1Saksham portal
scholarship.up.gov.in
2Status check
scholarship.up.gov.in → “आवेदन की स्थिति”
3OTR registration
scholarship.up.gov.in → OTR → New Registration
4eDistrict certificates
esathi.up.gov.in: income, caste and domicile. Apply 4-6 weeks before the scholarship deadline.
5Payment check
pfms.nic.in → “Know Your Payment”
What is UP Scholarship — And Why 78% of Applications Fail
The UP Scholarship programme is India’s largest state-level scholarship scheme, run by the Social Welfare Department of Uttar Pradesh through the Saksham portal at scholarship.up.gov.in. Built by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), the portal handles Pre-Matric (Class 9-10), Post-Matric Intermediate (Class 11-12) and Dashmottar (UG, PG, Diploma, ITI, B.Ed, PhD) scholarships for SC, ST, OBC, General, minority and EWS students. About 2.5 crore UP students fall within its reach each year.
The official 2025-26 dashboard shows the scale. OTR (One Time Registration) entries: 89.89 lakh (89,89,714). Final submitted applications: 84.88 lakh (84,88,216). Beneficiaries paid when the dashboard was read: 18.64 lakh (18,64,427). That means roughly 78% of submitted applications were rejected, stuck in verification, or had not reached the payment stage when the dashboard was read (source: Saksham portal dashboard, 2025-26 session).
Most of these failures are not because students are ineligible. They come from avoidable errors: an expired eDistrict income certificate, caste certificate details that don’t match, an enrolment number missing from the university’s database, Aadhaar not seeded to the bank account, or an institution that forgot to forward the form. Every one of these can be prevented if you know what to check before submitting.
Three Scholarship Categories — Which One Is Yours
| Category | Classes | Who can apply |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-Matric | Class 9-10 | SC, ST, General, OBC and minority students |
| Post-Matric Intermediate | Class 11-12 | SC, ST, OBC, General, minority |
| Dashmottar (Post-Matric other) | UG, PG, Diploma, ITI, B.Ed, certificate, PhD | SC, ST, OBC, General, minority, EWS |
Family income limit (all three scholarships):
| Category | Annual family income up to |
|---|---|
| SC, ST | ₹2.5 lakh |
| General, OBC, minority | ₹2 lakh |
The income on your eDistrict certificate must be within the limit for your category. Limits are revised from time to time, so confirm the current figure in the notice on scholarship.up.gov.in before applying.
Application fee: none. The scholarship application is completely free. Any website or agent charging money for it is a scam.
Which Department Handles Your Application
All categories apply on the same Saksham portal, but the scheme belongs to the department for your category: the Social Welfare Department (SC, ST and General), the Backward Classes Welfare Department (OBC) and the Minority Welfare Department (Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain and Parsi students). Choose the right category and department scheme on the form; the department decides your rates, verification and payment, and each has its own helpline (see Helpline and grievances below).
How Much Money You Get — Fee Reimbursement and Maintenance Allowance
A UP scholarship has two separate parts, and they don’t always arrive together.
| Part | What it covers | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|
| Fee reimbursement | Your non-refundable tuition and compulsory fees, up to the amount fixed for your course | Usually to your bank account by DBT; some schemes pay the institution |
| Maintenance allowance | Books, travel and daily expenses, at a rate set by course group and by whether you are a day scholar or a hosteller | Always to your own bank account by DBT |
Maintenance Allowance for SC Students (Post-Matric)
For SC students, the post-matric allowance follows the central Post-Matric Scholarship for SC (PMS-SC) rates. Courses fall into four groups:
| Course group | Examples | Hosteller (₹/year) | Day scholar (₹/year) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Group 1 | Degree and PG professional courses: medicine, engineering, management, agriculture, computer applications | 13,500 | 7,000 |
| Group 2 | Other professional degree, diploma and certificate courses | 9,500 | 6,500 |
| Group 3 | Other graduate and postgraduate courses (BA, B.Sc, B.Com, MA…) | 6,000 | 3,000 |
| Group 4 | Post-matric non-degree courses, including Class 11-12 | 4,000 | 2,500 |
Divyang students get 10% extra. Students in correspondence or online courses don’t get the allowance.
