Annual report - Performance Management Division

Post Matric Scholarship scheme - 55.65%Merit-cum-Means based scholarship scheme - 38.06%Under one of the schemes of the Maulana Azad Education Foundation (MAEF) viz.award of scholarships to meritorious girl students, the MAEF has disbursed scholarships tost59303 girl students amounting to ` 68.99 crore up to 31 December 2011.19.5 In view of the fact that women are the weakest link among minorities in thecountry, NMDFC provides special focus to the credit needs of women. It has been operatingthe micro financing scheme mainly focusing on poor minority women. The micro-financingscheme of NMDFC mainly aims on empowerment of women by way of meeting their creditneeds in an informal manner through NGOs/SHGs. NMDFC has so far (up to 31/12/2011)assisted around 3,65,657 beneficiaries with micro credit of ` 271.19 crore, out of which over90% of the beneficiaries are women.19.6 Further, NMDFC has introduced the Scheme of Mahila Samridhi Yojana which linksmicro credit to the women after training. Under this scheme, women are provided skilldevelopment training for duration of six months followed by requisite micro credit up to` 25000 with an interest rate of 4% p.a. for starting their income generation activities.19.7 A scheme for Leadership Development of Minority women is implemented by theMinistry exclusively for women.53