Minority, SC scholars in crisis as fellowship money delayed, slashed

After his post-graduation, monetary compulsions forced Sani Prince to find work at a private college in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh. His dream, however, was to pursue academics.

When he became eligible for the Maulana Azad National Fellowship (MANF), Prince heaved a sigh of relief and left his Rs 35,000-per-month employment to enrol in a PhD programme at the Department of Education in Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). Now, six months since he last got his fellowship money, Prince can’t help but regret his decision.

“I’m from West Bengal, and I’m staying here for a rent of Rs 8,000 per month. I haven’t been able to pay my rent since January. There is tremendous pressure from my landlord to vacate the house. My father is due for surgery, but even that has been put on hold because I have not received my fellowship money after December. We have petitioned every possible authority, but nothing has changed,” he told The Federal.

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Prince is one of the hundreds of research scholars across the country facing the brunt of government apathy with regard to fellowships, especially towards minority students.

Allocation slashed

In this year’s budget, the government also cut allocations to several minority educational schemes. For example, the National Fellowship for ST students saw a cut from Rs 240 crore in the 2024 revised estimates (RE) to a meagre Rs 0.02 crore in the 2025 budget estimates (BE). MANF saw a drop from Rs 45.08 crore in 2024 RE to Rs 42.84 crore in 2025 BE.

Last year, National Fellowship for Other Backward Classes (NFOBC) scholars went unpaid for over nine months, and MANF recipients now face a similar delay. NFSC awardees are also impacted, as the number of beneficiaries has been reduced.

Started in 2009, MANF is “to provide five-year fellowships in the form of financial assistance to students from six notified minority communities viz Buddhist, Christian, Jain, Muslim, Parsi and Sikh, notified by the Central Government, to pursue MPhil and PhD”. It covers all the educational institutions recognised by the University Grants Commission (UGC).

In 2022, the government decided to discontinue the fellowship, stating concerns that it was overlapping with other fellowships. However, it was decided that the enrolled awardees would continue to receive their fellowship. For Junior Research Fellows (JRF) the amount is Rs 37,000 per month exclusive of House Rent Allowance (HRA), whereas for Senior Research Fellows (SRF), it is Rs 42,000 per month plus HRA.

Nowhere to go

“We feel completely trapped with nowhere to turn,” said Abu Sufiyan, a student at the Centre for Arabic and African Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). “Without this fellowship, I wouldn’t have pursued research. We even declined MNC job offers to focus on our studies. Thankfully, I have a hostel room, but affording the mess bill and other PhD expenses is a real struggle. It’s painful; no one is listening to us or offering any clarity.”

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SC students who were eligible for the NFSC have been fighting their own battles since May. In March, the NSFDC (National Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Corporation) published a list of 865 students who were eligible for the fellowship. The list was provided by the National Testing Agency (NTA) of the candidates selected from the UGC-NET (National Eligibility Test) exam of 2024.

“I saw the original list and my name was missing despite scoring 140, when the cut-off for my subject was 138. There were around 45-50 students who didn’t appear in the first list. So, we took it up with the NSFDC and the NTA. But on May 2, a revised list was put up, which reduced the awardees from 865 to 805. Sixty students who were on the earlier list were dropped, and we didn’t make it either because they increased the cut-off. We have approached the NSFDC, NTA, and various ministries, but there has been no resolution,” said Premnath Edhigalla from the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh.

Opportunity missed

Parika Rathod, a history student from Sardar Patel University in Anand, Gujarat, was among those whose names were dropped from the second list. Due to this, she missed out on another fellowship opportunity.

“I had cleared the written exam for the ICHR (Indian Council of Historical Research) fellowship, when the NFSC list came out. We cannot get both fellowships and since I made it to the list for the NFSC fellowship, which was higher in sum as compared to the ICHR fellowship of Rs 17,000 per month, I did not even sit for the interview for ICHR. Now I have no fellowship,” she said.

J Santhoshsivan, a former student of the University of Madras, was also dropped from the list. Forced to quash his dreams of pursuing a PhD in Tamil literature, he has now taken up a job due to financial compulsions.

No corrective measures

“It was always my dream to study at JNU, to immerse myself in the freedom of thought I’ve never experienced,” he told The Federal. “But with my father retired and no one else earning, losing this fellowship left me no choice but to take an 11-month teaching-assistant job. I have no idea what comes after that. Dalit students already face immense hurdles in higher education; now even our fellowships are being taken away.”

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Several student organisations, including the JNU Students’ Union, the All India Research Scholars’ Association, and the Indian Research Scholars’ Association, have approached the government over the continuing issues. However, no corrective measure had been taken so far, they said. UGC interim chairperson and Secretary, Department of Higher Education, Vineet Joshi, did not respond to queries by The Federal.