Is the Maharishi Balmiki Chatravriti Yojana Open for 2026-27?

For the 2026-27 year, NSP lists the scheme as open from 4 June 2026, with student applications accepted until 31 October 2026 (NSP, Himachal Pradesh state schemes). Institute verification has to be finished by 17 November 2026, so applying well before the student deadline leaves the college time to act.

Why Do Some Websites Say Rs 9,000?

Rs 9,000 a year was the rate under the 2003 notification, and the older HP ePASS scheme page still displays it (HP ePASS state schemes). The Directorate's current figure is Rs 18,000 per year, revised with effect from 2022-23 (Directorate of Higher Education).

Is This the Valmiki Scholarship of Jharkhand or Madhya Pradesh?

No. Jharkhand's Valmiki Scholarship Scheme, run by its Department of Higher and Technical Education, is aimed at orphans and Divyangjan students, boys and girls alike, and reimburses full course fees plus a monthly sustenance allowance (Jharkhand State Higher Education Council scheme document). Khargone district in Madhya Pradesh describes a Maharishi Valmiki Scheme under the SC Development Department that gives an incentive of up to Rs 50,000 to students selected in national competitive examinations such as JEE and NEET (Khargone district, Government of Madhya Pradesh). The Himachal scheme is neither: it is limited to Himachali girls from Balmiki families in unclean occupations.

Is This the Pre-Matric Scholarship for Children of Parents in Unclean Occupations?

No, that is a separate scheme for school classes up to matric. Himachal's Directorate of Higher Education also implements the Pre-Matric Scholarship for children of parents or guardians engaged in unclean and hazardous occupations (Component-II), with its deputy directors acting as district nodal officers for verification (Directorate letter on Component-II). The Maharishi Balmiki scholarship starts where that one stops, after matric, and is only for girls.

What is the main objective of the mentioned scholarship scheme?

The scheme aims to provide financial assistance of ₹18,000 per annum to female students from the economically disadvantaged Valmiki community in Himachal Pradesh, promoting education and empowerment.

Can male students from the Valmiki community apply for this scholarship?

No, the scheme is specifically for female students belonging to the Valmiki community engaged in unclean occupations.

How much financial assistance does a beneficiary receive annually under this scholarship?

The beneficiary is awarded ₹18,000 per annum for college-level studies and professional courses.

What is the eligibility criterion related to the applicant's residence for this scholarship?

The applicant must be a permanent resident of Himachal Pradesh to qualify for the "Maharishi Balmiki Chatravriti Yojana" scholarship.

Are there any specific documents required during the application process?

Yes, documents such as Passport Size Photo, Aadhaar Card, Himachali Bonafide Certificate, Result Cards from Matric onwards, Bank Statement, and a Certificate of Parent/Guardian engaged in an unclean profession are mandatory.

What is the significance of the Bonafide Certificate in the application process?

The Himachali Bonafide Certificate serves as proof of the applicant's residence and is a mandatory document for the application process.

Can you provide details on the role of the Certificate of Parent/Guardian engaged in an unclean profession?

This certificate, issued by an officer not below the rank of Tehsildar, validates the engagement of the parent/guardian in an unclean profession, a crucial eligibility criterion.

What is the preferred mode for submitting the scholarship application?

Applicants can submit the application online through the National Scholarship Portal, following the specified steps.

Is there any flexibility in saving the application as a draft and completing it later?

Yes, applicants have the option to click "Save as Draft" during the application process, allowing them to complete it at a later time.

What is the role of the Applicant's Dashboard in the application process?

The Applicant's Dashboard, accessible after login, serves as the central hub for navigating through various sections of the application, including form submission.

Can you elaborate on the procedure for password reset during the application?

If needed, applicants can reset their password by providing the OTP received on their registered mobile number, creating a new password, and confirming the reset.

How does the scheme contribute to the broader goal of empowering communities?

By providing financial assistance for education, the scheme contributes to uplifting individuals and communities, especially those economically weaker, fostering empowerment.

Are there any considerations for students pursuing specific courses under this scholarship?

The scholarship supports students pursuing college-level studies and professional courses, offering financial aid for a broad spectrum of educational paths.

How can applicants verify the successful submission of their scholarship application?

After final submission, applicants receive a confirmation on the portal. Additionally, an SMS is sent to the registered mobile number with the Application ID and password.

