Post Doctoral Fellowship To Women Candidates(PDFWC)

Overview

About PDFWC

UGC has made no fresh selection under the Post Doctoral Fellowship to Women Candidates since 2017-18, and during 2023-2024 the scheme spent Rs 0.44 crore on the 14 fellows still drawing it, 9 from the general category, 4 SC and 1 ST, according to the UGC Saksham note on its women-oriented schemes. On paper the design was not small: 100 slots a year and five years of support with no extension, set out in UGC's scheme guidelines. Two different questions sit behind most searches for it, what the award promised and whether it is still awarding, and the guidelines answer only the first.

The award was written for a specific person: a woman who already holds a doctorate and holds no job. Unemployment here is an eligibility condition, not a preference, and it stays binding after selection, because being found employed during the research is one of the grounds on which the Commission cancels an award.

The venue is fixed by statute rather than by the fellow's preference, and the guidelines close the list at four kinds of place. Two are creatures of the UGC Act, 1956: anything falling under sections 2(f) and 12(b), and a section 3 deemed university that qualifies for UGC grant-in-aid. Beyond those, the list adds anything on the Central or a State Government's payroll and the Institutes of National Importance, and stops. Subject coverage is wide by comparison, running from science, engineering and technology through humanities and social sciences.

UGC now writes about the scheme in the past tense. Its Saksham portal records that the objective of the scheme was to support unemployed women PhD holders, that slots were 100 per year, and that previous cases are being settled, which is the plainest statement available that the annual call has stopped.

Who runs it

Provider

At a glance

Key details

Calendar

Important dates

No application window is open. The scheme has no published open or close date, and UGC's own record of it places the most recent selection nearly a decade back.

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

Four tests decide it, and a fifth is decided by someone else. Per the scheme guidelines, the doctorate must already be awarded, though a provisional certificate is accepted where the degree itself has not yet been issued; age must be not more than 55 years as on the last date of submission of the online application, with a relaxation of 5 years for SC, ST, OBC and PWD candidates; and marks are tested at both degrees rather than one, at 55% at UG level with 60% at PG level for the general category and 50% with 55% for reserved categories. Applicants who are transgender are admitted to the scheme as well, and the reservation arithmetic across those categories follows Government of India norms rather than any split written into the scheme itself.

Nothing in the guidelines asks for UGC-NET, SLET, or a prior JRF award. The qualifying credential is the PhD itself, which sets this scheme apart from the UGC fellowships that begin at the doctoral stage.

The fifth test belongs to the host institution. Annexure-I, the No Objection Certificate from the proposed research centre, has to be signed by the Head of Department and by the Registrar, Principal or Director before the form can be uploaded, and in it the institution confirms it will provide space and physical facilities for the work. Without a department willing to sign that, an otherwise eligible candidate has nothing to submit.

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

myScheme leaves the exclusions field blank for this fellowship, so the disqualifiers have to be assembled from the cancellation clause and the conditions attached to the tenure. A woman in any employment is out. So is anyone drawing another fellowship or scholarship from any source during the tenure, and anyone holding an appointment, paid or otherwise, or receiving a salary or stipend elsewhere. A candidate who is selected while already holding another fellowship or project has to surrender one of the two. False information furnished in the application is a stated cancellation ground in its own right.

Continuation

Renewal conditions

Nothing has to be applied for again. What continues the award is paperwork on a fixed rhythm, set out in the guidelines. A Continuation Certificate is due at the end of every three months, and it is that certificate which makes the fellow eligible to draw the next quarter. A progress report goes in after the first completed year. At the two-year mark the department itself sits in judgement: a research committee constituted by the university hears the fellow present her work and interviews her, then sends its recommendation on to the identified agency, and progress found unsatisfactory lets the Commission end the award at any point in the tenure.

The tail end has its own gate. At least 4 research papers, 2 national and 2 international, must be submitted across the tenure, split as 2 by the time the departmental review committee report goes in and 2 by the end of the award, per the same guidelines. UGC then holds the final two instalments back until the feedback report is in and the research work has been lodged in the INFLIBNET repository together with the published papers, and the PDF completion certificate is issued off that same submission.

