What Does "Grant-in-Aid" Mean for a Hostel?

It means the government does not run the hostel itself. A recognised voluntary organisation runs it and the department pays that organisation a maintenance grant for each resident student, while the student lives and eats there free (resolution for hostels in tribal areas, 2015).

Where Can I Find the List of Grant-in-Aid Hostels in Gujarat?

The Tribal Development Department posts it as a downloadable Gujarati document on the scheme page, listing every hostel with its organisation, village, taluka, district and sanctioned strength (list of grant-in-aid hostels). It covers hostels only, not grant-in-aid schools.

Is Any Money Paid Into the Student's Bank Account?

No. The official record classes the benefit as in kind and not a direct benefit transfer (myScheme record), and the 2015 rate resolution pays the per-student grant to the institution that runs the hostel (resolution for hostels in tribal areas, 2015).

How Is This Different From the Tribal Department's Government Hostels?

The government hostels are run by the department itself, date from 1955-56 and take students in Std 8 to 12 and college. Boys qualify with a parental income up to Rs 2.50 lakh, girls face no income limit, and students with 50% or higher marks are admitted on merit; the department counts 165 such hostels housing about 16,840 students (Government Hostels). The Samras hostels are a third, separate arrangement: the department describes them as large hostels in six major cities for Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Class students (Samras Hostel).

Is This the Same as the Developing Castes Welfare "Grant-in-Aid Hostels"?

No. The Director, Developing Castes Welfare, under Gujarat's Social Justice and Empowerment Department, runs its own scheme of the same name for SEBC, minority and NT/DNT hostels, and its scheme page still prints a maintenance grant of Rs 1,500 per student per month for 10 months (Developing Castes Welfare). That department's 2026-27 budget press note moves the monthly rate for its Ashram Shalas and grant-in-aid hostels from Rs 2,160 to Rs 2,500 (Budget 2026-27 press note, Social Justice and Empowerment).

Do Karnataka's or Maharashtra's Grant-in-Aid Hostel Schemes Work the Same Way?

They share the name, not the rules. Karnataka's Backward Classes Welfare scheme funds organisations running orphanages for destitute and orphan children in class 1 to 10, with a meal cost of Rs 800 a month for 12 months (Karnataka Backward Classes Welfare). Maharashtra's aided hostels carry a maintenance grant of Rs 2,200 per student a month for 10 months, set no income limit and take SC, ST, VJNT and SBC students (Maharashtra Social Justice Department). Neither covers a hostel in Gujarat.

What specific educational standards must students be currently studying in to be considered eligible for the complimentary residential facility?

Students intended to benefit from this initiative must be currently studying in standard 5th up to standard 12th.

Are there any alternative registration requirements, such as registration under the Societies Registration Act, that the applying institution must satisfy?

Yes, the voluntary institution is required to be officially registered under the provisions of the Societies Registration Act 1860.

Is the applying institution mandated to provide a formal certificate confirming the availability of a proper building equipped with essential utilities?

Yes, a certificate must be submitted as an undertaking confirming that a suitable building, complete with water and electricity facilities, is available at the requested site.

If the application form contains missing fields or is found to have incomplete required details, will the processing office proceed with its consideration?

No, applications that are submitted with incomplete required details or information will not be processed or taken into account.

What critical timeline restrictions apply to the date on the bank balance certificate required for submission along with the formal application form?

The certificate must be dated after the date the advertisement was published in newspapers, but before the final application acceptance date.

What is the maximum acceptable limit for the applicant student’s family’s annual income if they permanently reside in a rural geographical area?

The family's total annual income must not exceed ₹1,20,000/- (Indian Rupees one lakh twenty thousand) if the residence is in a rural area.

When the selection process commences, what primary geographical consideration is given preference regarding the proposed location of the new facility?

Preference is strictly mandated for selecting hostels only in those locations where there is currently an absence of existing hostel facilities.

Does the institution need to formally commit to following current rules and future administrative instructions issued by the relevant governing departments?

Yes, the organization must pass a resolution agreeing to comply with all current rules for Backward Class Hostels and any administrative instructions received from the Tribal Development Department and the Director, Tribal Development.

Is there a possibility that an application will be summarily rejected if the necessary original or certified supporting documents/proofs are not attached?

Yes, if the application does not include the required original or appropriately certified documents/proofs, it will be considered rejected.

What is the minimum threshold requirement regarding the bank balance or available liquid working capital that the applicant organization needs to demonstrate?