Other categories: OBC, General and minority students get the allowance at the UP state rates for their department’s scheme, which are lower than the PMS-SC rates and also vary by course group and day scholar or hosteller. Overall, amounts range from about ₹3,500-6,000 a year for Pre-Matric (Class 9-10) to about ₹12,000-22,000 a year for Post-Matric, with the highest amounts for professional courses such as engineering and medicine. Published figures vary by category, by day scholar or hosteller and by course: Careers360, for example, lists about ₹3,000-7,000 for Pre-Matric and a maintenance allowance of ₹2,500-13,500 for Post-Matric, with course fees reimbursed separately. The actual amount depends on your category and course. Check the exact rate for your category and course in the scheme notice on the portal.
Government, Aided or Private Institution — Why It Matters
Your type of institution changes how smoothly the money comes:
- Government institutions: fees are low and fixed, so fee reimbursement is small and simple; most of what you get is the maintenance allowance.
- Government-aided institutions: similar to government ones for fixed fees; self-financed courses in aided colleges are treated like private ones.
- Private (self-financed) institutions: the institution and course must be on the government’s approved list, and the fee you claim must match the fee fixed for that course in the portal’s records. Fees above that limit aren’t reimbursed. Private-institution applications go through extra checks and are often paid later.
Private-institution students are the group most often stuck. When the portal reopened in September 2026 for 3,16,057 students whose 2025-26 scholarship hadn’t come through, 2,46,426 of them were from private institutions, against 31,836 from government and 37,795 from aided institutions.
Important Dates — 2026-27 Session
| Scholarship | Fresh application opens | Last date (fresh) | Renewal | Correction window |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-Matric (Class 9-10) | August 11, 2026 | September 21, 2026 | Aug 11 – Aug 25, 2026 (verification: Sep 17 – Oct 10) | Nov 16 – Dec 14, 2026 |
| Post-Matric Intermediate (Class 11-12) | August 11, 2026 | September 21, 2026 | Aug 11 – Aug 25, 2026 (verification: Sep 17 – Oct 10) | Nov 16 – Dec 14, 2026 |
| Dashmottar (UG/PG/Diploma) | September 15, 2026 | October 31, 2026 | By October 15, 2026 | Dec 6 – Dec 31, 2026 |
For Pre-Matric and Intermediate renewals, online registration and hard-copy submission to the institution ran from August 11 to August 25, 2026; September 17 – October 10 is the renewal track’s window for verifying and rectifying suspect data. The correction-window column shows the longer verification period: the student-facing Sanshodhan, when the portal unlocks your form, is a 4-5 day window inside it.
Portal reopened for 2025-26 pending cases: on September 1, 2026, the government reopened the Saksham portal for 3,16,057 students whose 2025-26 applications were stuck because of technical glitches, server problems or late institutional verification. Payment to this group was scheduled for September 29 – October 2, 2026 (source: announcement by Social Welfare Minister Asim Arun).
eDistrict Certificates — The Documents That Make or Break Your Application
This is where most applications fail. The Saksham portal doesn’t just accept your certificate details; it checks them against the eDistrict database through an API. Understanding how that check works prevents most rejections.
How the API Verification Works
When you enter your income certificate’s application number and certificate number in the scholarship form, no person checks it. The portal sends an automated request to the eDistrict UP revenue server, which checks three things: that the certificate number exists, that the certificate is still valid, and that the income figure matches what you typed in the scholarship form. If any check fails, the portal shows an “Invalid Income Certificate / Data Mismatch” error and blocks final submission.
The same check applies to the caste certificate (for reserved categories) and the domicile certificate (proof of UP residence).
Three Certificates You Must Have from eDistrict
Income certificate (आय प्रमाण पत्र): the most critical document. Its official validity is 3 years, but in practice apply for a fresh one every year before scholarship season; the Saksham check flags certificates approaching the 3-year mark. The income on the certificate must match the scholarship form exactly; even ₹1 of difference triggers “Data Mismatch”. Apply on eSathi (esathi.up.gov.in) 4-6 weeks before the scholarship deadline. Processing takes 7-15 working days, and in July-September the Lekhpal verification backlog slows everything, because lakhs of students need certificates at the same time.
