Mumbai: Months after announcing a 100% fee waiver for female students belonging to the Other Backward Class (OBC) and Economically Weaker Section (EWS) categories in professional courses, the state government has finally declared that the scheme will be rolled out this academic year 2024-25.
The educational aid, which will cost the state Rs 2,000 crore annually, was among the various welfare programmes for women announced by state finance minister Ajit Pawar while presenting the state's additional budget for 2024-25. The delay in formalising the scheme had led to discontent among students and had drawn criticism from opposition parties.
Under this programme, the state will bear the entire tuition and examination fees of the women, with an annual family income of less than Rs8 lakh. These students were already benefiting from a 50% concession in the education cost.
More than 2 lakh students in the state will benefit from this initiative which will cover as many as 662 higher education programmes, including professional courses such as medicine, engineering, management, pharmacy, law and teacher training. However, there was no allocation made for the scheme in the additional budget, as the state cabinet is yet to approve it officially.
While welcoming the announcement, the activists are apprehensive about the modalities of the scheme. They believe that students will be at a disadvantage if they are required to first make the fee payment and then receive a reimbursement from the government. Instead, they suggest that the state reimburse the institutes, with no amount being spent by the women.
