Maharashtra SARTHI Overseas Scholarship list out after delays. But it has been a cause for concern that several seats went unfilled due to the lack of awareness.
Maharashtra SARTHI Overseas Scholarship: Eligible Students List Out
Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj Research, Training, and Human Development Institute (SARTHI) has published the merit list of students after long delays of more than four months for the award Maharaja Sayajirao Gaikwad SARTHI Overseas Higher Education Scholarship.
This highly noble scholarship is provided to such brilliant students from Maratha and Kunbi communities of Maharashtra willing to take higher education at any place outside of their native state.
Originally, it was to be announced in September. This list of students who had been selected forced a delay, hence an uncertain wait for several. It ran into December as it was forcing students into altering their academic plans and some into delaying overseas studies.
In the earlier reports, delay was frustrating for the awaiting students. The students, it said, were very frustrated, especially those who eagerly hoped for an opportunity to raise financing for education.
Only Some Choices
Although the list was finally published, complaints poured in due to vacant available seats. From an earmarked 75 scholarship seat, only 44 selected students from over 200 applicants left 30 more seats vacant.
Such non-occupation of the existing seats has compelled student activists from the Student Helping Hand Group, like Kuldeep Ambekar, to point out such grievances. He emphasizes the scheme is not used as efficiently to benefit worthy students as it could and deprive many who needed finance in the process of trying.
First Phase of Selection
In response to the issues, a SARTHI official clarified that this announcement marks the first phase of selection. “There are two admission seasons each year for international universities, and the 75-seat quota applies for the entire year,” the official clarified.
They assured that additional candidates would be selected in the next phase, filling more of the remaining spots.
Ignorance May Be Blinding
Ambekar points out that last year a similar situation occurred, whereby only 50 students had been selected. He indicated that the vacant seats might have been a result of unawareness among eligible candidates about the scholarship, who might be economically backward people.
Many students and their parents bank on such schemes for abroad studies, and hence the unfilled seats give a signal that there are lapses in communication and outreach. Since the second phase of selections with SARTHI is around the corner, it will be important to spread out this valuable opportunity.
Several students are in dire need of financial assistance to go abroad for higher education and filling these unutilized seats will ensure that this scheme fulfills its purpose: to support the educational aspirations of students from the Maratha and Kunbi community.