Caste certificate (जाति प्रमाण पत्र): needed for SC, ST, OBC and minority applicants. SC/ST certificates are valid for life. OBC non-creamy-layer certificates expire, so check the validity before applying. The caste name must exactly match the government’s official list: in UP’s SC list, for example, Chamar, Dhusia, Jhusia and Jatava are listed together as one entry (“Chamar, Dhusia, Jhusia, Jatava”), so a spelling outside that entry, or a local name not in the list, gets questioned, and a wrong spelling causes API rejection. See our caste certificate guide for how to find the exact entry.
Domicile certificate (निवास प्रमाण पत्र): proof of UP residence, needed for every category. A UP Family ID (familyid.up.gov.in) is now required before you can apply for domicile on eSathi. Create your Family ID first; it takes 1-2 weeks.
The “Duplicate Certificate” Trap for Siblings
If your older sibling submits a scholarship form with your father’s income certificate, and you then use the same certificate number, the portal rejects you with a “Duplicate Income Certificate Used” error. The system expects one certificate number per student. The fix: get a separate income certificate for each sibling who needs a scholarship. Same family, same income figure, but each application gets its own certificate number from eDistrict.
Timeline — When to Get Your Certificates
| Action | When |
|---|---|
| Create UP Family ID (if not done) | May-June (2 months before the scholarship opens) |
| Apply for income, caste and domicile on eSathi | June-July (4-6 weeks before the deadline) |
| Download the certificates from eSathi | July-August (after 7-15 days’ processing) |
| Check the certificate numbers work on Saksham | August (before filling the form) |
| Submit the scholarship application | August-September (Pre-Matric/Intermediate), September-October (Dashmottar) |
Starting in May-June isn’t early; it’s the minimum buffer. In July-September, eDistrict slows down because lakhs of scholarship applicants need certificates, and the Lekhpal doing field verification is handling hundreds of applications at once. A certificate that takes 7 days in April can take 20-30 days in August.
How to Apply on the Saksham Portal — Step by Step
What OTR Is
OTR (One Time Registration) is your permanent identity on the Saksham portal. It replaced the old system of registering again every year and is mandatory from the 2025-26 session. You register once, and the same OTR is used for every scholarship application in every later year, fresh or renewal.
Don’t confuse the two numbers you will see:
- OTR number: created once, stays the same for all your years on the portal. You log in with it.
- Application number: created for each year’s application. You need it for that year’s status check and for the institution’s hard copy.
Write both down. Most “I can’t log in” and “status not found” problems come from using one where the other is needed.
-
OTR (One Time Registration)
Before applying for any scholarship, register on the portal’s OTR system: scholarship.up.gov.in → Student → Registration → OTR (New Registration). Enter your Aadhaar number, your name exactly as on Aadhaar, date of birth, Aadhaar-linked mobile number and email, and create a password. Verify with the OTP sent to your Aadhaar-linked mobile. OTR is done once; the same OTR works for fresh applications and renewals in later years.
-
Select your scholarship category
Log in with your OTR details and choose Pre-Matric (Class 9-10), Post-Matric Intermediate (Class 11-12) or Dashmottar (UG/PG/Diploma/professional). Then choose your social category: SC, ST, OBC, General, minority or EWS. Each combination has its own form.
-
Fill the application form
- Personal details: name, father’s and mother’s names, date of birth, gender, category and address, all exactly as on your Aadhaar and eDistrict certificates.
- Academic details: last year’s exam (board or university), roll number, year and marks or CGPA. The portal checks your roll number against the board or university database. If your board hasn’t uploaded your data yet, you’ll see “Roll Number Not Matched”; contact your institution, not the portal.
- Institute details: current institution, course, year of study and fee structure. Your institution must be registered on the Saksham portal; unregistered institutions cannot process scholarships.
- Bank details: your own bank account (not a parent’s), seeded with Aadhaar and active on the NPCI mapper. The money comes by PFMS DBT, so if the account isn’t Aadhaar-seeded, the payment fails at the last stage even after approval.
