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Shiksha Ka Sikka Campaign

By Mumbai Students Solidarity

26 November, 2015
Countercurrents.org

Demand for increased fellowships to all research scholars and Solidarity to Occupy UGC protests

Keeping in mind the OccupyUGC movement has largely been continuing in New Delhi a result of the UGC head office being located there, with other towns and cities offering solidarity protests and agitations. We students of various campuses in Mumbai, as a follow up to the initial protest in University of Mumbai, are undertaking a symbolic campaign to register our continued support to the movement and protest the actions of UGC/ MHRD.

Skhiksha ka Sikka campaign is initiated by students in Mumbai from the University of Mumbai, International Institute of Population Sciences (IIPS), Indian Institute of Technology- Bombay(IIT-B), Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) and Tata Institute of Social Sciences(TISS) and other colleges and Universities. Each student will send a one rupee coin-wrapped, sealed, in protest to the MHRD. This is to remind them of the source of all government revenue, as well as towards its responsibility for providing education to all. This is also intended as a satirical critique of the argument that there is a lack of financial resources to provide the fellowships.

The campaign will be publicised through creative songs, theatre, and protests which will be performed across public places in Mumbai. Social media campaigning shall also be done. Campaign organizers will carry postcards with them and urge the people to donate one rupee to the UGC, which will be then posted.

The Context

The recent decision of UGC to scrap the non-NET fellowship for research scholars from the next academic year (510th Meeting Minutes, UGC) is an important step in further making higher education increasingly inaccessible for large number of students in the country. Although the fellowship amount is not sufficient, it had been a necessary subsistence for large number of students in central universities who use it for travel expenses to field sites, purchasing of books/ materials, arranging for accommodation and food where there are no free facilities. This decision is going to affect a huge number of students, especially those who are coming from socially and economically marginalised backgrounds and will make higher education in India more exclusionary. This is against the mandate of the UGC to make education inclusive for a diverse section of students and will also impact the quality of research in the country. Many women are dependent on this fellowship amount to continue their education and to fight the pressure of marriage by negotiating with their family.

After protests by students across the country and solidarity statements from various students’ and teachers’ groups, the MHRD, after an arbitrary meeting with a right-wing student group affiliated to the ruling dispensation but ignoring the other students group who were raising the issue. They then released a statement reversing the discontinuation of the fellowship. It has since decided to constitute a Review Committee for looking into the fellowship with the condition that “merit and economic criteria” will be used to avail it. This is against the principle of a fellowship being provided to all registered students in Central, State and deemed universities. Though the committee guideline mentions about bringing the State Universities under the purview of the fellowship, the above criteria dilutes the meaning of this fellowship as it will then only be given to a select few.

The above decision of UGC to scrap the non-NET fellowship and putting of conditions on it later on by MHRD have been taken at a time when there is a threat of affirmative action being challenged by judiciary on “merit” grounds and several other political groups. It was only after the Mandal Commission recommendations were implemented that the students from Other Backward Classes (OBCs) have minimally accessed the exclusionary spaces of higher education in the country. Studies have found the representation of SCs, STs and OBCs in higher education institutions still remains below their population.

It is but ironic that the Review Committee will come out with its report in December 2015, almost coinciding with the WTO-GATS summit in Nairobi seeking to make education a trade-able service (with lesser provisioning by govt) and when the new National Policy on Education is to be formally drafted. This is a clear indication of the danger of the Central Government withdrawing from its responsibility of providing accessible higher education to all sections of society, especially Dalits, Adivasis, OBCs, religious minorities and women. More than 40 years after the initial recommendation in National Policy of Education (NPE 1968) and reaffirmation in NPE 1986 (amended in 1990), there is still no political will to raise educational spending to minimum 6% of GDP.

Specific Issues of colleges in Mumbai

In IIT-B, undergraduate and postgraduate students (in B.Tech, M.Tech, MSc programs) are also in need of monthly fellowship like their research scholar counterparts in the institute which is a financial necessity for the students in higher education there.
In Mumbai University (a State University), not all research scholars are covered currently in non-NET fellowships. Additionally, out of station students have to seek accommodation outside campus and travel long distances without adequate financial support. For the few students who get the fellowship there are procedural delays in release of funds.

At Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), the MPhil and PhD students are still given Rs.3000 per month as a subsistence allowance, one of the lowest fellowships given. In January 2014, a UGC circular (F. No. 6-3/2013) addressed to TISS said that there would be an increase in this fellowship for TISS. But, recently in reply to an RTI filed by a PhD scholar, the UGC held that this increased amount will only be disbursed when it receives fund for this scheme from the MHRD. Thus, there has been no increase in the fellowship amount in the institute which is a financial strain on research scholars many of whom have to stay outside the campus as there are insufficient hostel facilities.

Our Demands

• We demand that the fellowship be RESTORED, INCREASED and EXPANDED to all students in Higher Education and research scholars registered in Central, State and Deemed University without conditions of “merit” or any other criteria.

• Increase number of fellowships for existing schemes like JRF, RGNF, MANF etc and ensure timely distribution of the same.

• We demand that affirmative action policies be implemented in higher education, and it be extended regardless of the management of colleges in the true spirit of the constitution for making higher education truly inclusive.

• We demand that the Government of India DO NOT sign the WTO-GATS agreement to make education a tradable service.

• We demand the government to include higher education as a fundamental right in the country.

• We extend our solidarity to OCCUPY UGC movement

Mumbai Students Solidarity

Mumbai Students Solidarity is a collective of Research Scholars and Students of University of Mumbai, International Institute of Population Sciences (IIPS), Indian Institute of Technology- Bombay(IIT-B), Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) and Tata Institute of Social Sciences(TISS) and other colleges and Universities in Mumbai and different students organisations.

Contact: Ajmal#7666842809, Ashika#9920627541, Suvarna#9004694838, Avinash#9594668177, Rossi#9029385482


 



 

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