Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren and Welfare Minister Champai Soren will felicitate the students of the Marang Gomke Jaipal Singh Munda Scholarship Scheme and their parents at a program to be organized in Ranchi on Thursday.

The Marang Gomke Jaipal Singh Munda Scholarship Scheme has been rolled out by the State Government for the students of Jharkhand from the schedule tribe category to pursue higher studies in the universities of England and Ireland. 

The awardees of the scholarship are entitled to complete coverage of tuition fees along with living and other miscellaneous expenses. Under this scheme, every year 10 students will be selected from the Scheduled Tribes category residing in Jharkhand. 

For the first cohort of the scholarship, 6 students have been selected, who are going to begin their study programmes in 5 different universities of England in September.

*Government announced the plan in December 2020.

The scheme was approved by the State Government in a cabinet meeting held on 28 December 2020. The Marang Gomke Jaipal Singh Munda Scholarship Scheme was inaugurated by Chief Minister Shri Hemant Soren during the 1st year anniversary program organized at Morhabadi Maidan, Ranchi on 29 December 2020. 

Applications were invited from prospective students of the scholarship scheme on 7 March 2021. This year 6 students were selected for receipt of a scholarship to study in England.

*Six students selected for a scholarship in the first year.

Among the selected students were:

*Hercules Singh Munda is going on to pursue an M.A. at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies. 

*Ajitesh Murmu is going to study for an M.A. in Architecture at the University College of London. 

*Akanksha Mery has been selected for an MSc in Climate Change Science and Management at Loughborough University.

*Dinesh Bhagat will pursue MSc in Climate Change, Development and Policy at the University of Sussex.

*Anjana Pratima Dungdung has been selected for MSc at the University of Warwick and Priya Murmu will pursue an MA in Creative Writing and the Writing Industries at Loughborough University.

Under the scheme, these students coming from the Scheduled Tribes category will be provided by the state government full cover of Tuition fees, living, journey and other expenses.

“I see Jaipal Singh Munda Overseas scholarship as an enabler for the tribal intellects and scholars to be at par with the students at an international level”, says Hercules.

Notably, Marang Gomke Jaipal Singh Munda was the first tribal student to study overseas, at Oxford University in England between 1922 and 1929. He was sponsored by the Church.

Later, he captained the Indian Hockey team in the 1928 Amsterdam Olympic Games, leading them to win the gold medal in the Olympics. 

Today, almost 100 years later, in the memory and horour of Marang Gomke Jaipal Singh Munda, Chief Minister Hemant Soren had recently announced a scholarship scheme to support tribal students for pursuing higher studies abroad.