NEW DELHI: The Narendra Modi government on Friday came up with a scholarship program for school children to enhance their interest of Philately.
Philately is a hobby of collection and study of postage stamps. It also involves the collection, appreciation and research activities on stamps and other related philatelic products.
The scholarship program has been named as Deen Dayal SPARSH (Scholarship for Promotion of Aptitude and Research in Stamps as a Hobby) Yojana.
Under this scheme, students of class 6 to 9 with good academic record and also pursuing Philately as a hobby will be awarded annual scholarships.
The hobby of collecting stamps includes seeking, locating, acquiring, organising, cataloguing, displaying, storing, and maintaining the stamps or related products on thematic areas.
Stamp collection also teaches a lot about the socio-economic-political reality of the period in which the stamp is issued or the theme on which it is issued.
Here are the highlights of the scheme:
- The government has proposed to award 920 scholarships to students pursuing Philately as a hobby.
- Every Postal Circle will select a maximum of 40 scholarships representing 10 students each from class 6, 7, 8 and 9.
- The amount of scholarship will be Rs 6,000 per annum.
- At the time of selection for award scholarship, the candidate must have scored at least 60 per cent marks or equivalent grade/grade point in the recent final examination.
- There will be 5 per cent relaxation for SC/ST.
- To avail the scholarship, a child must be a student of a recognised school within India and the concerned school should have a Philately Club. The concerned student should be a member of the Club.
- In the case of school Philately Club not being established, a student having his own Philately Deposit Account will also be considered.
- Selections under the scheme would be on the basis of evaluation of project work on Philately and performance in Philately Quiz conducted by the Circles.
- Selections to the scholarship would be for one year and there would be no bar on an already selected student applying for the scholarship next year provided he/she fulfills other criteria.
