Scholarship (Above VIII Standard) - Tamil Nadu(SATN)

Overview

About SATN

The Scholarship (Above VIII Standard) in Tamil Nadu is worked out as a monthly rate held for ten months of the academic year, then released as one annual figure, which is why every published amount lands on a round thousand. The scheme is old, it moves on paper from the classroom to the district office, and no state portal will take the form or tell a family where it has got to.

The Department for the Welfare of Differently Abled Persons has run this scholarship since 1981-1982, and in 2022-2023 it reached 22,368 students at a cost of Rs 755.38 lakh, with Rs 690.52 lakh set aside for the following year (Performance Budget 2023-2024, Department for the Welfare of Differently Abled Persons). It is the department's standing education payment rather than a competitive award, and it is meant for the cost of books, notebooks and other learning material.

The name that reaches search results comes from an older document. The department's 2022 Citizen's Charter split the payment into one entry for Class 1 to Class 8 and a second for everything above Class 8, which is where "Above VIII Standard" originates (Citizen's Charter 2022). The 2023 charter dropped that split and lists a single scheme, Scholarship (1st Std to P.G Courses), carrying every slab from primary school to a professional postgraduate course (Citizen's Charter 2023). The student it is written for has not changed: a differently abled student in a government recognised school, college or training centre in Tamil Nadu, studying anywhere from Class 9 to a postgraduate degree, with vocational, professional, medical and engineering courses inside the same band (Citizen's Charter 2022; Directorate of Collegiate Education, Scholarship).

Who runs it

Provider

At a glance

Key details

Calendar

Important dates

The department times this payment to the school year rather than to a notified window. The rate card is worked over ten months of an academic year, and the form's own sequence assumes a year already finished: question 10 on last year's sanction, question 11 on the last annual examination (Performance Budget 2023-2024; Application for Scholarship). So the form goes up through the institution once the previous year's marks are in hand. No opening or closing date appears in the charter, the budget or the scheme's myScheme record, which means the current year's cut-off is a question for the District Differently Abled Welfare Officer and for nobody else (myScheme).

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

The published criteria are short, and they leave two things open: which band a technical course falls into, and whether family income counts at all.

The first is where technical courses sit. Tiruchirappalli's district office groups ITI students with the Class 9 to Class 12 band and polytechnic students with the degree band (District Differently Abled Welfare, Tiruchirappalli). The state charter's wording covers vocational and other professional courses without naming either, so the band is worth confirming at the district office before the form goes in.

The second is family income. No parental income ceiling for this scholarship appears in the charter, the policy note or the performance budget, and the omission stands out because the same policy note states one plainly for the central scholarships the department routes on to the NSP portal: Rs 2.50 lakh for students in Class 9 to Class 12 and Rs 6.00 lakh for students in diploma, undergraduate and postgraduate courses (Policy Note 2023-2024). Nothing in the state scheme's own entry puts a family above those lines out of the state payment.

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

The disqualifier that ends an application here is not written into any list of criteria. It is printed at the foot of the form, directly above the line the headmaster or principal signs on: counter signed and certified that scholarship is not sanctioned by any other government department. Question 9 puts the same question to the student first, whether a scholarship is being drawn from another government department and, if so, how much a year (Application for Scholarship, Commissionerate for Welfare of the Differently Abled). The 2023 charter attaches one certificate to the scheme and words it wider than the form does, asking the headmaster to certify that the student has not availed similar assistance from other sources (Citizen's Charter 2023). On either wording it is settled in the same second, when the head of the institution puts a signature on the page.

Continuation

Renewal conditions

Renewal is re-application under another name. Question 10 asks whether the Differently Abled Welfare Department sanctioned a scholarship to the same student during the previous year, and question 11 asks for the marks obtained in the last annual examination (Application for Scholarship). Each academic year means a fresh form, a fresh countersignature and a fresh statement of marks, and the bar of not less than 40% of marks in the previous qualifying examination is re-tested against whatever the student sat most recently (Citizen's Charter 2022; District Differently Abled Welfare, Tiruchirappalli).

What you get

Award & benefits

The department sets a monthly rate by stage of study and pays it for ten months of the academic year.

A visually impaired student can hold the department's Reader's Allowance in the same year, and the scholarship form itself carries a field for the reader's name and the allowance paid, so the two travel together rather than as separate errands (Application for Scholarship). That allowance is published as a straight annual figure with no monthly rate behind it, at Rs 3,000 a year for Class 9 to Class 12, Rs 5,000 at undergraduate level and Rs 6,000 for postgraduate and professional courses (Performance Budget 2023-2024).

