Maharashtra government to provide free vocational higher education to girls under NEP 2020

This decision will provide a great opportunity for those girls who are deprived of higher education due to poor financial conditions.

Date: August 13, 2024

In accordance with the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020, the Maharashtra government has decided to provide free vocational higher education to girls. This initiative aims to increase the female enrolment in vocational education and to provide equal opportunities to girls in education.

This decision will provide a great opportunity for those girls who are deprived of higher education due to poor financial conditions.

Under this plan, girls’ annual education and test expenses have been completely waived.

Degree, diploma, and postgraduate education are being provided free of cost to the daughters of parents whose annual income is INR 8 lakh or less.

The Higher Education Department has started a helpline number and help desk to solve the problems faced by the students in availing the benefits of this scheme. This helpline can be contacted on 0796134440, 07969134441, and helpdesk.maharashtracet.org.

This helpline is operational on office days from 9 am to 6 pm. Higher and Technical Education Minister Chandrakant Patil has appealed to use this helpline. For this scheme, one can apply on this portal https://mahadbt.maharashtra.gov.

Girls who have taken admission in the academic year 2024-25 and before, girls who are currently studying various educational courses, all such eligible girls will get the benefit of this scheme. Students who have paid admission fees will be refunded. For this, eligible girls need to link their bank account with their Aadhaar number to receive the amount.

If there is any problem while filling out the application form for this scheme, then it will have to be informed to the Principal/Nodal Officer of the concerned college, the Nodal Officer of the Divisional Joint Director’s office, or the complaint section on the portal of MahaIT. Information about this scheme is available on the MahaDBT portal https://mahadbt.maharashtra.gov.in, the website of the Directorate of Higher Education https://dhepune.gov.in, the website of the Directorate of Technical Education https://www.dtemaharashtra.

The accepted scholarship will be credited to the bank account in two phases as per the session. Maharashtra’s Higher and Technical Education Minister Chandrakant Patil encouraged people to use it. He also added that the concerned students will be eligible to get benefits only under any one of the various scholarship schemes of the government.