What Does "Sero Positive Illness" Mean in This Scheme?

It means HIV. The Mari Yojana entry names persons with HIV as the scheme's target group, and the 2019 resolution posted there explains that the phrase replaced the words HIV and AIDS in the scheme's title to protect children's confidentiality.

Is the "Shero Positive Illness Scholarship" a Different Scheme?

No. The Directorate's Gujarati page spells the name શેરો પોઝીટીવ ઇલનેસ, which reads as Shero, so a college notice or document that says Shero Positive illness scholarship is referring to this same state scheme.

How Is This Different From the Palak Mata-Pita Yojana?

Both are child welfare schemes of the same Directorate, approved by the same district committee, but they answer different situations. Palak Mata-Pita is monthly support, paid by DBT, for a studying child who has lost both parents, or lost one parent while the other has remarried, and who lives with a close relative acting as foster parent; it needs the foster parent's income certificate and is applied for online through e-Samaj Kalyan. The Sero Positive Illness Scheme is a scholarship tied to the student's level of study, filed on paper, and its eligibility line rests on HIV status rather than on the loss of a parent. Ask the district office whether a child who fits both can draw both.

Will the School Learn Why My Child Gets This Scholarship?

The renaming was meant to prevent exactly that: the 2019 resolution dropped the HIV wording so that a child's status would stay unknown where the child studies, and the current application form uses only the words Sero Positive illness. The same form, though, names the ART centre on its Annexure-1 certificate and is meant to travel through the head of the institution, and neither it nor the Directorate's page says how the medical certificate is handled once filed. That is the point to settle with the district office before the papers go in.

Who Signs the Form if Both Parents Have Died?

The form asks for the name, occupation, address and relationship of the father or guardian, and for the guardian's signature when the student is a minor, without saying who the guardian must be. The HIV Act lets a sibling aged 12 to 18 with sufficient maturity act as guardian of a younger sibling in a family affected by HIV, including for school admission and operating bank accounts, as the government's notice on the Act sets out. An older brother or sister may therefore be able to sign, but confirm with the district office which guardian the committee accepts.

What is the objective of the "Sero Positive Illness Scheme"?

The scheme "Sero Positive Illness Scheme" by the Social Justice and Empowerment Department, Government of Gujarat aims to provide educational scholarships to orphaned and destitute children affected by Sero Positive illness. Through this scheme, financial aid is offered to eligible students from primary to postgraduate levels.

When was the "Sero Positive Illness Scheme" launched and by whom?

The "Sero Positive Illness Scheme" was launched in the year 2009 by the Social Justice and Empowerment Department under the Government of Gujarat with the aim of supporting the educational needs of orphaned and destitute children affected by Sero Positive illness.

Who is eligible to apply under the Sero Positive Illness Scheme?

A student is eligible to apply for the Sero Positive Illness Scheme if they are Sero Positive themselves or if one or both of their parents are Sero Positive, provided the child is pursuing education in any recognized institution within the state of Gujarat.

What type of financial support is provided under this scheme?

The scheme provides financial support in the form of scholarships that cover school uniform expenses, tuition fees, costs of books, and in the case of hostellers, also includes food and hostel charges depending on the level of education.

Is this scheme available for students pursuing higher secondary or college-level education?

Yes, the scheme is available for students studying at higher secondary, undergraduate, professional, and even postgraduate levels, with varying scholarship amounts based on the student's course and whether they are day scholars or hostellers.

What documents are required to apply for the "Sero Positive Illness Scheme"?

To apply for the scheme, the applicant must submit several documents including their Aadhaar Card, Birth Certificate, latest Mark Sheet, Ration Card, School Leaving Certificate (if applicable), and a Certificate from a Civil Surgeon verifying the Sero Positive status.

Where should the application form be submitted?

The completed and signed application form, along with the necessary documents, must be submitted to the office of the District Social Security Officer or the District Child Protection Officer in the applicant’s home district.

How are the applications for the scheme reviewed and approved?

After submission, each application is reviewed by the Sponsorship and Approval Committee (SFCAC) which operates under the chairmanship of the District Social Security Officer, and only after their approval is the scholarship sanctioned and disbursed.

Is there any income limit to apply for the scheme?

No, there is no individual or family income limit specified for this scheme, making it accessible to all children who meet the health-related and educational eligibility criteria regardless of their financial background.

Can both boys and girls apply for the scheme?

Yes, the scheme is open to all genders without any restrictions, and both boys and girls who fulfill the eligibility conditions are equally entitled to apply and receive the scholarship benefits.