Scholarship

Maharishi Balmiki Chatravriti Yojana(MBCY)

Cash

State DBT

National Scholarship Portal Himachal Pradesh myScheme record

Eligibility

The applicant should be a permanent resident of Himachal Pradesh.

Region

Himachal Pradesh

Award

Cash

Deadline

Not published by the source

Overview

About MBCY

The Maharishi Balmiki Chatravriti Yojana is the Himachal Pradesh scholarship for a girl whose family is Balmiki and whose parent or guardian works in an unclean occupation. It pays her Rs 18,000 for each year she studies beyond matric at a school or college inside the state. Nothing about it is competitive, since the state's own terms extend it to every girl who fits that description, and the Rs 9,000 still quoted on some websites is the rate from before the 2022-23 revision.

The scheme belongs to Himachal's Education Department and is administered by the Directorate of Higher Education in Shimla, which lists it with its state-sponsored scholarships, separate from the centrally sponsored ones. The Directorate's current description puts the award at Rs 18,000 per year, revised with effect from 2022-23, and names a notification of 19 June 2003 as one of the orders behind it (Directorate of Higher Education, Himachal Pradesh).

That 2003 notification still carries the working rules. It extends the scholarship to all girl students of Balmiki families studying beyond matric up to college level, professional courses included, at institutions situated in Himachal Pradesh, government or private; the money is paid once a year, and the student has to apply again in each class (scheme guidelines on NSP). It also fixed the amount at Rs 9,000 per student per year, the figure the older HP ePASS scheme page still displays (HP ePASS state schemes).

The Higher Education Department doubled the rate through a notification dated 21 July 2022 (No. EDN-B-C(10)2/2022), which raised this and several other state scholarships from the 2022-23 budget and kept their earlier terms and conditions unchanged (Directorate of Higher Education, revision notice in the NSP guidelines file).

Applications now run on the National Scholarship Portal (NSP), where the scheme sits among Himachal Pradesh's state schemes as "Maharishi Balmiki Chatravriti Yojana-Himachal Pradesh" and is tagged a welfare-based scheme, not a merit-based one (NSP, Himachal Pradesh state schemes).

Who runs it

Provider

National Scholarship Portal

State / UT Government

Education Department, Himachal Pradesh · National Scholarship Portal

At a glance

Key details

Level	State
Scheme type	Not published by the source
Category	Education & Learning, Women and Child
Beneficiaries	Individual
Benefit type	Cash
Application mode	Online
Direct Benefit Transfer	Yes
Tags	School Education, Student, Financial Assistance, Scholarship, Girl Child
Source record	myScheme, 2026-07-08official-site· 2026-07-08

Calendar

Important dates

The scheme's own NSP listing gives this calendar for the 2026-27 year:

Stage	Date
Applications open	4 June 2026
Last date for students	31 October 2026
Verification of defective applications closes	17 November 2026
Institute verification closes	17 November 2026
District or state nodal officer verification closes	18 November 2026

The Directorate announced the same opening date and student deadline for all state and centrally sponsored post-matric scholarships in its press release of 4 June 2026 (Directorate press release).

The student deadline fell on 31 October in the previous cycle as well: for 2025-26 the portal opened on 17 June 2025, and the post-matric last date was announced as 31 October 2025 (Information and Public Relations Department, Himachal Pradesh). That date did not hold. Between 28 October 2025 and 28 January 2026 the Directorate put out a run of press releases pushing the 2025-26 dates back, the last of them for post-matric schemes alone, even though most of those releases declared that no further extension would be provided (Directorate notices on date extensions, Directorate extension notice). The Directorate's 2026-27 scholarship notices go up on the same notice board (Directorate notice board, scholarship notices).

Important dates by cycle
Cycle	Stage	Date
Current	Applications open	2002-03-25

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

"Beyond matric" reaches further down than the phrase "college-level studies" suggests. The scheme's own entry on HP ePASS covers study at any government or private recognised school or college situated within Himachal Pradesh, so a girl in Class 11 or 12 at a recognised school in the state qualifies along with one in a degree or professional course (HP ePASS state schemes).

The occupation condition attaches to the parent or guardian, not to the student. It is proved by a certificate that the parent or guardian is engaged in an unclean profession, issued by an officer not below the rank of Tehsildar (HP ePASS state schemes). The 2003 notification also let the working certificate come from the head of the office where the parent is employed (scheme guidelines on NSP), but the current document list names only the Tehsildar-rank certificate.