What you get

Award & benefits

One warning before those figures are checked against anything else on the internet. UGC published this scheme's XII Plan guidelines twice, and myScheme's reference list still points to the earlier file, Guidelines-XII, which puts the fellowship at Rs 25,000 a month rising to Rs 30,000 after two years, adds a departmental assistance head worth 10% of the fellowship paid to the host institution, and reads the age bar as on 1st July of the year of application. The revised final version drops the departmental assistance, moves the age bar to the last date of the online application and carries the higher rates. It is the revised figures that myScheme's own benefit list reproduces, so the record and the table above agree; it is the record's link that is stale.

Read the rate with its date attached. The guidelines carry a footnote saying the revised rate of fellowship is applicable with effect from 01.12.2014, so Rs 38,800 is the last figure UGC published for this scheme and not a current-year number.

Housing is handled three ways rather than as a flat allowance. A fellow given single-seated hostel accommodation draws only the hostel fee, excluding mess, electricity and water charges, and no HRA on top of it. If no hostel seat exists and the department finds her a single room instead, what comes back to her is the rent actually paid, capped at the HRA ceiling under Government of India norms. Arrange her own accommodation and she falls back on plain HRA, worked out from the Government of India's categorisation of cities. Each of the three routes needs its own certificate on Annexure-VI, routed through the university or college.

Medical cover is not part of the package at all. No separate or fixed medical assistance is provided, and a fellow is left with whatever her host campus already runs. Books, journals and equipment bought from the contingency grant become the property of the department at the end of the tenure, which is worth knowing before a fellow builds a personal library out of it.

• The financial assistance available under the scheme is as follows: The fellowship under the scheme is @ ₹38,800/- per month for fresh candidates.
• The fellowship under the scheme is @ ₹46,500/- per month after two years.
• An annual contingency of ₹50,000/- will be given to the eligible student for five years.
• Escorts/Reader assistance will be paid @ ₹2000/- per month (fixed) in cases of PWD (Person with disability).
• House Rent Allowance: Suitable single-seated hostel accommodation may be provided to the candidates in the institutions. In such cases, the fellow is eligible to draw only hostel fees excluding mess, electricity, water charges, etc. A certificate to this effect is to be furnished through the Registrar/Director/Principal. HRA is not permissible for those candidates who are staying in Hostel accommodation.
• In case of non-availability of hostel accommodation, the fellow may be provided with single accommodation by the host institution. In such cases, the rent paid by the fellow on an actual basis may be reimbursed subject to the ceiling of HRA as per Govt. of India norms.
• If the fellow makes her own arrangements of accommodation, she may be entitled to draw HRA as per the categorization of cities by the Govt. of India.
• Medical: No separate/fixed medical assistance is provided. However, the Post Doctoral Fellow may avail of the medical facilities available in the University/Institution/ College.
• Leave: Leave for a maximum period of 30 days in a year in addition to public holidays may be taken by the Post Doctoral Fellow with the approval of the Head of Department. However, they are not entitled to any other vacations, such as summer, winter, and pooja vacations. Women candidates are eligible for maternity leave at full rates of the fellowship for 6th pay, 180 days as per the Government of India rules once during the tenure of their award. The fellow in special cases may be allowed by the Commission leave without fellowship and contingency for a period not exceeding three months during the tenure of the award on the recommendation of the Head of department of the institution concerned. The period of leave without fellowship will be counted towards the tenure.
• Duration of Fellowship: The tenure of the award is five years with no provision for further extension.

What to prepare

Documents required

The scheme's own document list covers the application stage. The one item the guidelines single out for a warning is the No Objection Certificate at Annexure-I, against which they print a blunt line: an incomplete NOC will be summarily rejected. Where the PhD has been completed but not formally conferred, the provisional certificate stands in for the degree.

