National News
Army expands its outreach and intends to pay for 600 students from J&K and Ladakh to attend university elsewhere.
Under a scholarship programme established by Northern Command last year, the kids will pursue further study. More over 6,000 of the 7,500 applicants this year are from Kashmir.
In New Delhi: According to information obtained by ThePrint, the Army, which operates a number of schools and training facilities in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, has increased its outreach programme and will this year sponsor 600 students to attend universities outside of the two Union Territories in an effort to promote assimilation.
These pupils’ education will be funded by the Army’s Northern Command through its “Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh Special Scholarship Scheme,” which will be introduced in 2021.
Only those who require financial assistance will be awarded the scholarships. Additionally, the scholarship recipients would have to pay an upfront security deposit and admission fee of Rs 30,000. The scholarship will, however, pay the remaining tuition, lodging, and catering costs.
According to individuals in the defence and security establishment who spoke with ThePrint, 311 students received scholarships last year to attend Mewar University in Rajasthan and complete their degrees.
Although it was intended to include more institutes, Covid prevented this from happening.
The Northern Command has chosen to expand the scholarship pool to more than 600 students this year after thousands of students sought for scholarships last year but only a few hundred could receive financing.
Several sarpanches, District Development Council members, and members of the civil society have started a campaign to boost the number of students receiving scholarships this year. The Army then expanded the pool of candidates for the scholarship.
More than 7,500 students applied for the programme this year, according to sources. To raise awareness of the scholarship and the increased number of seats made available for it, even soldiers on the ground were enlisted.
The scholarship’s registration process and subsequent testing were conducted online. Tests were administered between August 1 and August 3 to determine who was qualified.
According to other sources from the defence and security establishment, more than 6,000 of the 7,500 students who sought for scholarships this year are from Kashmir, 1,400 are from Jammu, and about 100 are from Ladakh.
The Sadbhavana Operation
The Army began Operation Sadbhavana, a programme for outreach and human development, in 1998, amid the height of the insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir. This activity includes the scholarship programme of the Northern Command.
Operation Sadbhavana sought to help residents of the tumultuous districts of the former state gain access to services like sanitation, healthcare, education, and infrastructure development.
The Army estimates that more than 550 crore rupees have been spent on the initiative.
Students were awarded scholarships to study a range of subjects, including management, pharmacy, engineering, law, and sports sciences, among others, from the previous year’s cohort. Due to Operation Sadbhavana’s emphasis on education, the Northern Command also operates roughly 47 Army Goodwill Schools, 27 of which are in the Kashmir region, in addition to the scholarship programme that was started this year.
Earlier this year, the General Officer Commanding of the Chinar Corps, stationed in Srinagar, told ThePrint, “We are also assisting students to go abroad and study in other areas of the country, in addition to implementing a lot of education projects in Jammu and Kashmir.”
