Soon after the sharp cut in MPhil and PhD seats in Jawaharlal Nehru University which are to directly hit the students coming from a modest background as well as the current students of the university; JNU students allege that they’ve not received their fellowships since January 2017.
Considering that JNU is a residential campus with more than a dozen hostels, this sudden delay of a fund is not only putting students in an economic crisis but also some of them are not being able to pay their hostel or mess fees.
Students allege that some are not receiving their non-National Eligibility Test (NET) fellowship meant for the MPhil/PhD students and MCM (Merit-cum-Means) Scholarship meant for the BA/MA students who come from a financially unstable background.
A woman student doing her MPhil in Geography said she has not received her non-NET fellowship (Rs 5,000 per month) since January and is unable to pay her hostel mess bill. “My parents stay in Bihar, and my father has retired. I cannot take any money from home because I don’t want to become a burden on them. This amount greatly helped me, but since it’s stopped I haven’t paid my mess bill. I’m even buying newspapers, and getting books xeroxed on credit,” she said as per Indian Express reports.
However, it’s not just the research students. MA student Soumik, had applied for his MCM scholarship for the last semester (Rs 10,000 total) in February this year but is yet to receive it. “I should be among the first to be allotted money since I should get first semester’s scholarship before others get theirs for the second semester. But it hasn’t come. Back in Kolkata, I would buy books and manage travel expenses with the scholarship money. It’s very important for us,” he said.
On the situation, JNU Student’s Union President Mohit Pandey said the UGC had stopped funds because of “vendetta politics”.
“We already know that how due to myopic policy of UGC (where recruitment of teachers is the main problem) JNU has to face massive seat cut. Now fellowship cut is another blow to students. Many students are in the last months of writing their dissertations and thesis. Many have to leave for field work. But, due to some no fellowship they are facing serious hardships… Finance officer told us that there are some technical reasons due to which UGC stopped fellowship. We have also written to VC that he should take this matter seriously and pursue this matter with UGC in the capacity of both- UGC member and VC, but, we did not receive any communication from them,” he said.