Can students from all over Gujarat apply for this scheme?

Yes, the scheme is applicable across the entire state of Gujarat, and students residing in any district of the state can apply through their respective district offices.

Where can applicants seek help or more information about the scheme?

Applicants or their guardians can approach the office of the District Social Security Officer or the District Child Protection Officer for any assistance, clarification, or guidance regarding the application process and benefits of the "Sero Positive Illness Scheme".

Scholarship

Sero Positive Illness Scheme(SPIS)

Cash

State/ UT

Gujarat State Government Gujarat myScheme record

Eligibility

The applicant should be a child affected by Sero Positive illness or should have one or both parents who are Sero Positive.

Region

Gujarat

Award

Cash

Deadline

Not published by the source

Overview

About SPIS

The Sero Positive Illness Scheme is Gujarat's education scholarship for students living with HIV, and for students whose mother or father is living with HIV or has died of it. The name itself is a safeguard: it replaced the words HIV and AIDS in January 2019 so that a child's status would not become known at school. The scholarship pays a yearly rate from Class 1 to postgraduate study, needs a certificate from an ART centre, and runs entirely on paper through the district office, with no online application or status check.

The scheme is fully funded by the Government of Gujarat and sits with the Director, Social Defence, in Gandhinagar, under the Social Justice and Empowerment Department. In each district, the office of the District Social Defence Officer or the District Child Protection Officer handles it, as the Directorate's scheme page states. The Gujarati name of that office, samaj suraksha, appears on the Directorate's own English pages as both Social Defence and Social Security, so the two names you will meet refer to one office.

The renaming began with families. Caretakers and guardians made repeated representations that they held back from applying because the old wording on the form risked breaching the child's confidentiality. The department's resolution of January 2019, posted with the scheme on the Mari Yojana portal, records that complaint, adopts the name suggested by the Gujarat State AIDS Control Society, and says in terms that every other condition of the scheme stays as it was.

The scheme's history, in the order the resolutions record it:

When	What changed
September and December 2009	Two Social Justice and Empowerment Department resolutions, the first dated 2 September 2009, approve a scholarship for children orphaned or left destitute because of HIV or AIDS and bring it into force
November 2013 and February 2018	Two resolutions hand this scholarship's work to the district Sponsorship and Foster Care Approval Committee
7 July 2018	The Gujarat State AIDS Control Society, Ahmedabad, recommends the words Sero Positive Illness
January 2019	The department renames the scheme, with the Health and Family Welfare Department's consent of 8 January 2019

Who runs it

Provider

Gujarat State Government

State / UT Government

Social Justice and Empowerment Department

At a glance

Key details

Level	State/ UT
Scheme type	Not published by the source
Category	Education & Learning
Beneficiaries	Individual
Benefit type	Cash
Application mode	Offline
Direct Benefit Transfer	No
Tags	Sero Disease, Children, Scholarship, Education
Source record	myScheme, 2026-07-08official-site· 2026-07-08

Calendar

Important dates

Timing is left open in this scheme's paperwork: the Sero Positive illness form prints no last date, the Directorate's page gives only the 2009 start, and the myScheme record has an open date but no close date. The only dates the form asks for are the student's own: when the course began in the current academic year and when it ends. Because the rates rest on ten months of study and the form wants this year's joining date, the sensible time to file is once the year's admission is confirmed; ask the district office whether it applies a cut-off for the year.

Important dates by cycle
Cycle	Stage	Date
Current	Applications open	2009-01-01

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

Eligibility turns on three facts, and family income is not one of them. The student must be studying; the student, or one or both parents, must be living with HIV, which the Directorate's page calls Sero Positive illness; and the claim must be backed by a medical certificate. The certificate annexed to the application form also covers a parent who has died of the illness. The Mari Yojana entry records no individual or family income limit and no caste condition.

School students qualify from Class 1: the myScheme eligibility list printed on this page begins at Class 11, but the Directorate's own rate table opens with Standards 1 to 5 and 6 to 10.

The official summaries describe the scheme more narrowly than its eligibility line does. The Mari Yojana entry and the 2019 resolution speak of children orphaned or left destitute because of HIV, while the Directorate's page names any studying child who, or whose parent, is living with HIV. The district committee applies the rule, so a family that does not fit the orphaned or destitute description should ask the district office rather than rule itself out.

The form also asks whether the applicant is a native of Gujarat, and the head of the school or college must certify that the institution is recognised by the government and affiliated to a board or university. No age limit is published; the level of study decides the rate.

