Social Justice Ministry Showcases NOS, NAMASTE and NFSC

On 10 November 2026 the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment put out three accounts of what its schemes have done for individual beneficiaries, each from the Scheduled Caste community and each named differently in the account for privacy. Together the three cover overseas study, sanitation safety and doctoral research.

National Overseas Scholarship

Under the National Overseas Scholarship (NOS) a student from Maharashtra received assistance in the financial year 2025-26 that took him to University College London in the United Kingdom. The scheme met tuition fees of 39,800 pounds and a maintenance allowance of 9,900 pounds, besides airfare, visa fees, insurance and other admissible academic expenses. He is now reading for an MSc in Construction Economics and Management, a field he chose with a career in infrastructure development and project management in view. Before the award, the cost of tuition, accommodation and travel abroad had put postgraduate study out of his family's reach.

NAMASTE and the sanitation worker

The National Action for Mechanised Sanitation Ecosystem (NAMASTE) scheme, run by the same ministry, reached a 60-year-old sanitation worker of Pondicherry Municipality in 2025. He had cleaned sewers and septic tanks for over 15 years, often without protective gear, and repeated skin infections and breathing trouble had cut into his working days. The scheme gave him a Personal Protective Equipment kit of protective overalls, heavy-duty gloves, gumboots, a face mask and a safety helmet, along with training on safe sanitation practice and occupational health risks. As the only earner in a household of four, he saw his monthly income rise from about Rs 12,000 to between Rs 16,000 and Rs 18,000 as his health improved and absences fell.

NFSC fellowship for research

The National Fellowship for Scheduled Caste Students (NFSC) has supported a 32-year-old doctoral scholar from Darjeeling in West Bengal since November 2022, paying a fellowship with House Rent Allowance and a contingency grant. The assistance so far adds up to Rs 18,41,870. It paid for a laptop of his own, a dependable internet connection in the hills where connectivity had been patchy, books and stationery, registration fees for conferences and seminars, travel and the cost of intensive fieldwork, all of which he had earlier struggled to manage while his parents were also funding a sibling's education.