New Delhi, Sep 15 (IANS): The Union Ministry of Minority affairs has told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply that since 2014-15 till date, over four crore scholarships have been distributed to the students belonging to the economically weaker sections (EWS) of the minority communities. Of this, 54 per cent scholarship has been given to the girl students.

The information was given by Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi in the Upper House on Monday.

The Ministry implements various welfare schemes for the socioeconomic and educational empowerment of six Centrally notified minority communities, namely the Buddhists, Christians, Jains, Muslims, Parsis and Sikhs.

During the period from 2015-16 to 2019-20, total fund allocated to the Ministry of Minority Affairs was Rs 21,160.84 crore and actual expenditure was Rs 19,201.45 crore, which is approx 90.75 per cent of total fund allocated.

Since 2014-15 to date, a total number of 4,00,06,080 scholarships have been distributed to the students belonging to the economically weaker sections of the minority communities, by incurring a total expenditure of Rs 11,690.81 crore.

An amount of Rs 9,223.68 crore has been spent for providing scholarships to 3,06,19,546 beneficiaries under various scholarship schemes of the Ministry during the period from 2015-16 to 2019-20, out of which about 54 per cent scholarships have been awarded to the minority girl students.