The applicant institution must submit a certificate showing that its bank balance or liquidity/working capital exceeds ₹15,000/- (Indian Rupees fifteen thousand).

Could you please specify the maximum allowed threshold for the annual earnings of the beneficiary's family if they are residing in an urban location?

For families living in an urban area, the maximum permitted annual income limit is ₹1,50,000/- (Indian Rupees one lakh fifty thousand).

Which specific legal registration status must the non-governmental voluntary institution possess under the Public Trusts Act to submit an application?

The voluntary organization applying for the facility must be registered under the legal framework of the Public Trusts Act 1950.

What happens to applications for starting a new Grant In Aid facility if the completed forms are physically received after the official submission time limit?

Applications that are received after the specific time limit established for submission will definitely not be taken into consideration.

In addition to the availability check, what characteristics of the area surrounding the proposed site are given specific priority during the selection?

Priority for approval and selection should be specifically assigned to areas identified as backward or remote geographical locations.

Scholarship

Grant In Aid Hostels(GIAH)

In Kind

State/ UT

Gujarat State Government Gujarat myScheme record

Eligibility

The applicant must be a student.

Region

Gujarat

Award

In Kind

Deadline

Not published by the source

Overview

About GIAH

Grant In Aid Hostels has two kinds of applicant, and they ask for different things. A Scheduled Tribe student in Std 5 to 12 from a family under the income limit asks for a free seat, with meals, in a hostel. A registered voluntary organisation asks the Gujarat Tribal Development Department to recognise and fund a hostel, and the department's grant goes to that organisation, never into the family's bank account.

The department's own case for the scheme is about distance to school. Its Gujarati scheme page says secondary and higher secondary schools are not found in every tribal village, so children often stop after primary school, and voluntary organisations therefore run grant-in-aid hostels at places that do have secondary schools (Tribal Development Department, Gujarati page).

The scheme dates from 1969, and the department's English page counts 910 grant-in-aid hostels giving board and lodging to about 48,410 students (Tribal Development Department). The same page lists where they operate, and the list is not confined to the tribal belt: alongside Dang, Dahod, Narmada and Tapi it names Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Mehsana, Junagadh, Porbandar and Gir Somnath.

The scheme page's count of 910 carries no date (Tribal Development Department). The department's annual report for 2019-20 put the number of operational hostels at 882 that year, with Rs 8,428.73 lakh provided and Rs 8,204.27 lakh spent up to March 2020 (Annual Report on the Administration of Scheduled Areas 2019-20). The latest count comes from the state budget: the Tribal Development Department's press note for 2026-27 lists 893 grant-in-aid hostels inside a Rs 327 crore provision for over 73,000 students across 1,069 hostels, 176 of them government-run (Budget 2026-27 press note, Tribal Development Department).

Who runs it

Provider

Gujarat State Government

State / UT Government

Tribal Development Department

At a glance

Key details

Level	State/ UT
Scheme type	Not published by the source
Category	Social welfare & Empowerment, Housing & Shelter, Transport & Infrastructure
Beneficiaries	Individual, NGO
Benefit type	In Kind
Application mode	Offline
Direct Benefit Transfer	No
Tags	Student, Scheduled Tribe, Hostel, Education, Grant
Source record	myScheme, 2026-07-08official-site· 2026-07-08

Calendar

Important dates

No student admission dates are published. For organisations, a new-hostel round is tied to a newspaper advertisement, and the instruction sheet dates the bank balance certificate between the advertisement's publication and the last date for accepting forms (instructions for new grant-in-aid hostels). The grant rate moves on its own clock: the 2015 resolution applied its revised rate from the session starting after 1 April 2015 (resolution for hostels in tribal areas, 2015), and the next two steps came with the budgets presented in February 2020 and February 2026 (Budget Estimates 2020-21, Press Note 9; Budget Speech 2026-27, Part A).

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

For a student, the test is caste, class and family income. The ceiling is Rs 1,20,000 a year for a rural family and Rs 1,50,000 for an urban one, and no marks threshold appears on the scheme page (Tribal Development Department). The Gujarati version files that limit under the heading for admission criteria and words it as income below those figures, where the English page says up to, so a family whose income sits exactly on the line should ask the hostel which reading it applies (Tribal Development Department, Gujarati page).

Because the hostels are sited where secondary schools exist, the practical question for a family is whether a recognised hostel stands near the school the child will attend.

