PM Scholarship Scheme 2026-27 for CAPF and Assam Rifles wards: ₹36,000 a year for girls, ₹30,000 for boys, last date 31 October

The Prime Minister's Scholarship Scheme runs out of the National Defence Fund and has been paying for the professional education of paramilitary families since 2006-07. It is administered by the Welfare and Rehabilitation Board at the Ministry of Home Affairs, and it is not means-tested — there is no income limit anywhere in the guidelines. What decides it is who your parent served with, and what you scored.

Who can apply

You are eligible if you are a ward or widow of Central Armed Police Forces or Assam Rifles personnel and you fall into one of these:

- Wards and widows of CAPF and AR personnel who died in harness or on election duty
- Wards of personnel disabled due to causes attributable to government service
- Wards of ex-CAPF and AR personnel in receipt of Gallantry Awards
- Wards and widows of retired and serving CAPF and AR personnel who are Personnel Below Officer Rank (PBOR)

That last line is the one that catches families out, so read it twice: for ordinary retired and serving personnel, the scheme is for PBOR only. There is no rank restriction at all for the first three groups — killed in action, disabled in action, died attributable to service, disabled in service, and Gallantry Award recipients.

One exception is written into the guidelines: wards of an Assistant Commandant holding a Local Rank, who does not draw Assistant Commandant pay benefits and is paid an Inspector's salary, are eligible under the retired and serving categories.

Your marks, and the course

- Fresh applicants need a minimum 60% in the Minimum Entry Qualification — Class 12, diploma or graduation, depending on the course
- If you passed Class 12 from CBSE, the percentage is worked out on your best five subjects out of 500
- For renewal, you must pass each subsequent year of the course with at least 50%
- It has to be a first professional degree: engineering, medicine, dental, veterinary, BBA, BCA, B.Pharma, B.Sc in nursing or agriculture, MBA, MCA and similar
- Lateral entry into the second year of BE or B.Tech after a diploma is eligible
- B.Ed is covered, but an integrated BA plus B.Ed is not. For integrated ME, M.Tech or M.Pharma, the scholarship covers the initial three or four years

What you get

- ₹3,000 a month for girls, which is ₹36,000 a year
- ₹2,500 a month for boys, which is ₹30,000 a year
- Paid annually, after selection, straight into your Aadhaar-seeded bank account
- For up to five years, depending on how long your course runs

Everyone selected in the fresh category also gets a personal letter from the Prime Minister, in an appropriate language.

The number that actually decides it

2,000 fresh scholarships a year, on top of renewals from previous years. They are split exactly 1,000 for boys and 1,000 for girls — and the guidelines are explicit that the two quotas are not interchangeable. If only 750 eligible boys apply, the remaining 250 slots are not given to girls. They go unused.

If more applications come in than there are slots, the fresh list is sorted by category first, then by your MEQ percentage, then by age with the older candidate preferred, then by the parent's rank with the lower rank preferred. The category order is:

- A — wards and widows of CAPF and AR personnel killed in action
- B — wards of ex-CAPF and AR personnel disabled in action
- C — wards and widows of personnel who died of causes attributable to government service, including casualties during election duty
- D — wards of ex-personnel disabled in service, where the disability is attributable to government service
- E — wards of ex-personnel in receipt of Gallantry Awards
- F — wards of ex-CAPF and AR personnel (PBOR)
- G — wards of serving CAPF and AR personnel (PBOR), subject to availability

Category G sits last and carries the words "subject to availability of scholarship". If your parent is serving and not in any of the harder categories, you are competing for whatever is left after A to F.

Two more rules

- The scholarship is admissible for only two children per family
- Your marital status does not matter — married applicants are eligible

Documents to keep ready

- Service Certificate from the Head of Office, in the Annexure-A format, if your parent is serving
- PPO, discharge certificate or discharge book — mandatory for categories A to F
- Disability certificate — for categories B and D
- Death certificate — for categories A and C
- Gallantry award certificate — for category E
- Bonafide certificate from your institute or college
- Attested copy of your MEQ marksheet: Class 12, diploma or graduation
- Aadhaar, and a bank account in a nationalised bank with core banking, seeded with your Aadhaar number

One useful detail: NSP has stopped collecting bank details in the fresh application. You do not enter an account number — payment goes automatically to the Aadhaar-linked account. Which means if your Aadhaar is not seeded to a working account, the money has nowhere to land. Check that before you apply, not after.

If you are under 18 and hold a minor account, get it converted to a major account.

How to apply

Apply on the National Scholarship Portal at scholarships.gov.in before 31 October 2026. Complete your One Time Registration first, then apply under the Prime Minister's Scholarship Scheme for CAPF and Assam Rifles. Your institute verifies it on the portal after you submit, so leave time for that step.

If you are renewing and you missed the window, the guidelines allow a grace period of one year for a delay in submitting a renewal application. That is a real concession and it is worth using — but it applies to renewals, not to fresh applications.

A related scheme, with its own separate quota of 500, covers wards of state and UT police personnel martyred in terror or naxal attacks. If that describes your family, apply under that one instead — we track it separately on this site.

Dates checked on 7 August 2026. Deadlines in India move without notice, so confirm on the official portal linked above before you apply.