With many parents unaware of students’ scholarships and spending money in applying for the same, a city-based NGO – Grass Roots Action and Information Network (GRAIN) along with six other organisations, has come to their rescue.

The group has started a campaign in various schools of the old city. As part of the campaign, the volunteers have been visiting the schools and organising awareness programmes about different scholarships offered by the State and the Union governments.

“We had covered more than a 100 schools in various areas of the old city so far and plan to expand the campaign throughout the city in the next few weeks,” said Ali Asghar, general secretary of GRAIN

Apart from the awareness programmes, the group is also taking up documentation and e-filing responsibility of the students. “We are collecting a nominal fee of Rs.100. It is just a fraction of the amount spent by the parent for completing the job,” Mr. Asghar claims.

The group takes the responsibility for filing up the application, helping open bank accounts, getting income declaration certificate, e-filing of application, submission and tracking the status of the application till the scholarship is disbursed.

Parents spend anywhere between Rs. 400 to Rs. 500 on every application and move around different places to get the job done. “Most of the parents, who apply for their children’s scholarship are from the BPL families and are unaware of the procedures. Hence, they end up being exploited,” another member Syed Naqi Mehdi said.

For more details, one may contact over Ph. No.: 040 24574047.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Hyderabad / Asif Yar Khan / Hyderabad – August 25th, 2014