- eDistrict certificate details: income certificate application number and certificate number, plus caste (if applicable) and domicile certificate details. This is where the API check happens, so enter everything exactly as on your certificates.
-
Upload documents
Passport photo, income certificate, fee receipt, previous marksheet, Aadhaar and the first page of your bank passbook. Each file must be in the format (JPEG/PDF) and under the size shown on the portal. Blurry or oversized uploads get rejected during institute verification.
-
Submit, print and get the institute stamp
Submit the form online, print the generated application, take it to your institution, get the principal’s signature and the institution’s seal, and hand the hard copy in at the scholarship desk. This physical step is critical: many students submit online and assume they’re done. The institution must forward your application on the portal and keep your signed hard copy. Missing either means the application never leaves the institution.
Fresh vs Renewal — Which Application You Make
| Fresh application | Renewal application | |
|---|---|---|
| Who | First year of a course, or your first scholarship | Continuing in the same course after getting the scholarship last year |
| Registration | OTR (one time) | Same OTR; no new registration |
| Form | Full new application | Last year’s data comes pre-filled; update the year, marks, fee and certificates |
| Certificates | Income, caste, domicile | Re-check the income certificate’s validity; it may need renewing |
| Institution | Verifies and forwards | Must verify and forward again, every year |
| Deadline | Fresh deadline | A separate, usually earlier, renewal deadline |
Verification Chain — What Happens After You Submit
Your application passes through four levels. This chain explains why payment takes months and where applications get stuck.
- 1
Institution
Level 1 · verification
Checks admission, course, fee, marks, attendance and documents, then forwards the form on the portal.
- 2
District Welfare Officer
Level 2 · scrutiny
Cross-checks your data, including the eDistrict certificates and your enrolment number. Mismatches are flagged "Suspect Data".
- 3
Social Welfare Department
Level 3 · state approval
Final approval for payment.
- 4
PFMS
Level 4 · payment
The amount goes by DBT to your Aadhaar-seeded bank account.
Level 1, institution verification: your school or college checks your admission, course, fee, marks, attendance and documents. If the hard copy hasn’t been handed in or a document is missing, the institution doesn’t forward the form. This is where most silent failures happen: the student thinks they applied, but the institution never forwarded it.
Level 2, District Welfare Officer (DWO) scrutiny: the DWO cross-checks your data against state databases: the income and caste certificates through the eDistrict API, and your enrolment number against the university database. Any mismatch flags the application as “Suspect Data” and opens the Sanshodhan (correction) window.
Level 3, state approval: the Social Welfare Department gives final approval to applications that pass DWO scrutiny.
Level 4, PFMS payment: the approved amount goes through the Public Financial Management System (PFMS) by DBT to your Aadhaar-seeded bank account. Track it at pfms.nic.in → “Know Your Payment”.
The Sanshodhan (Correction) Window — Your Second Chance
If the DWO flags your application as “Suspect Data”, the portal doesn’t reject you straight away. For a short window of 4-5 days, inside the longer correction period shown in the dates table (exact dates are announced on the portal), a “Modify Application” button appears on your Saksham dashboard. During that window you can fix the exact error the officer flagged.
Commonly flagged errors:
- Income certificate mismatch (expired or wrong number): get a fresh certificate from eDistrict.
- Enrolment or roll number not matched: the university hasn’t uploaded your data; contact your institution.
- Marks mismatch: you typed the wrong total.
- Wrong caste certificate details.
10 Common Rejection Reasons — And How to Prevent Each
1Income certificate expired or Data Mismatch
The Saksham check rejects certificates past their validity or with a different income figure. Get a fresh certificate from eDistrict every year before scholarship season, and enter the exact figure printed on it, not your own estimate.
2Same income certificate used by siblings
One certificate number used by two students gives a “Duplicate” error. Get a separate income certificate for each sibling.
3Enrolment or roll number not matched
The portal checks your roll number against the board or university database. If your institution hasn’t uploaded your data, the match fails. Ask your institution to upload it; that’s their job, not yours.
