Food Bill Assistance to SC Students(FBASCS)

Overview

About FBASCS

Food Bill Assistance to SC Students is the Gujarat scheme, coded BCK-10, that pays a Scheduled Caste student Rs 1,500 a month toward meals for up to 10 months a year, provided the student lives in a hostel attached to their college. The Director, Scheduled Caste Welfare runs it, applications go through Digital Gujarat, and the Scheduled Caste window there for 2026-27 closes on 30/09/2026.

The directorate files BCK-10 under its educational schemes and names the District Deputy Director (SCW) Office as the implementing office (Food bill Assistance to SC students (BCK-10), Director, Scheduled Caste Welfare). In the budget it is one line inside SCW-6, the post-matric head that also carries private tuition help for Std 11 and 12, the M.Phil and Ph.D. thesis grant and the instrument grant for medical, engineering and diploma students (expenditure statement for March 2025).

Spending on BCK-10 went from Rs 78.71 lakh in 2014-15 to Rs 2,349.65 lakh in 2025-26, going by the directorate's year-end expenditure statements (Statement for March 2015; Statement for March 2026). The table gives what each statement records for the line: money in Rs lakh, and the physical target and achievement exactly as the statements print them.

The 2018-19 row comes from the State's sub-plan rather than a statement, which is why it gives the money disbursed and the students who benefited but no target (Scheduled Castes Sub Plan 2019-20).

Who runs it

Provider

At a glance

Key details

Calendar

Important dates

The window follows the academic year, and in both of the last two years it opened in July. For 2026-27 the portal's notice keeps post matric forms for SC and OBC students open on Digital Gujarat from 06/07/2026 to 30/09/2026 (Gujarat State Scholarship Portal), and the SC guideline gives the same two dates for every scheme on its list, BCK-10 included (Digital Gujarat guideline for SC students).

The 2025-26 guideline had set a shorter window, "તા:૧૫/૦૭/૨૦૨૫ થી ૩૧/૦૮/૨૦૨૫", the fifteenth of July to the thirty-first of August 2025 (previous Digital Gujarat guideline for SC students), and that close turned out not to be final: nearly a year later, from 19/08/2026 to 02/09/2026, the portal let SC students who were still left file 2025-26 post matric forms (Gujarat State Scholarship Portal). A reopening of that kind is announced on the portal's news list when it happens; it is not promised in advance.

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

Three tests decide a claim: Scheduled Caste status in Gujarat, a place in a hostel tied to the college, and family income. The directorate's page puts the income limit at 6 lakh (BCK-10 scheme page), and the 2026-27 Digital Gujarat guideline, linked from the Gujarat State Scholarship Portal, applies that one line to boys and girls alike (Digital Gujarat guideline for SC students). The ceiling used to be lower: the 2019-20 sub-plan gave it as Rs 4.50 lakh (Scheduled Castes Sub Plan 2019-20).

The hostel test is the narrow one. The guideline says the food bill is payable only to students who study while living in a hostel attached to the institution, meaning the college (Digital Gujarat guideline for SC students), and the scheme page words it as a hostel affiliated to the college. On that wording a day scholar, a student in a paying-guest room and a student in a private hostel with no tie to the college are all outside it.

No course is named today. The 2014-15 expenditure statement described BCK-10 as financial assistance for an increase in the food bill of engineering and medical students of SC (Statement for March 2015). The 2019-20 sub-plan's scheme note describes it simply as help for SC students admitted in college-affiliated hostels, although the target table at the back of the same document still carries the old engineering and medical title (Scheduled Castes Sub Plan 2019-20). The statement for March 2022 already names the line as food bill help for SC students studying while living in college-attached hostels (Statement for March 2022), and the current scheme page and guideline carry no course list, only the hostel condition.

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

The scheme record carries no exclusion list, so the working bars come from the Digital Gujarat guideline for 2026-27 (Digital Gujarat guideline for SC students; Gujarat State Scholarship Portal):

• Living anywhere other than a hostel attached to the college, however high the mess bill there.
• Family income above Rs 6 lakh.
• An application left without Confirm & Final Submit, or submitted online but never handed to the college on paper with its documents. The guideline says such an application cannot be taken into consideration.
• A claim made outside the portal. The guideline states that no scholarship is paid offline to any student.

Continuation

Renewal conditions

Each academic year is its own claim, capped at 10 months, but a returning student does not start from a blank form. Under the 2026-27 guideline, a student who applied in 2025-26 and was paid under the rules finds the current year's application already waiting in Renewal mode (Digital Gujarat guideline for SC students; Gujarat State Scholarship Portal). Open it, check the registration, bank, academic and disability details, upload the documents it asks for and send it.

If last year's form does not show up in Renewal mode, the guideline's answer is a fresh application: Request a New Service, choose 2026-27, and apply under the same scheme. Renewal does not carry the hostel condition forward on its own: a student who has left the college-attached hostel no longer meets the test BCK-10 is built on, whatever last year's file says.

What you get

Award & benefits

The rate is Rs 1,500 a month, paid for up to 10 months in a year (BCK-10 scheme page). The same figure and the same 10 months appear against BCK-10 in the 2026-27 guideline's scheme table, so the portal and the directorate agree on the amount (Digital Gujarat guideline for SC students, as listed on the Gujarat State Scholarship Portal).

The money goes to a bank account. The form collects the account number, IFSC and branch from the first page of the passbook or from a cancelled cheque, and after a bank merger it wants the new bank's passbook or cheque. The guideline puts two risks on the student: a wrong account number that sends the money to someone else is the student's responsibility, and an account left dormant or frozen cannot receive the credit, so check with the bank before filing.

