On 30 January, the Department of Science and Technology announced a revision in the fellowship for Junior Research Fellow (JRF) and Senior Research Fellow (SRF) to Rs 31,000 and Rs 35,000 respectively from Rs 25,000 and Rs 28,000. The MHRD minister called it as a “major gift to researchers” from the Narendra Modi government.
Research scholars however, have had a different reaction to the hike. The last fellowship revision was made in October 2014 after which there was massive hike in tuition fee. In Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER) around the country, the fees has increased by 276 percent since 2014, and in IIT Delhi the fees has been doubled for postgraduate and research courses as well.
The current proposed hike in stipend, at 24 percent, is the lowest since 2006. Data collated from government reports show that there was a hike of 60% in 2006, followed by 50% in 2007, 33% in 2010 and 56% in 2014. Ironically, then, this ‘hike’ has been a decrement in percentage when compared with previous years.
Scholars across the country were demanding 80 percent hike in fellowship since April 2018. They have resorted to different forms of campaigning – like drafting letters to the ministry and science bureaucrats, starting signature campaigns, and organising protest marches, lab boycotts, hunger strike, etc.
Over 700 research scholars also faced arrest on 17 January while protesting in front of MHRD, New Delhi. These concerns echoed at the IIT Madras campus, and research scholars organised a protest to express their dissatisfaction on the same evening of the announcement. They gathered in the Himalaya lawns and categorically rejected the office memorandum by burning it. Scholars have decided to continue their protest until the original demands are met.
Given that there was a hike after four years, the general sentiment in IIT Madras is that 24 percent is very less of a percentage hike. In this duration, there has been a 42.5% increase in academic fee and 32% in hostel fee – students themselves are witness. They also share the concern that the tuition fee will shoot up as the government is trying to privatized the institute through its various schemes and ‘Institute of Eminence’ tag in the name of financial autonomy.
