₹20,000 a Year for Girls in BA, BCom, BSc: Shiksha Shakti Scholarship Closes October 31

First-year girl students doing BA, BCom, BSc, BBA or BCA can get Rs 20,000 a year under the Shiksha Shakti scholarship 2026-27, run by the Swami Dayanand Education Foundation. The last date to apply is October 31, 2026, so students have 21 days left to finish the form.

Most private scholarships in India chase the engineering and medical crowd. They ask for a JEE rank or a NEET score. A girl who has just joined a plain BA, BCom or BSc course usually finds that those schemes are either not open to her course or were never designed for her. Shiksha Shakti, which means the power of education, was built for exactly these students. The foundation awards 200 of these scholarships across India every year.

What you get: Rs 20,000 a year, till your degree ends

The award is simple. Every selected student gets Rs 20,000 per academic year. There are no rank-based slabs, so you do not need to guess which band you fall into. The scholarship can be renewed each year for the full length of the course. That means Rs 60,000 over a three-year degree, and up to Rs 1,00,000 if you are in a five-year integrated programme.

“The scholarship can be renewed each year for the full length of your degree, based on continued eligibility and academic performance.”

Renewal is not automatic. The foundation says it will review your academic record and continued eligibility before releasing the next year’s amount.

Who can apply: check these conditions first

You must meet every condition below. Missing even one makes the application invalid.

• You must be a girl student enrolled as a first-year, full-time undergraduate student in an approved non-technical course for 2026-27.
• You must have scored at least 80% marks or the equivalent CGPA in the Class 12 board examination.
• Your total annual family income from all sources must be Rs 12,00,000 or less.
• You must not have taken a drop year or gap year after Class 12. This is a hard rule.
• You must provide complete and correct information with all the supporting documents.

There is no entrance exam of any kind, and no national rank to quote. That is the biggest difference from the foundation’s other big scheme, the SDEF India Scholarship, which needs JEE or NEET ranks.

The course list is wider than it looks

The word “non-technical” covers more than plain BA and BCom. The foundation’s approved list includes B.Sc (Physics, Chemistry, Botany, Zoology, Maths and similar streams), BBA, BCA, journalism and mass communication (BJMC/BA JMC), hotel management (BHM), and the integrated law degrees BA LLB and BBA LLB.

This matters. BCA, BBA, BJMC and BHM students often fall between the cracks. They are too professional for arts scholarships and not technical enough for engineering ones. Shiksha Shakti accepts them.

How to apply before October 31

Applications opened on September 5, 2026 and close on October 31, 2026. The form is online only. Apply through the official Shiksha Shakti scholarship page, where the foundation has also put up its timeline: notifications go out in mid-November 2026, and funding for selected students begins in January 2027.

Here is the order to follow so nothing goes wrong at the last minute.

• Read the eligibility page on the official portal and confirm your course is in the approved list.
• Keep your documents ready: Class 10 and Class 12 marksheets, Aadhaar, admission proof, fee receipt, family income proof and a bank passbook.
• Download the SDEF Scholar Pledge, print it, sign it and scan it. This is the one item you cannot arrange in five minutes.
• Fill the online form in one go, double-check every number, and submit before the deadline. Do not wait for the last evening.

The foundation looks at academic achievement, financial need, family circumstances and the authenticity of the application when it picks the 200 scholars.

If this one does not fit you, October is a busy month for scholarships. Most schemes on the National Scholarship Portal also shut on October 31, so check our scholarship alerts section for options with the same deadline.