4Aadhaar not seeded to the bank account
PFMS payment needs an Aadhaar-seeded account active on the NPCI mapper. Confirm Aadhaar seeding at your bank branch, check the Aadhaar link status on npci.org.in, or check “Bank Seeding Status” on the UIDAI myAadhaar portal. If seeding isn’t active, the payment bounces even after full approval.
5Institution didn't forward the application
You submitted online but the institution never forwarded it. Visit the scholarship desk, confirm it was forwarded on the portal, and get a written acknowledgment.
6Wrong category selected
Choosing General when you’re OBC, or Post-Matric when a degree course needs Dashmottar, runs the wrong eligibility check and gets the form rejected. Read the category descriptions carefully.
7Marks or CGPA mismatch
The portal checks your marks against the board database. Enter them exactly as printed on the marksheet. If your university uses CGPA, enter the CGPA, not a percentage you worked out yourself.
8Bank account not in the student's name
Most schemes need an account in the student’s own name; a parent’s account causes payment failure. Open a zero-balance savings account (BSBD) at any nationalised bank with your Aadhaar.
9Photo or document rejected
The passport photo must be recent and formal, on a white background, in JPEG and under the size limit. Scans must be clear and within the file size limit. Phone photos of certificates instead of proper scans are often rejected for poor quality.
10Hard copy not handed in
Online submission alone isn’t enough. The printed application must be signed and stamped by the institution and handed in. Without it, the institution can’t forward your application.
Approved but No Money — Why PFMS Payments Fail
An application can be fully approved and the money still never arrive, because the last step, the PFMS DBT transfer, fails at the bank. Check pfms.nic.in → “Know Your Payment” with your account number: a failed transfer shows a reason. These are the usual causes and fixes.
1Aadhaar not seeded / NPCI mapper inactive
The DBT money is sent to the account mapped to your Aadhaar on the NPCI mapper. Linking Aadhaar to the account is not always the same as DBT seeding. Ask your branch to seed Aadhaar and enable DBT, then check “Bank Seeding Status” on UIDAI’s myAadhaar portal.
2Account dormant, inactive or frozen
An account with no transactions for a long time, or with KYC pending, can refuse credits. Update KYC at the branch, make a small deposit or withdrawal to reactivate it, and confirm it can receive DBT.
3Name doesn't match
The name in the bank account must match your Aadhaar and your scholarship form. Even a small spelling difference can fail the transfer. Correct the name at the bank, or in your records, so they match.
4Bank merged, old IFSC invalid
After a bank merger the old IFSC can stop working. Get the new IFSC from your branch and, if the portal allows a bank-detail correction, update it.
5Wrong or unsuitable account
A parent’s account, a joint account, or a closed account fails. Use a savings account in the student’s own name; a zero-balance BSBD account at any bank works.
Once the bank problem is fixed, payments are usually retried in a later payment cycle. If it stays stuck, raise it through the channels below with your PFMS failure reason.
Server Problems — How to Submit at Peak Time
In the peak months (August-October), over 70 lakh students try to use the Saksham portal in the same weeks. “503 Service Unavailable” errors, timeouts and failed submissions are routine then.
- Best times: 6-8 AM and after 10 PM, when traffic is lowest. Late morning to afternoon (11 AM - 4 PM) is the peak, and the day before any deadline is the worst.
- Save as you go: the portal can time out mid-form. Fill and save section by section, where saving is offered, rather than doing everything in one sitting.
- Use a desktop or laptop on a stable connection: mobile data on a crowded network drops out; broadband reduces timeouts.
- Don’t wait for the last date: if the deadline is September 21, submit by September 15. Last-minute failures have forced the government to reopen the portal more than once; in 2026, 3.16 lakh students got a second window for stuck 2025-26 applications.
Status Check — How to Track Your Application
Method 1, Saksham portal: log in at scholarship.up.gov.in. Your dashboard shows the current stage: submitted, forwarded by the institution, under DWO scrutiny, approved, payment processed or rejected.