The applicant should be a child affected by Sero Positive illness or should have one or both parents who are Sero Positive.
The applicant should be a student.
The applicant should be studying in any following standard	Higher Secondary Class-11 and 12.
The applicant should be studying in any following standard	B.A./B.Com./B.AC. and equivalent degree courses.
The applicant should be studying in any following standard	Degree courses like B.E., B.Tech., LLB., MBA and equivalent courses as well as Diploma courses in Medical and Ayurvedic and Homeopathic courses.
The applicant should be studying in any following standard	Postgraduate level courses like M.Sc./ M.Phil./ LLM./ M.Ed./ M.B.A. etc.

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

The one firm exclusion sits in the applicant's own declaration on the application form: a student who receives this scholarship agrees not to accept any other scholarship from anywhere else during that period, with a fee exemption as the only exception. The head of the institution separately certifies that the student draws no other scholarship. A student already drawing another scholarship therefore has to choose between the two, unless the other award is only a fee exemption.

The form's instructions add that an incomplete or wrongly filled form can be rejected, and that no representation against such a rejection will be considered.

Continuation

Renewal conditions

There is no separate renewal route: the Directorate's forms page carries a single Sero Positive illness application form, and that one form is built for repeat use. Question 8 asks whether the student has received this scholarship before, with the amount and the year, and question 9 asks when the student joined the course in the current academic year and when it will end, as the application form shows.

Read together, the paperwork points to a fresh application each academic year, with the rate moving as the student moves up a level. The form also records the percentage in the last examination passed, but no published page sets a minimum mark for continuing.

What you get

Award & benefits

Each level of study in the Directorate's Gujarati rate table has its own rate, and from Class 11 each level splits into a day-scholar rate and a hostel rate, every amount being a monthly figure paid over ten months. The English rate list below follows the same rows.

For Classes 1 to 10 there is a single rate with no hostel component: the monthly figure plus, in the Gujarati table's words, "સ્કુલ યુનિફોર્મના ખર્ચપેટે રૂ.૧૫૦૦/- વાર્ષિક ઉચ્ચક લેખે", a yearly lump sum for school uniform expenses. The myScheme record below prints the same amounts in English numerals but ties the word uniform to the monthly figure, so read its yearly add-on as the uniform money. From Class 11 upward the monthly figure covers fees and books, and every hosteller row adds the same "માસિક રૂ.૬૦૦/- ભોજન તથા હોસ્ટેલ ચાર્જીસ", a monthly sum for food and hostel charges.

One row is incomplete at the source. For postgraduate hostellers the Directorate's table lists the two monthly components but leaves the yearly total blank, and the record reproduces the gap, so confirm that figure with the district office before counting on it.

The hostel rate needs a certificate, signed by the principal, that the student lives in a hostel attached to the school, college or institution. The money goes to an account in the child's or student's own name at a post office or bank, which the application form asks for.

Level of Study Day Scholars HostellersStd. 1 to 5 ₹500 (₹50/month for uniform) + ₹1,500 annually-Std. 6 to 10₹1,000/- (₹100/month for uniform) + ₹1,500 annually -Class 11-12 ₹4,000/- (₹400/month for fees and books for ten months)₹10,000/- (Rs. 400/- per month for fees and books for ten months and ₹600/- per month for food and hostel charges)B.A./B.Com./B.Sc and equivalent degree courses ₹6,000/- (₹600/- per month for fees and books for ten months)₹12,000/- (₹600/- per month for fees and books for ten months and ₹600/- per month for food and hostel charges)degree courses like B.E., B.Tech., L.L.B., MBA and equivalent courses as well as Diploma courses in Medical and Ayurvedic and Homeopathic courses.₹10,000/- (₹1,000/- per month for fees and books for ten months)₹16,000/- (₹1,000/- per month for fees and books for ten months and ₹600/- per month for food and hostel charges)Postgraduate level courses like M.Sc./ M.Phil./ LLM./ M.Ed./ M.B.A. etc.₹10,000/- (₹1,000/- per month for fees and books for ten months)₹1,000/- per month for books for ten months and ₹600/- per month for food and hostel charges)

What to prepare

Documents required

The medical proof is the paper that needs the most care. The myScheme record calls it a civil surgeon's certificate; the application form specifies Annexure-1, signed by the Nodal Officer or Medical Officer of the Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) centre at the civil hospital or of a Link ART centre, certifying that the child or a parent is living with HIV or that a parent died of it.

The form's own enclosure list names only two papers, a photocopy of the last mark sheet and the ART centre certificate, while the Mari Yojana entry adds Aadhaar, a birth certificate, a ration card and a school leaving certificate. Carrying both sets can save a second trip.

