Reduction In SC, Minority Fellowships Over 5 Years: Rajya Sabha
Student Struggle Editorial Team
An alarming status of reduction of the number of UGC fellowships has been brought to light following the intervention of Dr. V Sivadasan MP of Communist Party of India (Marxist) in the Rajya Sabha who is also the former president of the Students’ Federation of India. The central government has informed the parliament that the number of research scholars receiving different UGC fellowships have been decreased drastically in the recent years. The Ministry of Education’s Department of Higher Education placed this data in the Rajya Sabha on February 2 while replying to the unstarred question No. 24 by Sivadasan. The Minister of State for Education, Dr. Subhas Sarkar answered the question. The reduction in the number of beneficiaries poses a serious question on the social justice and inclusive character, which are already under attack by the BJP led NDA government, in the sector of higher education. Many of these fellowships were started to support and encourage students from marginalised sections to pursue higher education and research.
There is a huge decrease in the National fellowship for the students belonging to the scheduled castes. It came down to 3986, in 2020-21, from 9503 students receiving the same scholarship in 2016-17. This decline amounts to around 58 % in four years. In a similar manner, there is a huge decrease in the Maulana Azad National Fellowship for Minority Students formulated and funded by Ministry of Minority Affairs. The number of beneficiaries came down to 2348, in 2020-21, from 4141 students receiving the same scholarship in 2016-17. This decline amounts to around 43 % in four years. The number of post doctoral fellowships for SC/ST students has been declined to 332 from 554 between 2016-17 and 2020-21. During the same period, the number of receivers of the post doctoral fellowship for women was reduced to 434 from 642. Dr. S Radhakrishnan post doctoral fellowship in humanities has been reduced to 14 from 559 between 2016 to 2020. The beneficiaries for Teacher Centric schemes have come down by 76% and only 14 students were granted the UGC emeritus fellowship in 2020-21 while the number was 559 four years ago. The Basic Science Research Fellowship has a decline of 83% in its beneficiaries.
The Central Executive Committee (CEC of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) in their statement has said that this is being done in a coward manner without any official termination. They further state that, this injustice is carried out by the central government while thousands of students are already being forced to drop out from research and higher studies due to the lack of institutional support. The slow murder of fellowships will further intensify the exclusionary nature in the arena of higher education in India. The government is also trying to retreat from its duty of proving scholarships for Research and Development by inviting private actors to perform the function.
The last couple of years has witnessed drastic fee hikes at various central universities and protesting students were suspended in campuses like the PU. Furthermore NTA failed to conduct NET-JRF exams for three sessions over the last couple of years and the decrease in the number of fellowships owes itself to this factor.
SFI in their response has demanded the central government to immediately increase allocation for fellowships and ensure more students are granted with the institutional support every year, rather than reducing the number number and also to introduce more fellowships for the students of marginalised sections and strict actions to ensure social justice and inclusiveness in the higher education.
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