Method 2, PFMS: after approval, track the payment at pfms.nic.in → “Know Your Payment” with your bank name and account number (confirmed by an OTP). It shows whether the money has been sent and, if not, why the payment failed (usually an Aadhaar-bank seeding problem). To check whether Aadhaar is seeded to your account, use “Bank Seeding Status” on UIDAI’s myAadhaar portal or the NPCI website.
| Status | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Submitted | You submitted the form | Wait for the institution to forward it |
| Forwarded by institution | Your college verified and forwarded it | Wait for DWO scrutiny |
| Under DWO scrutiny | The district officer is checking your data | Wait 2-4 weeks |
| Suspect Data / Sanshodhan | A mismatch was found; correction needed | Fix it in the Sanshodhan window |
| Approved | All checks passed | Wait for PFMS payment |
| Payment processed | Money sent | Check your bank account |
| Rejected | The application failed | Check the reason; apply again next session |
If your status shows nothing, the usual reason is that your institution hasn’t forwarded the application yet. Log in, check the forwarding status and follow up with the institution’s scholarship desk. Our scholarship status guide covers this in more detail.
Helpline and Grievances — Where to Complain
If your application has been stuck for weeks, use these in order:
- Your institution’s scholarship desk: for anything not forwarded, roll number or fee mismatches, or the hard copy. Get a written acknowledgment.
- Grievance section of the Saksham portal: log in at scholarship.up.gov.in and file a grievance with your registration number and date of birth.
- Department helplines: Backward Classes Welfare (OBC) 1800-180-5131, Minority Welfare 1800-180-5229. For SC, ST and General, contact the Social Welfare Department’s District Welfare Officer.
- District Welfare Officer (DWO): visit the DWO’s office in your district with your OTR number, application number and status screenshot.
- Jansunwai / CM Helpline: file a complaint at jansunwai.up.nic.in or call 1076 if the problem isn’t solved at district level.
Keep your OTR number, application number, PFMS failure reason (if any) and every acknowledgment number in one place; each channel will ask for them.
Quick Reference
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Official portal | scholarship.up.gov.in (Saksham) |
| Department | Social Welfare Department, UP |
| Technical partner | NIC (National Informatics Centre) |
| Scholarship categories | Pre-Matric (9-10), Post-Matric Intermediate (11-12), Dashmottar (UG/PG/Diploma/PhD) |
| Eligible categories | SC, ST, OBC, General, minority, EWS |
| 2025-26 OTR registrations | 89.89 lakh |
| 2025-26 applications | 84.88 lakh |
| 2025-26 beneficiaries paid | 18.64 lakh (when the dashboard was read) |
| Application fee | Free (₹0) |
| Income limit | SC/ST up to ₹2.5 lakh; General/OBC/minority up to ₹2 lakh |
| Pre-Matric amount | About ₹3,500 – ₹6,000 a year (published figures vary by category and course) |
| Post-Matric amount | About ₹12,000 – ₹22,000 a year (highest for professional courses; varies by category, course and day scholar/hosteller) |
| SC post-matric allowance | ₹2,500 – ₹13,500 a year, by course group and day scholar/hosteller |
| Renewal condition | Previous year’s exam passed |
| Payment method | PFMS DBT to an Aadhaar-seeded bank account |
| eDistrict certificates required | Income + caste + domicile (checked through an API) |
| Pre-Matric / Intermediate dates (2026-27) | August 11 – September 21, 2026 (fresh) |
| Dashmottar dates (2026-27) | September 15 – October 31, 2026 (fresh) |
| Portal reopened (2025-26 pending) | September 1, 2026, for 3.16 lakh students |
| Payment status | pfms.nic.in → “Know Your Payment” |
| Helplines | OBC 1800-180-5131 · Minority 1800-180-5229 · CM Helpline 1076 |
| Not to confuse with | National Scholarship Portal (scholarships.gov.in) |
Frequently asked questions
What is UP Scholarship / the Saksham portal?
India's largest state-level scholarship scheme, run by the Social Welfare Department of Uttar Pradesh through scholarship.up.gov.in (the Saksham portal). It covers Pre-Matric (Class 9-10), Post-Matric Intermediate (Class 11-12) and Dashmottar (UG, PG, Diploma, PhD) scholarships. In the 2025-26 session the dashboard showed 89.89 lakh OTR registrations and 84.88 lakh applications.
Which certificates do I need from eDistrict?
