Ambedkar Scholarships

Ambedkar Scholarships

(Project write-up as of August 21, 2006)

Aim:

To recognize, encourage and help economically backward, intelligent, and hard working Dalit (also known as Scheduled Caste) students by giving scholarships as an incentive to continue work hard in furthering their studies.

Objectives:

· To establish an International organization to tap funds from international donors to support the work among the Dalits and other marginalized sections of Indian society

· To establish an Indian organization to tap funds from Indian Dalits and other marginalized sections of Indian society who come in fine and from social conscience individuals of all walks of life

· To establish organizations in all states of India to promote this cause

· To establish an all India level umbrella NGO to function as a parent organization working in co-ordination with sister organizations at various states and regions in India

· To collect funds to give aid to deserving Dalit and other marginalized students

· To establish schools for the benefit of Dalit and other marginalized sections of Indian society

Year of establishment: 2003

Eligibility:

· Currently, all Dalit students irrespective of caste and religion with good academic standing in Class X are eligible and who are studying first year of college

· In future, we are planning to introduce other scholarships at various levels of education (elementary, secondary, high-school, college, post-graduation and technical education)

Selection procedure:

· Advertisement:

· An advertisement will be sent to all public schools currently in Andhra Pradesh (all over India in future) calling for applications in a specified format. Eligible applicants will be asked to submit their Class X marks sheet, Caste certificate, Income certificate, Passport photograph, and a letter from the college principal. The candidate will also be asked to write three paragraphs on each of the following topics in a language of his/her choice:

· What he/she knows about Babasaheb Ambedkar’s services to Dalits

· What are his/her aims, goals, and plans for future

· How will he/she help his community when he/she comes up in life

· Availability of these scholarships will also be announced through personal contacts, advertising in electronic groups and writing letters to known people

· Selection: While scrutinizing for eligibility, the following points will be taken into consideration

o 50% of the total announced scholarships will be awarded to Girls.

o Economically backward students will be given preference. Parent’s background (kind of work they do) will be considered apart from stated yearly income.

· Disbursement: Selected candidates will be invited to attend a simple award ceremony in which the following will be presented

o A bank cheque for Rs:5,000

o A Biography of Babasaheb Dr B R Ambedkar

o An appreciation, encouragement and responsibility letter

o A certificate of Achievement

Scholarships:

· 2003: 2 scholarships (for a boy and a girl) were given on December 14, 2003 in a function organized in Guntur Women’s college, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh. They were given to first year Intermediate (+2) Science/Math students of Guntur District.

· 2004: A total of 24 scholarships were distributed on February 6, 2005 at St Mary’s Centenary Jr College, St Francis Road, Secunderabad, Andhra Pradesh. The chief guest was Dr S Samsunder Jayaraju, District and Sessions Judge, Fast Track Court, Medak, Andhra Pradesh.

· 2005: A total of 37 scholarships were distributed on January 13, 2006 at St Mary’s Centenary Jr College, St Francis Road, Secunderabad, Andhra Pradesh. The chief guest was noted author and social activist Prof Kancha Ilaiah of Osmania University, Hydearabad, Andhra Pradesh.

· 2006: In addition to general category scholarships, we have started a new scholarship for the children from Manual scavenging families. We are working with Safai Karmachari Andolan, a organization working for manual scavengers in identifying the beneficieries. Scholarships will be awarded in a small function some time in Jan/Feb of 2007.

Sponsorships/Donations:

· Any individual/organization with a desire to help these less fortunate but bright Dalit students can sponsor scholarships in the following ways. It is desired to have a minimum of Rs: 5,0000 for each scholarship.

· Scholarships can be named after the loved ones (for example: parents, grand-parents etc) of the donor. A sample of Certificate of Achievement can be seen at our website.

· If the donor doesn’t wish to name the scholarship after somebody of his/her choice, the scholarships will be called Dr Ambedkar Scholarship in case of boys and Mata Ramabhai Ambedkar scholarship in case of girls.

