Videsh Siksha Yojana (MPBOCWWB)(VSYMPBOCWWB)

Overview

About VSYMPBOCWWB

A construction worker's registration with the Madhya Pradesh board can fund a son's or daughter's master's degree or PhD abroad. Videsh Siksha Yojana, run by the Madhya Pradesh Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board (MPBOCWWB), meets tuition of up to $40,000 plus a yearly living allowance for at most 50 workers' children a year. The first condition to check sits with the parent, not the student: the worker's card must have stayed valid for five unbroken years.

Videsh Siksha Yojana is the board's scheme for sending a registered construction worker's son or daughter to a recognised institution abroad for postgraduate study or a doctorate. On the board's own portal it carries its Hindi name, विदेश अध्ययन हेतु निःशुल्क शिक्षा योजना (free education for study abroad), and it has been in force since 2019, with support for up to two years of study (MPBOCWWB scheme page).

Up to 50 students a year can be supported, and that number is a limit, not a head count. The board's wording is a provision for a maximum of 50, and it publishes no figure for how many children have actually been funded since the scheme began (MPBOCWWB scheme page).

Set against a register of about 17 lakh construction workers on 1 July 2023 (worker registration rules), a ceiling of 50 places a year (MPBOCWWB scheme page) is a narrow opening. The 60% first-class bar narrows it again, so the scheme is built for a strong graduate or postgraduate with a foreign programme already in view, not for a family seeking help with ordinary college costs.

Who runs it

Provider

At a glance

Key details

Calendar

Important dates

No last date appears on the board's scheme page, and nothing there ties applications to an academic session or a yearly call. The myScheme record's closing date is blank, and its 2019 opening date is simply the year the scheme began, so the dates that shape an award are set by the foreign institution's own calendar.

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

Eligibility runs through the parent. A worker registered with the board, mother or father, must have held a valid identity card for five continuous years; the scheme page's words are "लगातार 05 वर्ष", so a card that lapsed and was renewed late may not add up to an unbroken five years (MPBOCWWB scheme page).

The five-year clock cannot start until the parent is registered at all. A worker qualifies at 18 to 60 years of age after at least 90 days of building or construction work in the previous 12 months, pays Rs 15 for a five-year registration, and since 1 July 2023 must have Aadhaar eKYC completed on the family's Samagra ID before a new registration is accepted (worker registration rules). A parent registering for the first time now cannot make a child eligible for about five years.

The student's bar is academic. A master's applicant needs a first-class graduation with at least 60% or the equivalent grade; a PhD applicant needs a first-class master's with 60% plus two years of teaching or research in the field, or an M.Phil (MPBOCWWB scheme page). That page sets no family-income ceiling and no upper age limit, which is where this scheme parts company with the state's caste-based foreign-study scholarships.

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

The board states one exclusion outright: a student who receives a benefit from any other source is not eligible (MPBOCWWB scheme page). That rules out holding this grant alongside another government foreign-study scholarship. The page does not narrow "any other source", so a university's own scholarship or fee waiver may also be read as a bar, and it is worth asking the board in writing before accepting one.

The rest follows from the eligibility test. Undergraduate study abroad is outside the scheme, so is a course at an institution that is not recognised, and a child whose parent's card falls short of five continuous years does not qualify however strong the marks.

Continuation

Renewal conditions

The board's page describes no yearly re-application. Support lasts for up to two years, and each payment is released on the institution's fee schedule only after the student produces a certificate showing studies are continuing (MPBOCWWB scheme page). That continuity certificate is the renewal in practice: a break in studies would stop the next release.

The page is silent on whether the parent's registration must stay valid during the study years. A registration runs for five years at a time, and renewal is a service the Janpad Panchayat or urban body has 30 working days to deliver (worker registration rules), so applying to renew well before the card's expiry date is the safer course for a family with a child abroad.

What you get

Award & benefits

Every ceiling in this scheme is stated in US dollars, and the board's page does not say at what exchange rate, or on what date, a transfer to an Indian account is worked out. Tuition is met at the actual fee or $40,000, whichever is lower, so a programme charging less than the cap is funded at its real price and no more (MPBOCWWB scheme page).