District pages are not always in step with the state rate card. Perambalur's scheme list quotes higher figures for the school and the polytechnic bands than the department's own budget and charter documents carry (Perambalur District, Differently Abled Welfare Schemes). Where a district page and the state documents disagree, the state documents are the ones to read.

• Scholarships are provided as: For students studying from 9th to 12th Standard: ₹4,000/- per annum.
• For Degree Courses: ₹6,000/- per annum.
• For Postgraduate, Medical, Engineering, Vocational, and Other Professional Courses: ₹7,000/- per annum.

What to prepare

Documents required

On paper the list is short and it has been getting shorter: the 2022 charter named three items against this scheme, and the merged 2023 entry asks only for the head of the institution's certificate (Citizen's Charter 2022; Citizen's Charter 2023). The district counter is where the working list is set. Tiruchirappalli's list adds a photocopy of the identity card for disabled persons, an Aadhaar photocopy, a ration card photocopy and a savings bank passbook, alongside the head master's attestation and proof of the previous year's marks (District Differently Abled Welfare, Tiruchirappalli).

The identity card is worth settling first if the student does not hold one. Both the disability certificate and the UDID card are issued by the same District Differently Abled Welfare Officer who receives this scholarship form, against a medical certificate from the competent medical authority, or from a medical board where the disability is multiple (Citizen's Charter 2023). One office visit can start both.

Step by step

How to apply

The application is offline from beginning to end. The two page form is bilingual, in Tamil and English, and can be downloaded from the Commissionerate's forms page or collected from the district office (Application for Scholarship; Citizen's Charter 2023). It asks for the nature and extent of the disability as a percentage, the class the student is now in, the name of the school, college or training centre, and last year's marks. The headmaster or principal signs at the foot, and the completed form goes to the District Differently Abled Welfare Officer. The Directorate of Collegiate Education, listing the scheme for its own colleges, gives the same one line route: apply offline through the concerned District Office of Differently Abled Welfare (Directorate of Collegiate Education, Scholarship).

There is no online status screen to refresh. myScheme records the application mode as offline and lists no application link for the scheme (myScheme), and the state's e-Sevai citizen portal carries the Differently Abled Pension Scheme among its services rather than this scholarship (e-Sevai, Tamil Nadu e-Governance Agency). A family chases the sanction where the paper went: the district office that took the form, whose address and number the Commissionerate publishes district by district (District Contact Details), or the department helpline on 18004250111 (Commissionerate for Welfare of the Differently Abled).

How winners are picked

Selection process

Nothing the department publishes ranks one applicant against another. The 2023 charter carries an eligibility line and a certificate and then stops (Citizen's Charter 2023). The budget record reads the same way. In 2021-2022 the department paid 23,326 students against a physical target of 19,675, and in 2022-2023 it paid 22,368 against a target of 23,326 (Performance Budget 2023-2024). A scheme that overshoots its own target by several thousand students in one year is not being run as a scarce quota.

Fine print

Terms & conditions

The charter describes the payment as being for the purchase of books and notebooks, and the budget record calls it assistance towards learning material (Citizen's Charter 2023; Performance Budget 2023-2024). It is a fixed sum by stage of study and not a reimbursement of fees, so a costlier course does not draw a larger amount. The slab amounts are the same in the 2022 and the 2023 charters, so the merger of the two entries changed the scheme's name and not its rate card (Citizen's Charter 2022). Beyond the headmaster's certificate the charter records no further condition against the scheme: no bond, no service obligation and no clause that asks for the money back (Citizen's Charter 2023).

Get help

Contact

Grievances on the scholarship go to the Deputy Director (Schemes) at the Commissionerate for Welfare of the Differently Abled, No.5, Kamarajar Salai, Chennai 600 005, on 044-28444940 (Citizen's Charter 2023). The Commissionerate's general line is 044-28444948, its email is scd.tn@nic.in, and it runs a helpline on 18004250111 (Commissionerate for Welfare of the Differently Abled). A speech or hearing impaired applicant does not have to use a voice line at all: the Commissionerate's district contact list carries a WhatsApp and video call helpline on 9700799993 next to the head office landline (District Contact Details). For a form already filed, the district office is the one holding it, and every District Differently Abled Welfare Officer's address, landline, mobile and email sits on the Commissionerate's district contact list (District Contact Details).

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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