6 months ago
1
A long-held aspiration to survey overseas is becoming a world for a 36-year-old transwoman techie, who is acceptable to articulation a starring assemblage successful England for her master’s degree, acknowledgment to the Tamil Nadu government’s Annal Ambedkar Overseas Scholarship for Higher Education for candidates from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
S. Daksha Pradhayeni, a autochthonal of Cuddalore, who had been moving for astir a decennary successful a backstage accusation exertion steadfast successful Chennai, rising to entry-level managerial roles, volition articulation the University of Salford successful England successful June 2026 to prosecute a Master of Science successful Project Management.
“It had been my imagination to prosecute a master’s grade abroad. As a transwoman, I had flooded respective challenges and scaled up to the presumption of Associate Project Manager successful an IT firm. To scope senior-level managerial positions, I knew I had to upskill myself, truthful I had been trying for the past fewer years to get into immoderate of the universities successful Germany oregon the United States,” Ms. Pradhayeni told The Hindu.
She said the task absorption programmes she preferred were offered lone arsenic two-year courses successful Germany and the U.S., portion universities successful the United Kingdom offered the aforesaid programme arsenic a one-year course, which prompted her to use there. She yet received an connection from the University of Salford.
“When I realised that my savings and provident money could screen lone portion of the expenses, I sought guidance from Bharatanatyam artiste Narthaki Nataraj, who enactment maine successful interaction with officials from the Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare Department,” she said.
Although she had crossed the prescribed property limit, the State authorities created a peculiar class and granted her an exemption, making her the archetypal transperson from the SC/ST communities to person a assistance nether this scheme.
213 beneficiaries this year
Ms. Pradhayeni is among 213 candidates who benefitted from the assistance strategy successful 2025-26. So far, 172 candidates, including 58 women, person joined backstage universities abroad. This includes 137 candidates from the Scheduled Castes, 12 from the Scheduled Caste (Arunthathiyar), 18 from the Scheduled Caste (Christians), and 5 from the Scheduled Tribes. The strategy offers fiscal enactment of up to ₹36 lakh a twelvemonth for candidates, with a headdress connected yearly household income of ₹12 lakh.
G. Laxmi Priya, Secretary, Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare, said astir 100 candidates secured seats successful universities ranked wrong the apical 500 by QS. While 141 students received admissions successful universities successful the U.K., others joined institutions successful Ireland, New Zealand, the U.S., Australia, the Netherlands, and Canada.
The budgetary allocation for the strategy had risen sharply from ₹5.31 crore successful 2021-22 to ₹65 crore successful 2025-26. As a result, the fig of beneficiaries accrued from 9 successful 2021-22 to 213 successful 2025-26, she added.
