Free Supply of Text Books(FSOTB)

Overview

About FSOTB

Free Supply of Text Books is not a single benefit and it is not applied for. A child in Classes I to VIII at a Delhi government school is handed a printed set of books; a child in Classes IX to XII is paid money instead and buys the books. Enrolment in a government or aided school under the Directorate of Education, Government of NCT of Delhi is the entire qualification, and every step that follows is done by the school rather than by the family. A parent looking for a form or a portal login for this will not find one, because none was ever built.

The Directorate runs this as four separate things under one name: supply of text books or cash in lieu of them, a cash subsidy towards writing material, learning material for Nursery children, and a cash subsidy towards a geometry box (Chapter 12, General Education, Planning Department, Government of NCT of Delhi). The Directorate's own statement of purpose is narrower than the name suggests: it exists "to reduce drop-out and provide incentive for admission to those who can not afford to buy books" (Directorate of Education, About the Directorate).

Why the benefit changes shape at Class IX is a printing question, not a policy preference. Books for Classes I to VIII are prepared by NCERT and published by the Delhi Bureau of Text Books, so the state can print them and push them into schools. From Class IX the titles come from NCERT and other publishers, and the Directorate pays cash instead so that the family has the liberty to buy books of their choice from any source, as the same chapter puts it.

Both legs are counted together in the departmental record. Under this scheme the Directorate recorded 16,77,764 beneficiaries in Delhi government and aided schools for 2019-20, of whom 13,10,578 were Aadhaar seeded and 3,67,186 were paid through ECS (Economic Survey of Delhi 2020-21, Chapter 15, Education). Against that, the budget allocation for the scheme was Rs 20100 lakh, split as Rs 19000 lakh for government schools and Rs 1100 lakh for aided schools (Chapter 12, General Education, Planning Department).

Who runs it

Provider

At a glance

Key details

Calendar

Important dates

This calendar belongs to a print run rather than to an application window. Books for Classes I to VIII are procured by schools before March and distributed to students at the beginning of the new academic session (Chapter 12, General Education, Planning Department). For the 2025-26 session Samagra Shiksha-Delhi pushed that earlier still, permitting printers and vendors to deliver to schools from 17.02.2025 and on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, with Heads of School told to keep staff available to receive them (Samagra Shiksha-Delhi circular on distribution and delivery of text books).

That window is when the books are allowed to reach the building, which is not the same as when they reach a desk. No calendar date by which a class set must be in a child's hands is published, and no session-wise delivery status exists for a family to look up. What does exist for any particular class is the signed challan sitting in the school's own file, so a set still missing weeks into a session is a question for the Head of School before it is anyone else's.

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

Every student in a government or aided school from Nursery to Class XII is covered, irrespective of income and gender, which makes this one of the few Delhi education benefits with no means test at all (Chapter 12, General Education, Planning Department). There is no merit condition either, and no separate category test for SC, ST, OBC or minority children, who are covered simply as students of the school.

The book leg reaches further than the Directorate's own schools. Samagra Shiksha-Delhi delivers text books for Classes I to VIII to all Government DoE, NDMC, MCD and DCB schools through the printers and vendors assigned the printing and distribution work (Samagra Shiksha-Delhi circular on distribution and delivery of text books). A municipal primary school child in Delhi is therefore inside the text book supply chain even though the cash components sit with the Directorate.

One group outside the government and aided system is written in. The text book benefit was extended from 2008-09 to students admitted against the free-ship quota in private schools that were allotted land at concessional rates (Chapter 12, General Education, Planning Department).

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

A child at an ordinary private unaided school, paying fees on a general seat, is outside this scheme. That is the whole of the exclusion, and it is worth reading precisely, because the two look-alike routes below are often mistaken for it.

Children on EWS, DG and CWSN seats at private unaided recognised schools have a free books entitlement, but it is an obligation placed on the school rather than a payment from this scheme. Rule 8 of the Delhi Right to Education Rules, 2011 and the Directorate's notification of 30.12.2013 require those schools to provide free books, uniform and writing materials, and a circular of 28.06.2023 reiterated that they may not demand money from EWS and DG students for them (Directorate of Education, Private School Branch order).

The second look-alike sits inside government schools themselves. Expenditure on books for girls in Classes I to VIII in government schools is borne by Samagra Shiksha, not by this scheme's budget line (Chapter 12, General Education, Planning Department). The girl in Class VI and the boy beside her receive the same set from the same teacher; only the purse behind them differs.

Continuation

Renewal conditions

Each session begins the entitlement again from the school's admission roll, which is why families never see a renewal step. What has to stay current is not an application but a record: for the cash legs the Directorate disburses through Aadhaar based DBT and ECS, so the student's bank details and Aadhaar seeding are the only things that can quietly go stale between one session and the next (Chapter 12, General Education, Planning Department). The scheme record also expects the student to be attending classes regularly according to school norms, so a child struck off the roll drops out of the count with no notice.

What you get

Award & benefits

Two details in that table carry their own history. The writing material subsidy of Rs 300 and Rs 400 rests on Section 8 of the RTE rules, which entitles a child attending a government school to writing material besides books and uniform, and it has been paid at those figures from 2012-13 onwards to around 8 lakh elementary students (Chapter 12, General Education, Planning Department). The geometry box money was added on the reasoning that the instrument is an essential input for performance in mathematics, which is why it follows the subject rather than the class in Classes XI and XII.