An income certificate (आय प्रमाण पत्र) for everyone, a caste certificate for SC, ST, OBC and minority applicants, and a domicile certificate for everyone. All three are applied for on eSathi (esathi.up.gov.in) at ₹10-15 each. The Saksham portal checks each certificate against the eDistrict database through an API.
What is the income limit?
Annual family income up to ₹2.5 lakh for SC and ST students, and up to ₹2 lakh for General, OBC and minority students. The income on your eDistrict certificate must be within the limit for your category. Limits are revised from time to time, so confirm the current figure in the notice on scholarship.up.gov.in.
What does the "Data Mismatch" error mean?
The Saksham portal checked your income certificate against the eDistrict database and found a problem: the certificate doesn't exist, is expired (older than 3 years), or the income you typed doesn't match the certificate. Get a fresh income certificate from eDistrict if needed, and enter the exact figure printed on it.
Can siblings use the same income certificate?
No. Each sibling needs their own income certificate from eDistrict. Same family, same income, but a separate certificate number for each student. Reusing one certificate number triggers a "Duplicate" error.
When should I apply for eDistrict certificates?
In May-June, at least 4-6 weeks before the scholarship portal opens. During July-September, eDistrict processing slows from about 7 days to 20-30 days because lakhs of students apply at the same time.
What if my institution didn't forward my application?
Go to the institution's scholarship desk with your printed application and ask them to forward it on the Saksham portal. Get a written acknowledgment. If the institution refuses, complain to the District Welfare Officer (DWO) or through jansunwai.up.nic.in.
How do I check the payment status?
Log in to the Saksham portal to see the application status. After approval, track the payment at pfms.nic.in → "Know Your Payment" with your bank name and account number (confirmed by an OTP). If the payment failed, the usual cause is that Aadhaar isn't seeded to your bank account; ask your bank branch. To check Aadhaar seeding yourself, use "Bank Seeding Status" on UIDAI's myAadhaar portal or the NPCI website.
Can General category students apply?
Yes. General category students can apply for Pre-Matric (Class 9-10), Post-Matric Intermediate and Dashmottar scholarships through the Social Welfare Department's schemes, if their family income is up to ₹2 lakh. Students who are eligible for EWS also need an EWS certificate from eDistrict, which expires every March 31.
Can I renew my scholarship if I failed last year?
No. Renewal is only for students who passed the previous year's or semester's exam. A fail, compartment or back paper in that exam gets the renewal rejected. Renewal uses the same OTR, with last year's data pre-filled, and your institution must verify and forward it again.
What is the difference between the OTR number and the application number?
The OTR (One Time Registration) number is your permanent identity on the Saksham portal: created once and used every year. The application number is created for each year's application and is used for that year's status check. Keep both written down.
My scholarship is approved but the money hasn't come. Why?
The PFMS bank transfer has probably failed. Common causes are Aadhaar not seeded to the bank account (NPCI mapper inactive), a dormant or frozen account, a name mismatch between Aadhaar and the bank account, an old IFSC after a bank merger, or an account not in the student's name. Check the reason at pfms.nic.in → "Know Your Payment", fix it at your bank, and the payment is usually retried in a later cycle.
Is UP Scholarship the same as the National Scholarship Portal (NSP)?
No. UP's state scholarships are on scholarship.up.gov.in (Saksham). NSP (scholarships.gov.in) is a separate central portal for central schemes. Applying for the same course and year on both can get you flagged as a duplicate.
What is the UP Scholarship helpline number?
Backward Classes Welfare (OBC): 1800-180-5131. Minority Welfare: 1800-180-5229. For SC, ST and General, contact your District Welfare Officer. You can also file a grievance on the Saksham portal, on jansunwai.up.nic.in, or through the CM Helpline 1076.
What is the Sanshodhan (correction) window?
A 4-5 day window when the portal unlocks your form so you can fix the error the DWO flagged. It falls inside the longer verification period (for 2026-27, Nov 16 – Dec 14 for Pre-Matric and Intermediate, Dec 6 – 31 for Dashmottar), and the exact dates are announced on the portal. Fix the error online and also resubmit the corrected, signed hard copy to your institution: both steps are needed.