One structural point worth knowing before you read further: Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh largely channel minority scholarships through the national portal. Those are centrally sponsored schemes administered by the state, not independent state schemes — so the finding at the top of this section applies to them too. Maharashtra and Karnataka are the two states with genuinely state-funded minority schemes.
The two strongest state citations
Maharashtra's Minority Development Department and Karnataka's Minorities Development Corporation are the only two state government sources we found that name Jains explicitly among the minorities they serve. Everywhere else, Jain eligibility rests on the central notification of 27 January 2014.
Maharashtra
High confidenceJains named on an official state page: Yes
The strongest state source we have. The Minority Development Department names Jains among the six notified religious minorities under both the central Act and the Maharashtra State Minorities Commission Act, and three state-funded scholarships are documented with full terms.
ActiveVerified 2026-08-14
State Minority Scholarship Part I — Higher and Professional Courses
Directorate of Technical Education, Maharashtra
State-funded scholarship for minority students in technical and professional education — diploma, degree and post-graduate. Running since 2008-09.
Who can apply
Jains are named explicitly on the official scheme page.
Live and paying: the department published disbursement through FY 2025-26. But when we checked, the MahaDBT scheme page still displayed the AY 2024-25 notice — so log in to MahaDBT for the current window rather than trusting the banner.
Eligibility
The official page names the communities explicitly: Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, Sikhs, Parsis, Jains and Jews
Combined parental income up to ₹8,00,000
Must have passed SSC from Maharashtra
What it pays
Actual annual tuition and examination fee, or ₹50,000 a year, whichever is less. The same for male and female students.
When to apply
Historically opens in late July and closes around 31 March. Confirm on MahaDBT.
Maulana Azad Minorities Financial Development Corporation (MAMFDC)
Education loan from the Maharashtra minority finance corporation, for professional degree and diploma courses.
Who can apply
Open to the six notified minority communities, which includes Jains.
We are deliberately not printing a loan amount or an interest rate. Figures circulate widely on other sites, but the corporation's own page states neither, and this is money — guessing is not acceptable. Ask MAMFDC directly.
Eligibility
Minority community; Maharashtra domicile; age 16 to 32
Annual family income below ₹2,50,000
Institute recognised by the Central or State Government, AICTE, UGC or ISC
Tuition and examination fee support for EBC, EWS and SEBC students in professional and technical courses.
Who can apply
EBC, EWS and SEBC students only. Being Jain — or being a notified minority — does not qualify you.
This is not a minority scheme, and it is on this page only to correct a mistake other sites make constantly. Religion and minority status are not criteria. A Jain student qualifies only if they independently hold EBC, EWS or SEBC status. Female students get 100% of tuition and examination fees; male students get 50%.
Medium confidenceJains named on an official state page: Yes
The Karnataka Minorities Development Corporation names Jains explicitly. But every dated notice on the Directorate of Minorities site referred to 2023-24 or 2024-25 when we checked — there was nothing for 2025-26 or 2026-27. Treat these as schemes that exist, and check the Directorate for this year's notification.
ActiveVerified 2026-08-14
Arivu Education Loan
Karnataka Minorities Development Corporation (KMDC)
Education loan for religious-minority students in Karnataka, across medicine, engineering, dentistry, nursing, B.Ed, diploma, ITI and post-graduate courses.
Who can apply
The corporation's own text names the communities it serves and includes Jains.
The income ceiling is not published on the corporation's own page, so we are not stating one. There is also a variant, Arivu-2, for minority students who have appeared for CET or NEET.
What it pays
₹10,000 to ₹75,000 per year, until the course is completed.
Directorate of Minorities scholarships and Vidyasiri
Directorate of Minorities, Karnataka
A wide programme: post-matric and merit-cum-means fee reimbursement, pre-matric scholarships, Vidyasiri food and accommodation allowance, hostels, a foreign-study scholarship, an incentive for students at the IITs, IIMs, IISc, NITs, AIIMS and National Law Universities, M.Phil and Ph.D. fellowships, and free IAS/KAS coaching.
Who can apply
Open to the six notified minority communities, which includes Jains.