Every rate in the table sits under the heading Budget Allocation 2020-21 in the Directorate's chapter, which makes them that session's published figures rather than a standing rate card (Chapter 12, General Education, Planning Department). The department has not restated them since. The Economic Survey of Delhi, 2025-26 still lists free supply of text books among the Delhi Government's main welfare schemes, and in the same volume it sets out a Cabinet-approved revision of the school uniform subsidy rates, but it carries no revised rate card for this scheme and no beneficiary count against it (Economic Survey of Delhi, 2025-26). What the table above holds is therefore the last figure the department put in print, which is not the same as a figure a school office is bound to pay this session, and that office is where the question belongs before a family budgets around any of them.

Three documents describe this scheme and they do not read alike, which matters before a figure gets quoted at a school counter. The departmental chapter above is the only one of them that separates the four components and gives the cash-in-lieu rates class by class. The Students Welfare Schemes table that the scheme record cites as its guidelines gives one annual amount per class instead, so its rows for the classes that are handed a printed set are not cash any family will receive; against Class 9 it carries Rs 630 and against Class 10 Rs 730, each sitting Rs 30 above the cash-in-lieu rate for that class, which reads as the geometry box subsidy folded into the same line (Students Welfare Schemes of DoE). The public scheme listing then transcribes that Rs 630 row against Class 5, where it collides with the listing's own entry for Classes 1 to 5 and one of the two has to be wrong. The chapter is what the other two are summarising, and the listing is a summary of a summary.

• Cash Subsidy for Textbooks and Writing Materials
• Class 1st to 5th: ₹550/- per annum.
• Class 6th, 7th, 11th, and 12th (Without Math): ₹800/- per annum.
• Class 8th, 11th, and 12th (With Math): ₹830/- per annum.
• Class 5th: ₹630/- per annum.
• Class 10th: ₹730/- per annum.
• Cash subsidy of ₹30/- per student for classes VIII, IX, and X, and for students of classes XI and XII who opt for Mathematics, for purchasing a Geometry Box.
• Mode of Disbursement
• For Cash Subsidies: The amount is transferred directly to the student’s/parent’s bank account.
• For Textbooks: The school distributes the books to eligible students.

What to prepare

Documents required

Nothing is asked of the child for the book leg. The set arrives at the school as a consignment and leaves it as a handover, and nowhere along that chain does anyone put a certificate, a photograph or a proof of income to a family.

The cash legs need one thing that does not come from a stationery shop: a working bank account for the student, because in aided schools and in private schools admitted against the free-ship quota the cash subsidy is disbursed directly into the student's bank account (Chapter 12, General Education, Planning Department). The scheme record's list of admission proof, class-wise enrolment details and bank account details describes what the school assembles on the child's behalf, not a file the parent submits.

Step by step

How to apply

No parent files anything under this scheme. The school does, and what it files is worth following, because it is the only paperwork the benefit generates. The Head of School furnishes the school's requirement online to Samagra Shiksha-Delhi, and the assigned printers and vendors then deliver against it; the official receiving the books must sign and stamp the delivery challan with a full name, designation and mobile number (Samagra Shiksha-Delhi circular on distribution and delivery of text books). That challan is the one piece of paper that proves a set reached a school, and it is what a Head of School will be asked for when a class is short.

Tracking, then, splits the same way the benefit does. For books, the question a parent can actually get answered at the school office is whether the delivery for that class arrived and was signed for. For cash, the trace is the student's own bank statement, since the payment lands there through Aadhaar based DBT or ECS rather than through any scheme portal. The circular routes copies to every Deputy Director of Education at zone and district level, which is the escalation ladder above the school for either failure.

How winners are picked

Selection process

A Delhi government school does not shortlist anybody for this. The benefit runs across Nursery to Class XII with no income ceiling and no marks condition, so the admission roll does the work a selection committee does elsewhere. The only judgement anyone exercises is the Head of School's count of how many sets that building will need.

Fine print

Terms & conditions

Almost nothing here is a condition a family could fail, and what conditions exist are recorded by the school rather than proved by a parent. The child must be enrolled in a government or aided school in Delhi and attending regularly by school norms. Cash paid in lieu of books carries no restriction on where the books are bought, which is the stated reason the cash route exists at all from Class IX.

For private unaided recognised schools the conditions are sharper. Non-compliance with the direction to supply free books, uniform and writing materials to EWS, DG and CWSN students carries liability under Section 24 of the DSEAR, 1973 or other action, and district Deputy Directors of Education have been directed to act on parent grievances (Directorate of Education, Private School Branch order).

Get help

Contact

Start at the school. The Head of School holds both the requirement figure sent to Samagra Shiksha-Delhi and the delivery challan, and neither exists anywhere a parent can see from outside. Above that sit the Deputy Director of Education for the zone and then for the district, both of whom receive the text book distribution circulars directly.

The Directorate of Education is at Old Secretariat, near Vidhan Sabha, Delhi 110054, and its contacts page lists the Director's office on 23890172 along with the State Project Director of Samagra Shiksha-Delhi, who owns the Classes I to VIII book supply (Directorate of Education contacts). For a private unaided school refusing free books to an EWS, DG or CWSN child, the Directorate has named the Deputy Director of Education, Private School Branch as nodal officer, reachable at ddeact1@gmail.com, with a grievance helpline on 9818154069 (Directorate of Education, Private School Branch order).

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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