The provision of fellowship opportunities for meritorious students, belonging to the SC/ST communities has been an important part of Tata Steel’s endeavour in the field of education.
On average, every year more than 100 meritorious SC/ST students from Noamundi in the West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand benefit from the Jyoti Fellowship programme. In the last 9 years, Rs 60.68 lakh has been disbursed to over 1000 students from Noamundi under this fellowship. In 2020, as many as 169 students received the fellowship from Noamundi region with the total amount of scholarship awarded being to the tune of over Rs. 8 lakh.
Jyoti Fellowship offered by Tata Steel Foundation is given to meritorious students to enable them to accomplish their educational and career aspirations. It identifies deserving candidates based on a test of academic merit wherein a student has to undergo a common written test conducted every year at two levels, school level (class VII) and college-level (graduation 1st year). Once the student qualifies this test, the student becomes eligible for fresh fellowship as well as renewal for consecutive years, subject to 45 per cent marks scored in the annual examination every academic year conducted by respective schools or colleges.
The Fellowship has come as a boon for the students of Noamundi who otherwise face many hurdles to complete their education. Lack of financial support has often led many students to drop out of schools and colleges.
Ranjeeta Lakra, a post-graduate student from Kolhan University, was able to continue her studies because of Jyoti Fellowship which was awarded to her three years ago. “I come from a poor family where spending money on education is a challenge. I wanted to continue my studies and the fellowship amount helped me with that. If more and more girls get the scholarship, it will be helpful for them because in our areas most of the girls give up education due to shortage of money,” said Ranjeeta Lakra.
Priti Purty, a graduate student at Noamundi College who has been receiving the scholarship since Class VII says that she is grateful to Tata Steel for awarding the scholarship as it has helped her strengthen her academic resources.
Tata Steel`s Jyoti Fellowship programme extends financial help to students from Jamadoba, West Bokaro, East Singhbhum, West Singhbum and Seraikela-Kharsawan district in the Kolhan region of Jharkhand and Sukinda, Bamnipal, Joda, Gopalpur, Kalinganagar, Gomardih and Katamati in the state of Odisha.