The Directorate adds a general condition for all its state scholarships: the beneficiary must be a regular student in a government, government-aided or affiliated institution in Himachal Pradesh (Directorate of Higher Education). No family-income ceiling appears in the 2003 terms, in the 2022 revision or in the Directorate's description of this scheme.

The applicant should be a permanent resident of Himachal Pradesh.
The applicant should be a girl student.
The applicant should belong to the Valmiki Family engaged in Unclean Occupation.
The applicant should have been admitted to a matriculation course.

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

The myScheme record publishes no exclusion list, yet the scheme's own terms leave out three kinds of applicant:

A Himachali girl studying outside the state. The 2003 notification covers only institutions situated in Himachal Pradesh, so a seat at a college in Chandigarh or Delhi puts that year outside the scheme (scheme guidelines on NSP). The HP ePASS FAQ says, in general terms, that the Directorate's schemes are open to bonafide Himachali students studying within or outside the state who meet the scheme-specific guidelines (HP ePASS FAQ), and this scheme's own notification and the Directorate's description both specify a college situated in Himachal Pradesh (Directorate of Higher Education).
A girl from a Balmiki family in which no parent or guardian does unclean work. Community membership alone does not qualify; the occupation certificate is the test (HP ePASS state schemes).
A compartment candidate who does not clear the supplementary examination within the same session, which the 2003 terms say is normally held in September or October (scheme guidelines on NSP).

Continuation

Renewal conditions

The 2003 terms make the student apply on the prescribed form in each class, so a girl moving from Class 12 into college, or from one college year to the next, files again with her latest result card (scheme guidelines on NSP).

Since 2024-25 the portal has required a One Time Registration (OTR) number, a 14-digit ID generated from Aadhaar or the Aadhaar enrolment ID that stays valid for the student's whole academic career, so she keeps one OTR from Class 11 through college (National Scholarship Portal).

What you get

Award & benefits

The award is one flat annual sum, the same whether the girl is in Class 11 or in a professional course: neither the 2003 notification nor the 2022 revision sets a slab by class, course or hostel status (scheme guidelines on NSP). Two rates appear in the official record:

Period	Amount per student	Set by
Before 2022-23	Rs 9,000 a year	Notification of 19 June 2003
From 2022-23	Rs 18,000 a year	Notification of 21 July 2022

The payment comes after verification, not after the application. When the Directorate refused further extensions in its notices of December 2025 and January 2026, the reason it gave was that scholarship disbursal would start once the extended timeline ended and the portal was closed for verification (Directorate extension notice).

Scholarship of ₹ 18,000 per annum.

What to prepare

Documents required

Two of the listed documents need planning. The unclean-occupation certificate must come from an officer of Tehsildar rank or above, and the result cards run from matric onwards, so a second-year college student needs her Class 10, Class 12 and first-year results together (HP ePASS state schemes).

Colleges can ask for more than the portal list. Government Degree College Dehra in Kangra district, for instance, asks Maharishi Balmiki applicants for Class 10 and 12 certificates, a bank copy, the admission slip, a college bonafide, and the latest category and income certificates (GDC Dehra scholarship notice). An income certificate can be requested even though the scheme sets no income limit, so check the scholarship notice at your own institution before the deadline.

At Rs 18,000 a year this award sits well below the Rs 50,000 line above which the Himachal FAQ file on NSP, written for the portal's 2.0 version, asks for documents to be uploaded (Himachal Pradesh FAQ on NSP). The paper trail runs through the institution instead: the scheme's ePASS entry has the printed online form and its documents handed to the head of the school or college (HP ePASS state schemes).

1. Passport Size Photo.

2. Aadhaar Card (Unique Identification Number / Enrollment Identification Number).

3. Himachali Bonafide Certificate.

4. Previous Year(s) Result Card(s) from Matric onwards.

5. Latest Bank Statement of the Students Bank Account.

6. Certificate of Parent / Guardian engaged in Unclean Profession (Issued by an officer not below the rank of Tehsildar).

