West Bengal’s Scholarship Architecture: Assessment of Fiscal Pressures, Governance, and Policy Outcomes

Over time, several scholarship programmes have been introduced in West Bengal, which include Kanyashree Prakalpa for girls, Swami Vivekananda Merit-cum-Means Scholarship for students from low-income households, Shikshashree for SC/ST students, and Aikyashree for minority students, among others.

Along with the support from the state, students also have access to central programmes including the National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship and Post-Matric Scholarships for SC/ST students. Together, these scholarship programmes form a layered scholarship architecture covering different social groups and stages of education.

While the increase in the sheer number and budgetary allocation towards scholarship programmes in the state in recent years has improved the accessibility of education for diverse groups, concerns over issues such as fiscal cost, implementation, and whether the ongoing scholarship policies allow for impactful and positive changes in education have also been raised.

This expansion of scholarship programs has not been accompanied by a proper assessment of the educational outcomes, implementation complexity, or overlaps arising from multiple similar schemes administered by different departments. The success of these scholarship schemes is measured in terms of beneficiary coverage and fund disbursal rather than the quality of improvement in educational outcomes or empowerment of the vulnerable groups.

Further, the existing research has focused mainly on individual schemes or the beneficiary coverage. Comparatively less attention has been paid to examining West Bengal’s scholarship ecosystem as an integrated policy architecture that simultaneously considers fiscal sustainability, governance, implementation, and educational outcomes.

This study attempts to analyse the scholarship architecture of West Bengal by examining government financial records and conducting  field-level investigations. It aims to uncover issues such as  payment delays, overlapping objectives, and a lack of accountability regarding student outcomes. While the first chapter analyses the expansion of scholarship and its impact upon it through a fiscal and policy lens, the second chapter examines the ground realities by accessing the experience of the student. Finally, the last chapter proposes an alternative and refined model which is better suited to West Bengal’s context.

Taken together, the study seeks to analyze West Bengal’s scholarship architecture as an integrated policy ecosystem and, based on the findings, proposes a model that is efficient, accountable, and results-oriented.