PhD Scholars Protest At Azad Maidan Over Two-Year Fellowship Delay
Reduction in scholarships, halting fellowships, diverting the scholarship money to other projects, and not issuing them to the targeted students have become common things in India, as observed by the trends emerging on a day-to-day basis. Many fellowships given to minority, SC/ST students have been stopped, such as the Maulana Azad Fellowship. Even overseas fellowships intended for ST students were not disbursed, impacting their foreign visits.
Now, PhD scholars in Mumbai have taken to the streets to protest against the exorbitant delays in their fellowship releases. Students doing research in Agriculture have been demanding the timely release of their fellowships, as the financial stress is impacting their research process.
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One of the PhD scholars who secured rank 1 in the Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam research fellowship mentioned the ICAR research report, which says that investment in agriculture research can give 14 times in return, and questioned the lack of government interest in research spending despite knowing the outcomes of such investments. The output in research investment is even more than the DRDO and ISRO, he said.
In the last two years, the Maharashtra government has halted several fellowship programs, including SARTI, MAHA, JOTI, BARTI, and AMRUT organisations. Students are forced to invest their own money in their research.
Another protesting female student said that every step of the research requires some expenditure, starting from questionnaire preparation, travel, attending the conference, and doing practical research. Students are expected to spend their own money on the research, which goes beyond their financial limits.
Questions are being raised on the Maharashtra government outlook towards the research as Minister of Finance and Planning Ajit Pawar has once mocked the research and said, that what is the use of doing PhD during a discussion about extending benefits to Maratha students through Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj Research Training and Human Development Institute (SARTHI).