Four signed papers make up a complete application:

Paper	Who signs it	What it confirms
Annexure-1 medical certificate	Nodal Officer or Medical Officer of the ART centre or Link ART centre	The student or a parent is living with HIV, or a parent died of it
Institution certificate, second part of the form	Head of the school, college or institution, with seal	The student's details are checked, the institution is recognised and affiliated, no other scholarship is drawn
Hostel certificate	Principal	The student lives in the attached hostel, for the hostel rate only
Declaration	Student, and the guardian if the student is a minor, countersigned by the head of the school, college or university	No other scholarship except a fee exemption; the facts given are true

Aadhar Card.

Birth Certificate.

Certificate by Civil Surgeon.

Mark Sheet.

Ration Card.

School Leaving Certificate.

Step by step

How to apply

The application is a paper form handled by the district office, and the Mari Yojana entry records the form as free with no online application address. The steps run in this order:

Get the form from the Directorate's forms page, where it is listed as the scholarship application form for Sero Positive illness, or collect a copy at the District Social Defence Officer's or District Child Protection Officer's office.
Take Annexure-1 to the ART centre for the Nodal Officer's or Medical Officer's signature.
Fill in the student's part in clear handwriting, without leaving any answer as a dash or a row of dots, and sign it; a guardian signs as well if the student is a minor.
Ask the head of the school or college to complete and stamp the institution's part, along with the hostel certificate if the student is a hosteller.
Submit it and keep proof of filing. The form's instructions send it through the head of the institution, with only in-plant trainees writing straight to the District Social Defence Officer, while the myScheme steps have the applicant hand it in at the district office and ask there for a receipt.

If you would rather the ART certificate did not pass through the school, ask the District Social Defence Officer's office, before filing, how it accepts the medical proof.

There is no online status check. The Director of Social Defence's list of services on the e-Samaj Kalyan portal carries the Foster Parents scheme among others but not this scholarship, as seen in September 2026. The application form also warns that applicants who are not selected will not be told individually, and that letters asking whether an application was accepted will not be answered. Tracking therefore happens in person: keep the receipt and the filing date, follow up at the district office, and watch the child's passbook for the credit.

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

How winners are picked

Selection process

Selection rests with a district committee checking eligibility, and the Directorate's page mentions neither a merit list nor a ceiling on awards. Each district has a Sponsorship and Foster Care Approval Committee (SFCAC), chaired by the District Social Defence Officer, which reviews the applications; the District Social Defence Officer then approves payment for those eligible under the government's rules, according to the Directorate's scheme page.

The committee was given this work by resolutions of 2013 and 2018, which the January 2019 resolution cites, and the same district committee approves support under the Palak Mata-Pita foster care scheme. The marks recorded on the form are not tied to any published cut-off.

Fine print

Terms & conditions

The declaration on the form carries two promises: the student takes no other scholarship except a fee exemption while this one is paid, and the facts given are true, with nothing material hidden or suppressed.

The wider law also protects applicants. The HIV and AIDS (Prevention and Control) Act, 2017, in force from 10 September 2018, prohibits unfair treatment of people living with HIV, and of those living with them, in educational establishments, and bars HIV testing as a condition for education. Under Section 8 of the Act, no one may disclose another person's HIV status shared in confidence without informed consent, and Section 11 requires every establishment keeping HIV-related records to adopt data protection measures.

Get help

Contact

Start with the District Social Defence Officer or the District Child Protection Officer in your home district, whom the scheme page names as the place for help and further information. The Directorate's contact page lists every district office with its address, phone number and email.

At state level the Directorate sits at Block-16, Ground Floor, Dr. Jivraj Mehta Bhavan, Sector-10, Gandhinagar-382010, on +91 79 23256309, according to the English version of the scheme page. The contact page adds +91 79 23256308 and the email dir-sd@gujarat.gov.in, and lists the Child Welfare branch at dd2-dsd@gujarat.gov.in.

Source

Official links

Guidelines (Scheme No. 489) Guidelines 2 myScheme (Government of India)

Questions

SPIS – 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's scheme page – sje.gujarat.gov.in
resolution of January 2019, posted with the scheme on the Mari Yojana portal – mariyojana.gujarat.gov.in
e-Samaj Kalyan portal – esamajkalyan.gujarat.gov.in
HIV and AIDS (Prevention and Control) Act, 2017, in force from 10 September 2018 – pib.gov.in
Section 8 of the Act – dsacs.delhi.gov.in
myScheme (Government of India) – myscheme.gov.in