· Scholarship types:

· Endowment Scholarships: A fixed amount can be deposited in a bank and the interest will be used for awarding scholarships every year.

· Yearly Scholarships: Any individual/organization can sponsor any number of Scholarships on yearly basis. These scholarships will be announced only for that particular.

· Donation: Any amount, however small it is, can be donated by any individual/organization. This amount will be used for awarding new scholarships (if sufficient funds are available) or for administrative costs like purchasing biographies of Dr Ambedkar, advertisement costs and others.

· Books: Any individual/organization can sponsor books that relate to Ambedkar ideology or that are useful for English improvement or individual development

· We promise every donor that each and every penny will be accounted for and used in the way it is supposed to be.

People behind the project:

· We are in the process of registering non-profit organizations both in US and India. All positions will be purely of voluntary in nature and no salary/honorarium will be paid to anyone in the committee or people associated with the project.

Website:

· Our aim is to run this project as transparent and democratically as possible. In many of such projects, donors only donate and do not know where the money had gone or how is had been spent. But ours is different in its approach. We post everything related to the project on our website www.ambedkarscholarship.org for everyone to see and comment/give constructive suggestions. This site has information about the scholarships available, applications received with all details, scholarship recipients with photos and addresses, donations received expenses under each head, balance Sheet, important documents, reports and photographs of the previous year functions and links to various other scholarships both national and international. The site is updated from time to time with latest information and we encourage visitors to visit it frequently for latest updates.

· In addition, we maintain an electronic email group exclusively for the donors updating them with latest information on the project. All donors are encouraged to participate actively with their valuable suggestions to improve the effectiveness of the project.

How can you help us?

· Be a sponsor: You can sponsor any number of scholarships. We will name them as you wish. We encourage you to sponsor a minimum of 2 scholarships – for a boy and a girl each

· Be a donor: You can directly help us by donating whatever you feel like –in cash or kind (books)

· Be an advertiser: You can advertise our project on your website/articles or among friend and acquaintances. You can introduce our project to concerned individuals

· Be as a facilitator: You can help introducing us to other NGOs and funding organizations working with similar goals and objectives. You can help us to get sponsorships from large organizations/corporate bodies

· Be a Partner: If you have already running a similar project in your native district/state/region or some other place, we can work together under a single banner without loosing our individual identities. Collective work will be more recognizable and has more impact than individual work. Every good work needs recognition not for glorification of the individuals started it but for inspiring others to start similar or better work

Future plans:

International NGO: Planning to register an International non-profit organization in India
Indian NGO: Efforts are being made to register an NGO in India
Committee: Selection of committee members.
Introduce as many scholarships as possible and take it to all India
Introduce scholarships at various levels – elementary, high school, undergraduate, graduate, professional levels with different amounts suitable to cover a portion of expenditures at each stage.
Educational Adoption: Dalit children from poor background are adopted for educational purpose and the cost of the schooling and books will be provided by the donors. The donor acts as a mentor to the student. The donor will be provided all details of the child like address, parent’s information and photograph. If needed, the child will be put a residential environment. Our slogan is “Each one adopts one.”

Future proposals in disbursing scholarships:

Background Check: Once candidates are short listed, we are planning to call the head-master/principal of the school last studied to verify his/her character and sincerity in pursuing education. We are planning to arrange a visit to the beneficiaries’ home if needed to get first hand information about his/her economic condition.
Reimbursement: We are planning to reimburse the tuition fees directly to the tuition masters/institutes instead of giving it to the student in order to eliminate misuse.
Monitoring: We are planning to devise monitoring method to check the progress of the student once a scholarship is issued.
Installments: We are also planning to give the scholarship amount in few installments rather than a single installment. In case of +2 students, half of it will be given in the first year and the rest will be given in the second. We are also thinking of keeping criteria for giving scholarship in the next year – say maintaining the same academic excellence.
Each proposal will be implemented as we grow and the resources are available.