What the list leaves out is everything a fellow signs after selection, and each one is a UGC proforma rather than a free-form letter. The joining report at Annexure-II carries the award letter number, the date of joining, the PhD award date and the bank details. Annexure-III is the quarterly continuation certificate, Annexure-IV the yearly progress report, Annexure-V the contingency account with its utilisation certificate, Annexure-VI the HRA certificate in one of three forms, and Annexure-VII the departmental research committee's assessment. Who signs varies: the fellow signs alongside the Head of Department and the Registrar, Director or Principal on the joining report, the continuation certificate, the progress report and the contingency account, while the NOC needs only the two institutional signatures and the committee report is signed by the supervisor, the Head of Department and the Registrar, Director or Principal.

Step by step

How to apply

The call was always an annual one, run online. Notice went out through the press, into leading newspapers and Employment News, with a short notification posted to the UGC website. The guidelines then attach two warnings that matter more than they look: apply strictly as per the instructions given on the online portal, because an incomplete application is not considered.

Result and money are tracked in two entirely different places. Results are published on the UGC website and award letters are downloaded from the UGC online application portal. Payment starts elsewhere: the fellowship is disbursed by a UGC designated bank straight into the awardee's account, and the awardee approaches the designated branch with a copy of the award letter and the joining report before anything is released. Aadhaar has been used as the identifier for releasing this grant since the 2016-17 financial year, following a Ministry of Human Resource Development instruction of June 2016 that the guidelines reproduce.

For fellows whose payments predate that direct transfer route, UGC set up a dedicated legacy portal at scholarship.canarabank.in, and the responsibility for the data there is institutional rather than personal. The university, college or institution uploads the master data of eligible beneficiaries, has the bank account numbers validated through PFMS to create a beneficiary ID, and updates continuation, HRA, upgradation and resignation entries every month. A payment that has stopped moving is therefore chased first at the host institution's office, because the monthly update it files is what triggers the release.

How winners are picked

Selection process

Screening comes first: the online applications received are scrutinised by a screening committee. Shortlisted candidates are then called before an expert committee constituted by the Commission, and no TA or DA is paid for attending that interview. The Commission's decision is final, results go up on the UGC website, and the Commission reserves the right to withdraw or cancel an award without assigning a reason.

The start date is not the selection date. Arrears run from 1st April of the selection year unless the fellow reaches her department after that, in which case the joining date governs instead, per the scheme guidelines.

Fine print

Terms & conditions

Leave is capped at 30 days in a year on top of public holidays under the guidelines, and fellows do not get the summer, winter or pooja vacations their host department takes. Maternity leave comes at the full rate of the fellowship, but only once across the five years, on the Government of India norms current at the time. Academic leave without fellowship, for a teaching assignment or a research-related foreign visit, is permissible for only one year across the whole tenure, and that period still counts against the five years; UGC does not meet the cost of the foreign visit. A caution for anyone reading the myScheme record instead of the guidelines: its benefits text still carries the earlier draft's line about leave without fellowship for a period not exceeding three months, which the revised guidelines replaced with this one-year academic leave clause.

Two clauses tend to surprise fellows mid-tenure. Only one change of research place is allowed across the whole five years, and the institution has to make the move itself, notifying UGC and the designated agency. Resignation is also an institutional act: the university, college or institute forwards it to the designated agency under intimation to UGC, and the grant is released up to the date on which the fellow tendered it.

A fellow may apply for another fellowship, a paid assignment or an examination during the tenure without seeking a no-objection certificate from UGC, but on being selected she has to resign this award. Beyond that, cancellation follows from being found ineligible at any point, false information, misconduct, unsatisfactory progress, drawing another fellowship or scholarship, and being found employed during the research.

Get help

Contact

No helpline is published for this scheme specifically. A fellow is thrown back on the Commission's general counter, which publishes two enquiry lines, 011-23604446 and 011-23604200, the email contact.ugc@nic.in, and a postal address at Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi 110002 (UGC contact page). The scheme's proformas are addressed to the Selection and Awards Bureau at that address. Where they physically go, though, splits by document: the continuation certificate, the contingency account and the joining report are handed by the awardee to the designated bank branch, while the progress report and the HRA certificate are forwarded to the identified agency by the institution. In both routes the Registrar's office signs first, which is why a query about a stalled file usually has to start there.

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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References

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