These schemes are named on the Directorate's own site, so they exist. What we could not confirm is whether they are running this year: every dated notice we saw referred to 2023-24 or 2024-25. We are also not stating income ceilings or allowance amounts — the figures circulating elsewhere are not from an official page.
Low confidenceJains named on an official state page: Not found
The schemes are named on the official Developing Castes Welfare list, but every detail page we tried returned nothing — so we have names and no terms. Also worth knowing: no Gujarat government page we could find names Jains among the state's minorities. Jains qualify through the central 2014 notification; we simply could not find a Gujarat page saying so.
We could not confirmVerified 2026-08-14
Pre S.S.C., Post S.S.C. and Merit-cum-Means Scholarships for Minorities
Director, Developing Castes Welfare, Gujarat
Gujarat's named minority scholarships: a pre-SSC scholarship shared with SEBC and EBC students, a post-SSC scholarship for minority students, and a merit-cum-means scholarship for minority communities.
Who can apply
Official Gujarat pages say only "Minority" and do not name the communities. Jains qualify through the central 2014 notification; we could not find a Gujarat state page confirming it.
The scheme names are from the official list; every detail page we tried returned nothing. So we can tell you these schemes exist and we cannot tell you their income limits, amounts or dates — and we are not going to repeat the figures other sites print. Apply through Digital Gujarat and ask there. Note also that Gujarat has no standalone minority affairs department: minority welfare sits inside Social Justice and Empowerment.
Low confidenceJains named on an official state page: Not found
The Department of Minority Affairs and Waqf is live and actively maintained, with 2026 notices. But its scholarship link points straight at the National Scholarship Portal — which brings the headline finding above back into play. Hostels and residential schools are the part of Rajasthan's offer we could verify as current.
We could not confirmVerified 2026-08-14
Pre-Matric Scholarship for Minority Students
Directorate of Minority Affairs, Rajasthan
Pre-matric scholarship for minority school students. The nodal department is the Secondary Education Department, Bikaner.
Who can apply
Rajasthan is widely said to have recognised Jain minority status before 2014, but we could not confirm that from a Rajasthan government page. Rely on the central notification of 27 January 2014.
The department page describes it as Classes 1 to 10 — but the central pre-matric scheme was narrowed to Classes IX–X in 2022-23. Either the page is stale or this is a state variant; we could not tell which. Check current class eligibility before you build a plan around it.
Minority Hostels and Government Minority Residential Schools
Department of Minority Affairs and Waqf, Rajasthan
Boys' and girls' hostels and government minority residential schools, with admission advertised for the 2026-27 session.
Who can apply
Open to the six notified minority communities, which includes Jains.
This is the part of Rajasthan's offer we could verify as current — admission notices for the 2026-27 session are published, and the hostel mess allowance was raised from ₹2,500 to ₹3,000 a month by sanction order. Scholarships, by contrast, are routed to the National Scholarship Portal.
Low confidenceJains named on an official state page: Not found
The weakest of the five. Madhya Pradesh's minority post-matric scholarship is the central scheme administered by the state, not an independent state scheme — the official page says approval is done by the Central Government through the National Scholarship Portal. One official state page still lists only the five pre-2014 minority communities and omits Jains; that is almost certainly stale page text rather than policy, since the central 2014 notification governs, but no MP page naming Jains could be found.
Not currently listedVerified 2026-08-14
Minority Post-Matric Scholarship
Department of Backward Classes and Minorities Welfare, Madhya Pradesh
Post-matric scholarship for minority students in Madhya Pradesh.
Who can apply
One official Madhya Pradesh page still lists only the five pre-2014 minority communities and does not name Jains. That is almost certainly stale text rather than current policy — the central 2014 notification governs — but we could not find an MP page that names Jains.
The single most important thing to understand about Madhya Pradesh: this is the central Ministry of Minority Affairs scheme administered through the state, not an independent state scheme. The official district page says students apply through the National Scholarship Portal and "approval is done by the Central Government". So the finding at the top of this section applies here directly — do not go hunting for an MP portal that serves it.
The presence or absence of minority schemes on the national portal is checked monthly — that single fact is what this whole section rests on. Open scheme dates are checked monthly from May to November. The whole section is re-verified twice a year, in May before the June opening, and again in September.