For an organisation, the conditions in the official record below (registration, bank balance, a building with water and electricity) are the entry ticket. The department's instruction sheet for new-hostel applications adds one practical rule the record does not spell out: every attachment must be clear and readable, and either the original or a copy certified by a gazetted officer (instructions for new grant-in-aid hostels).

The applicant must be a student.
The applicant must be from a Scheduled Tribe.
The applicant must be studying in standard 5th to 12th.
The applicant’s family annual income must be up to ₹1,20,000/- for rural area.
The applicant’s family annual income must be up to ₹1,50,000/- for urban area.
The applicant must be a voluntary institution.
The applicant must be registered under one of the following acts: Public Trusts Act 1950, Societies Registration Act 1860
The applicant organization must have a bank balance (liquidity/working capital) certificate showing an amount exceeding ₹15,000/-.
The building must be suitable and equipped with complete facilities, including water and electricity, and available at the demanded site for the hostel.
Preference must be given to selecting hostels only in places where there is currently no hostel facility.
Priority should be given to backward and remote areas during hostel selection.

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

The department publishes no exclusion list for students. For organisations, its instruction sheet treats an incomplete application, or one filed without original or certified documents, as rejected (instructions for new grant-in-aid hostels).

Continuation

Renewal conditions

No student renewal procedure is published. On the organisation's side the grant is tied to the budget year: the department's resolution of 1 April 2015 limits spending to that year's provision, bars using the grant for any other purpose and requires any unspent amount to be surrendered at the year's end (resolution for hostels in tribal areas, 2015).

What you get

Award & benefits

The student's benefit is in kind: free lodging and boarding (Tribal Development Department). Everything paid in cash goes to the institution running the hostel, and the table sets the two sides apart.

Who	What they receive
Student	A free place to live and meals in the hostel
Institution	A monthly maintenance grant for each resident student
Institution	Rent support where the hostel runs in a rented building, at rates the department revises by resolution
Institution	Help with constructing hostel buildings, under a scheme approved in 2017

The maintenance grant is the core payment, and its rate is set per student per month. The department's resolution of 1 April 2015 raised it to Rs 1,500 for hostels in tribal areas, payable to the institution for 10 months of the year from the session starting after that date (resolution for hostels in tribal areas, 2015), and a companion resolution the same day did the same for grant-in-aid hostels outside tribal areas (resolution for hostels outside tribal areas, 2015). Five years on the rate had not moved: the Finance Department's note on the 2020-21 budget lists grant-in-aid hostels and Ashram Shalas as paid Rs 1,500 per inmate per month and lifts the figure to Rs 2,160 (Budget Estimates 2020-21, Press Note 9, Finance Department).

The 2026-27 budget speech announced the next rise, from Rs 2,160 to Rs 2,500 a month, for students in Ashram Shalas and grant-in-aid hostels for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, developing castes and economically weaker sections (Budget Speech 2026-27, Part A, Finance Department). The Social Justice and Empowerment Department's own press note prices the increase for its Ashram Shalas and hostels at Rs 40 crore, covering about 1,16,530 students (Budget 2026-27 press note, Social Justice and Empowerment). The speech calls the money monthly assistance to students, but under the 2015 resolution the per-student amount is paid to the institution running the hostel, not to the family (resolution for hostels in tribal areas, 2015).

Free lodging and boarding facilities are provided to the students.
The voluntary institution must agree to adhere to the current rules for Backward Class Hostels and any future changes.
The voluntary institution must agree to comply with administrative or other instructions received from the Tribal Development Department and the Director, Tribal Development.

What to prepare

Documents required

Every document in the official list below belongs to the organisation. The department publishes no document list for a student seeking a seat, so the hostel that admits the child is the place to ask what it needs on file.

Organization's Constitution Copy.

Organization's Registration Copy.

Latest Bank Balance Certificate Original Copy (Must be dated after the date of advertisement and before the last date of application acceptance).

List of Office Bearers' Names and Complete Addresses.

Copy of the Managing Committee Resolution or General Meeting Resolution Regarding Which Office Bearer of the Institution Will Handle Financial Correspondence.

Copy of the Managing Committee Resolution Agreeing to Comply with Current Rules and Future Changes For Backward Class Hostels, and Administrative or Other Instructions from the Tribal Development Department and the Director, Tribal Development.

Proposed Site Map Attached (With Full Details).

Building Assessment Letter Copy (Assessment Sheet Excerpt from Panchayat Register For Hostel Building).

Landlord's Consent Letter (In Case of Rented Building).

