Christians seek probe into India’s minority scholarship ‘scam’

Church leaders have asked the Indian government to probe the alleged irregularities in scholarship distribution for minorities, including Christians, and called it a nationwide scam.

An internal investigation by India’s Ministry of Minority Affairs has reportedly found illegal transfers of over Rs 144.83 crore (US$ 1,75,22,547.21) into the accounts of ineligible persons, depriving minority students of the money to pursue their education.

“We want a thorough probe into the irregularities in the distribution of minority scholarships,” demanded Father Michael Pulickal, secretary to the Commission for Social Harmony and Vigilance of the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council, a regional bishops’ body in southern India.

Quoting media reports, the Carmelite of Mary Immaculate priest said that the illegal transfer has been taking place for the past five years.

“The scam is spread across 21 states in the country,” a statement by the commission said on Aug. 22. India has a total of 28 states.

The commission asked the federal government, led by the pro-Hindu government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to punish those persons involved in it.

“It is very unfortunate that scholarships meant for minority students were siphoned off by a caucus of government and bank officials,” the commission said.

The Catholic Congress Global Samiti (council), attached to the Catholic Church, urged the government to ensure that minority scholarships are distributed only to all eligible candidates.

We want the government to take steps to punish the guilty, a resolution passed after a meeting of the council said on Aug. 23.

In a report on Aug. 19, New Delhi-based India Today magazine termed it “the biggest minority scholarship scam in India” as “about 53 percent of institutions active under the minority scholarship program have been found to be ‘fake.’”

The magazine further said that out of the 1,572 institutions, 830 were found to be involved in fraudulent activities and a staggering 830 of them were either fake or non-operational.

The corruption in this case appears to have penetrated multiple levels of the system, the magazine said.

District nodal officers were not verifying scholarships and thus, fake beneficiaries claimed them, it said.

The Indian government gives scholarships to minority students, especially those from economically poor backgrounds, to support their education from grade 1 to higher education. The initiative was launched in the academic year 2007-2008.

An estimated 1,80,000 institutions in the country are beneficiaries of the scheme

The ministry has ordered to freeze the accounts of those institutions found to be involved in the list of illegal beneficiaries.

More than 80 percent of India’s 1.4 billion people are Hindus and the rest of the religious communities such as Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Jains, and Zoroastrians (Parsis) have been notified as minority communities. Christians make up 2.3 percent of the total population.

 

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