Financial Assistance to SC Students for Pursuing Higher Studies Abroad(FATSSFSHSA)

The department announces the application window by advertisement rather than keeping a standing annual calendar; myScheme lists no open or close date for the scheme. The application form appended to the guidelines shows the window that ran from 01/01/2020 to 31/01/2020, which is the pattern to expect: a dated form, a hard closing date, and applications accepted only inside it. Watch the department's notice board for the current advertisement before preparing documents.

Three thresholds decide most applications. The guidelines require at least 55% marks or an equivalent grade in the qualifying degree, age below 30 years on the cut-off date of the respective year, and total family income from all sources within Rs 8,00,000 per annum.

Two conditions trip up applicants who clear those numbers. First, the qualifying degree must be relevant to the course applied for: a Bachelors for a Masters, a Masters for a PhD, in the same line of study. Second, only one child of the same parents or guardians can hold the award, and the guidelines take a self-certification on this point; a declaration later established as false falls under the scheme's false-information clause, which carries recovery and debarment.

Residence is the filter that removes most of India from the pool. Delhi domicile qualifies directly; otherwise you need documentary proof of residence in Delhi covering at least the last five years. Working applicants do not apply directly at all: the application must be routed through the employer with a No Objection Certificate attached.

The guidelines shut two doors completely. Anyone who left India and started studying abroad before the date of the scheme advertisement is not considered, so the award cannot be claimed retrospectively to refinance a course already underway. And anyone who already holds the same level of qualification, a completed Masters or PhD from any university in India or abroad, cannot take the award for that level again.

There is also a declaration with teeth: before leaving India, the selected candidate must declare that they have not acquired the qualification in the meantime and have not submitted a final thesis that could lead to it, per the scheme guidelines. A pending thesis at an Indian university counts against you, not just an awarded degree.

The guidelines set out no yearly re-application; continuation is controlled through disbursement instead. After the first payment, each further installment is released once every six months or a year against a progress report from the foreign university, as the guidelines set out. A missing or adverse progress report is what stops the money, and discontinuing the course triggers repayment of everything disbursed unless the selection committee accepts the circumstances as genuine.

The assistance is Rs 5 lakh per annum for both levels; only the ceiling and the years differ, per the scheme guidelines.

Read the ceiling carefully: the guidelines say the maximum "or actual amount whichever is less". If the course costs less than the cap, the scheme pays the actual cost, not a flat grant you can pocket the difference from. The money is credited to the candidate's own bank account in installments, with the first installment released only after admission is confirmed with the offer letter, visa, passport and bank details in the department's hands.

Beyond the usual certificate set, two documents are Delhi-specific and take the longest to arrange. The income certificate must be in the prescribed format and issued by a competent authority of Delhi, and the applicant has to be a bonafide resident of Delhi holding a valid caste certificate from a competent authority, as the guidelines word it. The income wording is the stricter of the two: a self-made affidavit, or a certificate raised in another state, does not meet it.

Aadhaar is mandatory for the assistance, and the undertaking at Annexure-I of the guidelines, covering repayment on discontinuation, is part of the application itself, not a post-selection formality. Employed candidates add the employer's NOC on top.

This scheme is offline end to end. Applications go to the department in hardcopy, in the prescribed format appended to the guidelines, filled in English or Hindi in block letters. The National Scholarship Portal does not carry it, and the public record lists no application URL because there is nothing online to link to.

One provision rewards early movers: candidates who already hold an unconditional offer from an accredited foreign university may be considered on a first-come-first-served basis, subject to slots. If your offer letter is in hand, filing early is a real advantage, not a formality.

Because nothing is on a portal, application and payment status cannot be tracked online the way NSP schemes are. Status follow-up happens with the department directly, at the address and phone number the department's official page publishes, and through the employer for employed applicants.

All applications received by the last date go before a selection committee, and the guidelines allow the committee to call candidates for a personal interview if required. It is not automatic: an application can be decided on paper.

The tie-break rule is unusual and worth knowing. Where two or more candidates tie, the elder candidate, by the date of birth in the Secondary School Certificate, is placed above the others. The same committee also owns every later discretionary call: a change of university or course, and whether a discontinuation was genuine enough to waive repayment.

The scheme is built around one bargain: Delhi pays for the degree, and the awardee brings it home. After the course, the candidate must return to India, inform the government in writing, submit the course completion certificate to the Secretary of the department, and then remain in India for at least five years, per the guidelines. Staying abroad up to two years after the course can be permitted, with reasons recorded in writing, but without any financial support for that period.

The penalty clauses are severe. Where any information or document is established as false, the guidelines debar the candidate from the award, recover the amount spent with 15% compound interest, blacklist the candidate for the future, and add departmental action for an employed candidate. A separate undertaking bars double-funding: the candidate must confirm they hold no other scholarship or assistance from any government or organisation for the same course.

The scheme sits with the Department for the Welfare of SC/ST/OBC, Government of NCT of Delhi, at B-Block, 2nd Floor, Vikas Bhawan, I.P. Estate, New Delhi-110002, reachable on 011-23379512 per the department's official website. Hardcopy applications and post-award correspondence, including the return-to-India intimation, go to the same office.