant's. The Class 12 certificate and the diploma certificate on the same list belong to degree level applicants, and sending up a Class 12 mark sheet where the Class 10 one belongs is exactly what AICTE records as an irrelevant document attached in place of the HSC or SSC certificate (Saksham scheme FAQs).

Three of the papers have to be written by somebody else, which is usually what decides whether a file is ready before the closing date: the study or bonafide certificate on Appendix-I from the head of the polytechnic, the family income certificate on Appendix-II for the current financial year with the signature and stamp of a Tehsildar, District Magistrate or Deputy Commissioner, and the disability certificate from a competent authority. Aadhaar and a category certificate where one applies complete the set.

The portal then adds a step ahead of all of them that has nothing to do with AICTE. Its home page tells every disabled applicant to log in at the UDID portal and give consent to share those details first, and says the application cannot be submitted until that is done (National Scholarship Portal).

Step by step

How to apply

There is no offline route and no AICTE form to post. The application exists only on the National Scholarship Portal, filed under the Post Matric category that AICTE's operating manual tells Saksham applicants to select on the general information screen (operating manual for students, Pragati and Saksham).

Which listing you open decides which form you get. The portal carries this arm as "AICTE - Saksham Scholarship Scheme For Specially Abled Student ( Technical Diploma)" and the degree arm as a separate entry with its own guidelines file behind it (schemes on the National Scholarship Portal).

Two offices then have to act on the file before AICTE ever sees it, the polytechnic and after it the state or UT Department of Technical Education (AICTE Saksham Scheme Guidelines, Diploma). Following it from outside means two lookups, since the portal keeps an application status service and a payment service apart from each other on its home page (National Scholarship Portal). Neither of them answers the question a Saksham applicant actually has, which is whether the council selected them: that appears only when AICTE puts the year's diploma roll on its scheme page, and the newest one there covers 2024-25 (AICTE Saksham scheme page).

How winners are picked

Selection process

There is nothing to rank. The guidelines award on eligibility alone and bin an incomplete application without measuring it against anybody else's, so a diploma applicant is only ever competing with the paperwork (AICTE Saksham Scheme Guidelines, Diploma).

What that has produced, year by year:

The swings across those five documents are not changes in the rule, which has not moved. They track how many polytechnic applications were filed and got through both verification levels intact in each of those years.

Fine print

Terms & conditions

Money from a second source does more than disqualify an applicant. Where it turns up mid course, whether as another scholarship, an emolument, a salary or a stipend, Saksham is discontinued and everything already banked is recoverable, returned by demand draft in favour of the Member Secretary, AICTE, payable at New Delhi (AICTE Saksham Scheme Guidelines, Diploma).

Two remedies are counted from the day AICTE publishes the provisional list on its web portal, not from the day the form went in. Disputing the list is a one month right, and nothing about it is entertained once the month has run. A payment that never landed because the account number was wrong or invalid runs on six months from that same day.

The guidelines also carry the AICTE marks conversion rule, CGPA multiplied by 9.5. It is worth knowing that it is inert here: no part of the diploma eligibility test turns on a percentage, so nothing a polytechnic student scored is converted into a rank (AICTE Saksham Scheme Guidelines, Diploma).

Get help

Contact

Route the question by where it is stuck, because two desks answer and neither covers the other. Scheme queries reach AICTE at saksham@aicte-india.org, with 011-29581118 printed beside it in the council's operating manual for Saksham applicants (operating manual for students, Pragati and Saksham); portal trouble reaches helpdesk@nsp.gov.in. A disability certificate refused for not coming from a competent authority, or a name absent from the diploma roll, is AICTE's. A UDID consent that will not go through, or an upload that will not attach, is the portal's. Neither desk edits a submitted form: AICTE sends a student who spots an error in one back to the institute (Saksham scheme FAQs).

Source

Official links

Frequently asked questions

From the official scheme FAQ (myScheme)

Read this

Disclaimer

Disclaimer

Scheme details are compiled from myScheme, the Government of India’s official scheme-discovery platform, and are reproduced without alteration. Amounts, deadlines and eligibility change between cycles, so always confirm on the official links above before applying. Expertie does not process applications or charge fees.

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