• The food bill assistance @ ₹1,500/- per month (Up to 10 Months) will be granted to the Scheduled Caste (SC) students admitted in college affiliated hostels.

What to prepare

Documents required

The scheme record lists the papers; the guideline adds the handling rules that decide whether an upload is accepted (Digital Gujarat guideline for SC students):

• The record's two hostel papers, the hostel certificate and the warden's certificate, are where a BCK-10 file stands or falls, because they are what shows the hostel condition is met. The guideline does not leave the wording to the hostel: the format sits on the Instruction page of the service, and it has to come back signed and stamped by the hostel's competent authority before it is scanned.
• The income certificate is the parent's, issued by the competent authority. Where the father has died, his death certificate goes with it; where the parents are divorced, the mother's income certificate is accepted with the order.
• Uploads should be scans of originals, with a copy allowed only when the original cannot be had. Self-attested copies of every upload go to the college with the printed form.

Step by step

How to apply

Applications are online only, on Digital Gujarat, and the 2026-27 guideline shuts every other door: a scholarship application can be made only from the Scholarship Services option after logging in (Digital Gujarat guideline for SC students; Gujarat State Scholarship Portal). A BCK-10 claim runs in this order:

1. Log in as a citizen. A first-time user registers with an email ID and a mobile number; anyone who applied for a scholarship on the portal before uses the old login.
2. In Scholarship Services, choose Request a New Service with 2026-27 as the financial year, find Food Bill Assistance to SC Students (BCK-10) under the "(Director Scheduled Caste Welfare)" heading and click Continue to Service.
3. Complete the form, attach the scans, the signed hosteller certificate among them, and a recent photo, then clear the OTP check on your mobile before Confirm & Final Submit sends the claim to your college's login.
4. Print the submitted form and hand it to the college with self-attested copies of the uploads; an application whose print never reaches the institution is not considered.

A Gujarat-domiciled student at a recognised college in another state files the same way, but the paper set, with the institution's recognition papers and a forwarding letter from it, goes to the SC welfare office of the home district (Digital Gujarat guideline for SC students).

Tracking the Application and the Payment

The application stays visible in your own login. The Digital Gujarat FAQ points applicants to the My Applications section (Digital Gujarat FAQ), and the guideline adds that choosing an academic year from the Scholarship Services menu lists the applications filed for it (Digital Gujarat guideline for SC students).

Nothing can be edited after Confirm & Final Submit. If the college spots a mistake it has to return the application and tell you; if the college has not yet acted on it, a Withdraw button in your login lets you pull it back, correct it and send it again. For the payment, watch the bank account entered on the form, and keep the registered mobile number working, because the OTPs and messages about the claim go to it (Digital Gujarat guideline for SC students).

How winners are picked

Selection process

The directorate publishes no selection rule beyond the eligibility test, and none of its documents for BCK-10 describes a merit list or a ranking. A finally submitted application goes first to the college's login under the guideline (Digital Gujarat guideline for SC students), and the scheme page names the District Deputy Director (SCW) Office as the implementing office (BCK-10 scheme page).

The statements also set a physical target for BCK-10 each year, but it has not held payments down: in each of the five completed years from 2021-22 to 2025-26 the achievement beat the target, and from 2022-23 onward spending ran past the provision the year opened with (Statement for March 2022; Statement for March 2023; Statement for March 2024; Statement for March 2025; Statement for March 2026).

Fine print

Terms & conditions

The guideline ends with a caveat that governs everything in it: its details are for guidance, and the final reading follows the government resolutions (Digital Gujarat guideline for SC students). For BCK-10 the scheme page lists five of them, from 20/10/2016 (SCW/573162/G) to 02/11/2022 (SJED/ASO/e-file/172022/0052/G) (BCK-10 scheme page). The last one concerns raising the income limits in the individual and educational schemes of the Director, Scheduled Caste Welfare, the Director, Developing Castes Welfare and GUEEDC (Social Justice and Empowerment Department, resolution SJED/ASO/e-file/172022/0052/G).

On a BCK-10 form the two statements with most riding on them are the hostel stay and the family income, and the guideline's penalty reaches both: a misstated or hidden fact shuts the student out of the scholarship form for good, and drawing the money by concealment ends in a blacklisting (Digital Gujarat guideline for SC students). It also asks students not to try a duplicate application.

Get help

Contact

Past the college, a BCK-10 file is handled in the district. A rural applicant may find it with the District Social Welfare Officer rather than the Deputy Director: for SCW-6, the budget head that carries BCK-10, the State's Development Programme for 2022-23 names that office as the implementing agency in rural areas and leaves urban areas to the District Deputy Director, Scheduled Caste Welfare (Development Programme 2022-23). Both rosters, the Deputy Directors (Class-I) and the District Social Welfare Officers (Class-II), sit on one page of the directorate's site with an email against every district (Director, Scheduled Caste Welfare, contact page). The directorate itself is at Block number 4, 2nd Floor, Dr. Jivraj Mehta Bhavan, Gandhinagar, and its G-1 Education branch is on 079-232-53243 (dd1-dscw@gujarat.gov.in). The number printed on both the portal and the SC guideline, 18002335500, is the help desk the guideline gives for problems met while filling the Digital Gujarat form (Gujarat State Scholarship Portal; Digital Gujarat guideline for SC students).

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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