Step by step

How to apply

The application is online only. The state's scheme instructions tell heads of institutions to return any offline form to the student and have her apply online (HP ePASS state schemes). The sequence on NSP:

Generate an OTR with Aadhaar or the Aadhaar enrolment ID. The NSP OTR app handles face authentication, and a Common Service Centre can do the whole job, from the OTR to the filled application, for a fixed Rs 30 (National Scholarship Portal).
Log in with the OTR and apply for "Maharishi Balmiki Chatravriti Yojana-Himachal Pradesh" from Himachal Pradesh's state schemes before the student deadline (NSP, Himachal Pradesh state schemes).
Hand the printed application and the documents to the head of your school or college, who keeps them on file (HP ePASS state schemes).
Your institution verifies the application online by the institute-verification date, and a district or state nodal officer completes the second level after that (NSP, Himachal Pradesh state schemes).

Following the Application After You Submit

Two links on the NSP home page matter once the form is in: "Application Status", which shows where the form sits in the verification chain, and "Track Your Payment", which opens the Public Financial Management System (PFMS) payment search (National Scholarship Portal). The Himachal FAQ describes the same status check through the "Check Your Status" option after logging in (Himachal Pradesh FAQ on NSP).

If the status shows the form pending with the institution, the institution's scholarship desk is the one to follow up with. NSP lists a separate closing date for verifying defective applications, 17 November 2026 in the 2026-27 cycle, so a form sent back for correction has to be corrected and re-verified before then (NSP, Himachal Pradesh state schemes). If a mistake surfaces after the form has gone forward, the Himachal FAQ says to report it to the institute, district or state, and it gives the institute and the state, not the student, the power to correct a limited set of fields such as the bank account number and IFSC code (Himachal Pradesh FAQ on NSP).

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

How winners are picked

Selection process

A Balmiki girl who meets the terms is not competing with anyone. The 2003 notification says the scholarship shall be paid to all the girl students of Balmiki families beyond matric, which leaves no quota to fill or merit list to top, and the Directorate's scheme list marks four of its other awards as "Meritorious Scheme" but gives this one no such tag (scheme guidelines on NSP, Directorate of Higher Education).

What decides the outcome is verification: the institution's check first, then the district or state nodal officer's. Where a dispute arises, the 2003 terms make the decision of the Director of Education final (scheme guidelines on NSP).

Fine print

Terms & conditions

NSP files Maharishi Balmiki as a welfare-based scheme and Himachal's Kalpana Chawla award for girls as merit-based (NSP, Himachal Pradesh state schemes, Directorate of Higher Education). Since the portal's 2026-27 rule caps a student at one merit-based scheme but lets her add welfare-based ones as eligibility allows (National Scholarship Portal), a Balmiki girl who also makes the Kalpana Chawla merit list is not blocked by the portal from applying for both; whether both can be paid for the same year is for the Directorate to confirm, because the 2003 terms say nothing on the point.

The Directorate's extension notices of December 2025 and January 2026, noting applications pending at institution and district level, told those verifying them to finish at the earliest, failing which responsibility would be fixed at the individual level and the scholarship amount recovered (Directorate extension notice).

Get help

Contact

The first point of contact is the scholarship desk of your own school or college, because the institute verification on NSP happens there (NSP, Himachal Pradesh state schemes).

The next office up depends on where she studies. The scheme's ePASS entry sends the forms of girls at government and private recognised schools to the district's Deputy Director of Higher Education, and those of girls at private recognised colleges to the Directorate in Shimla, while government colleges send the Directorate only their verified candidate lists (HP ePASS state schemes).

For the Directorate itself, the published phone number is +91-177-2656621 and the email dhe-sml-hp@gov.in (Directorate of Higher Education). Its ePASS contact page prefers that NSP and ePASS queries arrive by email at hpepass2013@gmail.com and lists 0177-2653120, extension 226, for the scholarship branch (HP ePASS contact page).

Source

Official links

Guidelines FAQs Documents Required myScheme (Government of India)

Questions

MBCY – 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

Directorate of Higher Education, Himachal Pradesh – education.hp.gov.in
scheme guidelines on NSP – scholarships.gov.in
HP ePASS state schemes – hpepass.cgg.gov.in
GDC Dehra scholarship notice – gdcdehra.in
Information and Public Relations Department, Himachal Pradesh – himachalpr.gov.in
Jharkhand State Higher Education Council scheme document – jshec.jharkhand.gov.in
Khargone district, Government of Madhya Pradesh – khargone.nic.in
myScheme (Government of India) – myscheme.gov.in