manoj kumar paswan a dalit student from nawada district in bihar has lived a hard life coming as he does from a poor marginal farmer family he and his family saw a ray of hope after he got a scholarship in 2016 to get a degree in computer applications from a college in nagpur one year on he is back to square one the promised money from the central governments post matric scholarship scheme which was to be routed directly to his college has not materialized he is back in the village repeatedly visiting the welfare office pleading for a solution my seniors in college got the scholarship but mine never came the college said there are some issues we are trying to sort them out how can i continue like this i came back home to pursue the matter with the welfare officer here he told toi from nawada his is not an exceptional case as revealed by data collected by the dalit advocacy group national campaign for dalit human rights ncdhr in response to a complaint made by them the social justice ministry told them that they had released nearly rs 5000 crore in 201516 and 201617 but the states had demanded almost double of that rs 912056 crore what has happened is that in the beginning states continued to provide scholarships to dalit students but the central govt put a squeeze finally the pipeline dried up and the students were left high and dry colleges started demanding fees from the students or told them to quit thousands have been affected by this tragedy said paul diwakar of ncdhr the post matric scholarship is given by the centre to an estimated 65 lakh dalit and 20 lakh tribal students in order to assist them to get higher education it is routed through the state governments who also chip in with a small amount funds are directly transferred to colleges after authentication ayyamperumal a dalit student from perambalur district in tamil nadu told toi that he faced constant trouble and harassment in the three years he got the scholarship while doing his bachelors at trichy i had to go up to the district collector with complaints of nonpayment people used to ridicule me saying a paraya boy wants to become educated but i vowed to get my right he told toi although the tribal affairs ministry has not officially given out latest data but they too were facing a similar squeeze last year in response to an rti query by ncdhr the ministry said as opposed to an anticipated expenditure of rs 1608 crore by states in 201516 the ministry released rs 8345 crore leaving a deficit of rs 773 crore colleges too are duping students of scholarships as revealed by the case of christ institute of technology in puducherry which lured 120 poor dalit students from bihar promising free education and boarding based on scholarships from the government after a few months they stopped all facilities and