Madhya Pradesh cabinet approves ₹348.07 crore to give ₹600 uniform allowance via DBT to 5.8 million school students

Key facts

• The Madhya Pradesh cabinet approved ₹348.07 crore for the 2026-27 academic session to provide a uniform allowance of ₹600 each to 5.8 million students of Classes 1 to 8 in government schools via Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT).
• The decision was announced five months into the academic session after the state failed to float the tender for school uniforms on time; on July 16, the Madhya Pradesh high court had stayed the finalisation of a ₹350-crore tender.
• Since 2024, the state government has been directly transferring uniform money to parents' bank accounts; in 2018, then chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had given SHGs the work of stitching nearly 11 million uniforms under the State Rural Livelihood Mission.
• The council of ministers also decided to provide 20 percent horizontal reservation to Agniveers in uniformed services such as police constables, special armed forces, jail guards, forest guards, and excise constables.