Stipends To Trainees In Industrial Training Institute(STITI)

Overview

About STITI

The Social Justice and Special Assistance Department still publishes this scheme at Rs 60 a month from technical education plus Rs 40 a month from social welfare for a Scheduled Caste trainee living in the institute hostel, or Rs 100 a month from social welfare where technical education pays nothing, on a father's annual income of no more than Rs 65,290 (department scheme page).

Those figures were overtaken two years ago. A government resolution dated 13 September 2023, issued by the Skill, Employment, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Department, supersedes every resolution it references, sets a single rate of Rs 500 a month for trainees admitted to an approved Craftsman Training Scheme course in a government industrial training institute from the 2023-24 session, and applies it to trainees whose parents' annual income is within Rs 8.00 lakh (Government Resolution 202309131200148503). Its preamble gives the reason in one line: the rate had not moved in the 40 years since it was set, and the resolution was issued to bring the departments' separate rates into line with each other. The arrangement it replaced is described in English on the state's benefit portal, which records that under the resolution of 07/05/1983 only 50% of trainees in a government ITI drew a stipend at all, at Rs 40 or Rs 60 a month (MahaDBT scheme page).

The scheme did not leave the Social Justice department's books when the rate changed. The same resolution names that department, alongside tribal development, bahujan welfare, minority development and the skill department, as the departments that must place the stipend money for trainees of their own categories with the skill department at the start of each financial year, so that payment is not held up.

Where the revision stops matters to a trainee choosing an institute. Maharashtra has 419 government and 585 private industrial training institutes (Directorate of Vocational Education and Training). The Rs 500 rate stops at the government gate, and a trainee admitted to one of the private institutes is outside it.

Who runs it

Provider

At a glance

Key details

Calendar

Important dates

The department page carries no opening or closing date, and no seasonal notification has been issued against it. The dates that govern the payment sit on the resolution and on the portal instead.

The cabinet took the decision on 18.08.2023, the resolution followed on 13 September 2023, and the revised rate applies from the 2023-24 session (Government Resolution). The portal then works to academic-year windows rather than short notification windows. Its current notice opened acceptance for A.Y. 2025-26 on 30 June 2025 and keeps fresh and renewal applications open until 30 June 2026, and it separately allows a re-apply for A.Y. 2023-24 and A.Y. 2024-25 up to that same date (MahaDBT scheme page). Those two re-apply years are exactly the sessions in which the Rs 500 rate first ran, so a trainee who never claimed it in either year has not lost the money yet.

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

Which test applies depends on which route is paying. The department page's own conditions are narrow: Scheduled Caste, permanent resident of Maharashtra, training at a recognised institute, and a father's annual income at or below Rs 65,290.

The 2023 resolution's test is wider and different in kind. The trainee has to be a domicile of Maharashtra, admitted to an approved Craftsman Training Scheme course at a government ITI, and from any of the listed categories, which include Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Vimukta Jati and Nomadic Tribes, Other Backward Classes, Special Backward Class, minorities and the economically weaker section of the open category. The parents' annual income must be within Rs 8.00 lakh, with any later non-creamy-layer income revision applying automatically, and only two children in a family may take the benefit (Government Resolution).

For Scheduled Caste trainees the resolution then splits the group by income rather than by category. Where the family's annual income is under Rs 2.50 lakh, the trainee is paid the Government of India post-matric scholarship at the rate prescribed for a vocational course in an ITI, and the resolution puts the duty of giving eligible Scheduled Caste trainees that benefit on priority on the principal of the institute. Where the parents earn between Rs 2.50 lakh and Rs 8.00 lakh, the trainee draws this stipend.

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

The source publishes no exclusion list against the scheme record, but the 2023 resolution contains three, and each one bites on the period that follows rather than clawing back what was already paid. A trainee who is not eligible to sit the examination because attendance fell below the limit prescribed by the Directorate General of Training, one who is suspended for breaching a government rule or law during training, and one who abandons the training midway for private reasons all lose the stipend due for the remaining period (Government Resolution). The portal states the first of those in trade terms: a trainee found not eligible for the All India Trade Test does not qualify.

Two further bars sit on the portal side. Trainees in a private ITI are not eligible for the Rs 500 stipend, and a trainee who has left a government ITI stops being eligible from the date of departure (MahaDBT scheme page).

