Deen Dayal SPARSH Yojana 2021 | Scholarship Scheme to Promote Philately | Check Eligibility / Selection Process

One of the oldest hobbies in the book has to be stamp collection. There was an age where every person indulged in philately. Over the years, however, with posting letters falling out of fashion due to the arrival of faster modes of communication like telephones, cell phones and the internet, people have forgotten about stamps and the glorious pride they once held. 

To bring back philately into trending tracks, the Ministry of Communications and the Central government have launched the Deen Dayal Sparsh yojana 2021.

About the Deen Dayal SPARSH yojana 2021

This scholarship scheme will be implemented all over the country. This scholarship, being the Pan India Scholarship scheme for children who have some interest in philately. The main objective of the Deen Dayal SPARSH yojana is to increase the interest in collecting stamps among children.

Under the implementation of the scheme, the Deen Dayal SPARSH scheme has proposed to award an annual scholarship to children. Students from standard 6th to 10th will be covered under this scheme. However, the scheme will benefit only those students who have good academic records and who are pursuing philately as a hobby.

The scheme is currently being implemented by the Department of Post under the Ministry of Communications. 

Eligibility criteria to avail of the benefits of the scheme

• The candidate must be a student of a recognised school within India. 
• Concerned school should have a philately club and the applicant should be a member of the club. 
• In case the school’s philately club is not established, the student having his/her own philately deposit account will also be considered. 
• The candidate must have good academic records. 
• At the time of selection for the award, the candidate must have scored at least 60% marks or equivalent grade/grade point in the recent final examination. There will be a 5% relaxation for SC/ST students. 

Disbursement of the scholarship amount

• The awardees will be asked to open a Joint account with one parent in the India Post Payment Bank or Post Office Savings Bank branch, which has a core banking facility.
• Each postal circle will select the awardee and hand over the list of beneficiaries to the IPPB/POSB for the payment of the scholarship.
• The IPPB/POSB will ensure that the scholarship is paid to awardees on a quarterly basis (₹1,500 for each quarter) after getting the list from each circle. 

Summing it up

Philately might be a dying aspect of culture, but through this scheme, we could see the return of a legendary hobby. And while letters may no longer be in use as much, the world knows that there was some level of pride involved in having your own precious stamp collection. 

Stamps were signals of location but there were also cultural representations on a 0.87✕0.96 inches canvas. This could be one way how legacies are passed over generations, and after all, what is culture if not remnants of a time long gone passed down to a generation?