Property Card Copy (In Case of City Area).

Relevant Municipality Assessment Bill Copy (In Case of City Area).

Organization's Last Year's Audit Statement Copy.

Statement Detailing Other Social Welfare or Educational Activities Run By the Organization (Must Be Mentioned Even If Information Is Nil).

Statement Detailing School Facilities At the Proposed Location, Including School Name, Grade Level of Education Provided, and Details of Scheduled Tribe Children Studying There.

Details of Other Scheduled Tribe/Other Caste Hostels Run By the Organization (Including Location and Sanctioned Strength).

Undertaking Letter to Provide Admission to Ten Percent (10%) Economically Backward Class Students of the Sanctioned Strength In the Proposed Hostel.

Certificate with Undertaking Regarding Availability of A Suitable Building Equipped with Complete Facilities, Including Water and Electricity At the Demanded Hostel Location.

Step by step

How to apply

The two applicants follow separate routes, and neither runs online.

An organisation opening a new hostel waits for the department's newspaper advertisement, then files the form offline, with its attachments, at the district office of the Project Administrator or Assistant Commissioner (myScheme record). The instruction sheet ties the bank balance certificate to that advertisement: it must be dated between the day the advertisement appears and the closing date (instructions for new grant-in-aid hostels).
A student has no form to file with the state. Neither the department's forms page nor the Commissionerate's carries an admission form for a grant-in-aid hostel, though the Commissionerate posts one for its government hostels (Application Forms, Tribal Development Department; Application Forms, Commissionerate of Tribal Development), so the approach is to the management of the hostel itself.

The department's downloadable list of its grant-in-aid hostels, prepared for 2019-2020, is the practical starting point for a family. It names each hostel's organisation, whether it takes boys or girls, its village, taluka and district, and its sanctioned strength (list of grant-in-aid hostels).

In the tribal districts that office is a Project Administrator's. Gujarat's tribal sub-plan area is divided into 14 Integrated Tribal Development Projects, each headed by a Project Administrator of the rank of Additional Collector (Annual Report 2019-20).

Tracking an Application

The official record lists the application mode as offline and marks the scheme as not a direct benefit transfer (myScheme record), so there is no online application for a student to follow and no payment to trace on the National Scholarship Portal or Digital Gujarat. An organisation follows up its proposal at the district office where it filed.

1
Apply offline
The official links on this page lead to the application portal.

How winners are picked

Selection process

For organisations, location decides. A new hostel is chosen only where no hostel exists today, and backward and remote areas get priority (instructions for new grant-in-aid hostels). Sanction then comes by government resolution: one issued in 2017 gave administrative approval to open new grant-in-aid hostels run by voluntary organisations (2017 resolution on new grant-in-aid hostels), and another in 2018 approved a rise in the sanctioned strength of existing ones (2018 strength increase).

For students, the grant-in-aid pages publish no ranking or merit rule beyond the income, class and caste tests.

Fine print

Terms & conditions

The 2015 resolution puts the hostels under watch. It directs the competent implementing officers to monitor the facilities given to Scheduled Tribe students in these hostels regularly and to send the department a report every six months (resolution for hostels in tribal areas, 2015).

Wardens are trained as well. The Tribal Research and Training Institute ran a course for grant-in-aid hostel wardens in 2019-20 with 58 participants (Annual Report 2019-20).

Get help

Contact

The Tribal Development Department sits at Block No. 2, 5th Floor, New Sachivalaya, Gandhinagar, Gujarat 382010, and lists +91 79 23257703 as its number, answered from 10:30 AM to 6:10 PM (Tribal Development Department). For a particular hostel or a pending proposal, the district office the official record names, the Project Administrator or Assistant Commissioner, is the nearer point of contact (myScheme record).

Source

Official links

Guidelines Instructions For Application myScheme (Government of India)

Questions

GIAH – FAQ

Frequently asked questions

From the official scheme FAQ (myScheme)

Read this

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.

References

Sources

Tribal Development Department, Gujarati page – tribal.gujarat.gov.in
Budget 2026-27 press note, Tribal Development Department – financedepartment.gujarat.gov.in
myScheme record – myscheme.gov.in
Application Forms, Commissionerate of Tribal Development – comm-tribal.gujarat.gov.in
Developing Castes Welfare – sje.gujarat.gov.in
Karnataka Backward Classes Welfare – bcw.karnataka.gov.in
Maharashtra Social Justice Department – sjsa.maharashtra.gov.in