Continuation

Renewal conditions

Renewal is quarterly before it is annual, and the two official sources describe the instalment pattern differently. The resolution releases the benefit in instalments every three months and makes each instalment conditional on 80% attendance under the rules for that quarter, and requires a trainee in a two-year trade to pass the first year within the training period before the second year's instalments become payable (Government Resolution). The portal's own scheme card carries the same 80% attendance rule and the same first-year condition, but describes the money as arriving in two instalments (MahaDBT scheme page). Treat the number of instalments as whatever your own sanction shows; the attendance condition behind them is not in dispute. Year on year, the portal states the renewal test plainly: the trainee has to be on roll the next year, with attendance as per the criteria of the Directorate General of Training. A renewal is filed on the portal in the same window as a fresh application, not on a separate calendar.

What you get

Award & benefits

The revision was costed before it was approved. The resolution sanctions Rs 6.30 crore a month and Rs 75.69 crore a year for 2023-24 across the budget heads of the departments that fund it, and records that the cabinet took the decision on 18.08.2023 (Government Resolution). The resolution also fixes what the money is for: the daily personal costs of training, meaning study material, travel and the other expenses that come with a trade course.

What to prepare

Documents required

Two papers that the older offline list never asked for become mandatory once the claim runs on the portal. Alongside the income certificate, the marksheet required by the course criteria, Aadhaar and the caste certificate, MahaDBT asks for a domicile certificate and a non-creamy-layer certificate (MahaDBT scheme page).

The bank account is a condition in its own right rather than a formality at the end. The resolution requires the trainee to hold an Aadhaar-seeded account in a nationalised bank, and makes registration on MahaDBT compulsory for every trainee before any stipend action can be taken (Government Resolution).

Step by step

How to apply

Admission comes first, and it is a separate process. A government ITI seat is allotted through the admission portal that the Directorate of Vocational Education and Training runs, and the stipend attaches to a trainee already admitted to an approved course (DVET).

The department's own page gives a single line under How To Apply, and it names the principal of the industrial training institute rather than an office; the scheme record lists the mode as offline with the District Social Welfare Officer, Zilla Parishad as the implementing agency (myScheme). That is the older route, and it is the one still described on the departmental page.

The route that actually pays the Rs 500 is the portal. The resolution directs that every step concerning the trainee's stipend be carried out through MahaDBT, and declares the Director of Vocational Education and Training the controlling officer as well as the drawing and disbursing officer for the scheme (Government Resolution).

Tracking the money is now a portal function rather than a phone call. A submitted application is checked first by the institute and then by the department, and it only leaves the Under Scrutiny tab once a departmental desk officer approves it, which is what the tracker is showing you. MahaDBT has made granular application tracking live, so an applicant can view the real-time status and follow the progress at every stage, and its citizen charter sets out the expected timelines for approval and can be downloaded (MahaDBT scheme page). The institute side of the file sits under a principal login on the same portal, which is where a trainee goes to get an institute-level action reversed. When the file stops moving anyway, DVET runs a trainee grievance portal of its own (DVET).

How winners are picked

Selection process

There is no merit list and no ranking. The resolution states that the stipend is admissible to all trainees of a government ITI on an equal footing, which leaves the income ceiling, the two-child limit and the attendance rule as the only filters (Government Resolution). Neither the department page nor the resolution publishes a fixed number of awards for a year.

Fine print

Terms & conditions

Read past the income line and three further limits attach to the Rs 500. Only two children in a family may draw the benefit, the trainee must be a domicile of Maharashtra, and the income ceiling is not a fixed figure: it moves whenever the state revises the non-creamy-layer limit, so a family judged eligible this year is not automatically judged on the same number next year.

Clause 4 of the resolution is addressed to the institute rather than to the trainee. It directs that awareness be created at institute level about the scheme that gives the trainee the largest benefit among the Aadhaar-linked schemes they are eligible for (Government Resolution). A trainee who qualifies for more than one entitlement is meant to be told which one pays more, not left to take whichever the office processed first.

Get help

Contact

The scheme record names the District Social Welfare Officer, Zilla Parishad as the implementing agency and points applications at the Social Justice and Special Assistance Department's own site (myScheme). For the stipend as it is paid today the office of record is the Directorate of Vocational Education and Training, which the resolution makes the drawing and disbursing officer, and which runs a trainee grievance portal (DVET). Inside the institute the principal holds the file, and the resolution puts the duty of routing eligible Scheduled Caste trainees to the post-matric scholarship on priority on that principal.

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.

Explore more

Related scholarships

References

Sources