The living allowance of up to $10,000 a year is not a flat sum. It is fixed from the monthly costs the foreign institution itself shows, so two students in different cities can receive different amounts under the same rule (MPBOCWWB scheme page). The visa fee, the insurance premium and the journey, down to the rail or bus leg between home and the airport, are paid on top.

The two-year limit matters most for doctoral students. A PhD that runs past two years gets nothing from this scheme after the second year, so the remaining years need their own funding plan before the student leaves.

• The following financial assistance will be provided to the applicant for pursuing education under the scheme:-
• Tuition Fee: Payment of actual tuition fee or up to $40,000, whichever is less. - Subsistence Allowance: A maximum of $10,000 per year, based on the monthly expenditure in India and abroad as shown by the educational institution where the student is studying. - In addition to the visa fee and insurance premium, second-class rail/bus fare from the place of residence to the airport and back and actual economy-class airfare to the nearest place of the educational institution and back will be payable.
• Note: The amount of grant will be credited into the student's account as per the prescribed fee payment schedule of the educational institution upon production of a certificate of continuity of studies in the institution.

What to prepare

Documents required

The published document list is generic, and two papers it does not name decide how much is paid. The foreign institution's fee schedule sets both the tuition figure and the timing of each release, and its statement of monthly living costs sets the allowance (MPBOCWWB scheme page). A continuity-of-studies certificate is then needed before every instalment.

The worker's identity card has to show five continuous years of validity. Because the list also asks for the student's passport and visa, the form is realistically filed once an admission offer and a visa are in hand, not before.

Step by step

How to apply

Applications go through the board's Shram Sewa portal, which the scheme's myScheme record names, and every one is keyed to a construction worker's portal code. The page for scheme applications (योजनाओं के लाभ के लिए पंजीकृत श्रमिकों के आवेदनों को पंजीकृत करें) opens the form only after that registration number and a captcha are entered; the form then asks which family member the application is for, so a son or daughter applies through the parent's record, and the supporting documents are uploaded on it (scheme application form).

Checking the Application Number and the e-Payment Order

Progress is read on the board's online application status page, which takes only the application number (आवेदन क्रमांक) the Shram Sewa form generates, not the parent's portal code (application status). Once a grant is sanctioned, the money moves as an e-payment order, and its ePO ID can be checked on a separate page (ePO status).

A stalled application or payment can be taken to the board's grievance system (शिकायत प्रणाली), which is opened with either the portal code or the Samagra ID and tracked by grievance number (शिकायत क्रमांक) (grievance form, grievance status). The board's district-wise lists of applications pending with verification officers currently cover ten other schemes and not this one (pending applications report), so the application-number search is the check that works.

How winners are picked

Selection process

Sanction rests with one officer, the Secretary of the board in Bhopal, whom the scheme page names as the designated officer for approval (MPBOCWWB scheme page). Under the heading "process", the same page lists four offices: the Labour Commissioner at Indore, the Commissioner of Medical Education, the Commissioner of Higher Education at Satpura Bhawan and the Director of Technical Education. It does not say what role each one plays. No merit list, interview or tie-break rule is published for a year in which more eligible children apply than the 50 places allow.

Fine print

Terms & conditions

Three conditions run through the whole grant. Money is credited to the student's own account and only in step with the institution's fee schedule, each release needs proof that studies are continuing, and a benefit from any other source ends eligibility (MPBOCWWB scheme page).

The scheme page closes with a notice that its contents must be checked against the documents the authorities finally issue, so the written sanction from the board's Secretary, not the web page, settles what a student receives.

Get help

Contact

Queries go to the board's head office at R-23, Zone-1, M.P. Nagar, Bhopal, on 0755-2552663 or bocboard[at]mp[dot]gov[dot]in (MPBOCWWB contact page).

Problems with the parent's registration or its renewal sit with the registering office instead: the chief executive officer of the Janpad Panchayat in rural areas, and the municipal commissioner or chief municipal officer in towns (worker registration rules).

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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