Research scholars from across various institutes in India pose two prominent questions: If we are constantly worried about our financial situation how shall we focus on our research? If we have to protest every time for our demands and waste six to seven months on it before the government listens to us, then where is the time to research?
Delays and more delays
Why these questions? It has been years since and these scholars continue to worry about the disbursement of their fellowships. On average, the researchers have to wait for four to five months before they receive their fellowship amount. “The situation was bad as it was, but it worsened after the COVID-19 lockdowns,” said Mandeep Singh, Vice-President of AIRSA (All India Research Scholars Association) and a PhD scholar from NPL (National Physics Laboratory), Delhi.
Mandeep informs that fellowships, like the Post-Doctoral Fellowship, have not been provided at all after COVID-19, and no selection process has been initiated for fellowships under the Women Scientist Scholarship Scheme (WOS-A). This is unfair, he says and adds, “This is one of the primary reasons for brain drain. Countries like China, Japan and Korea have hiked the post-doctoral fellowship amount and the amount is provided regularly, hence scholars are attracted.”
He additionally informed that the UGC fellows receive their funds after a delay of two to three months, while the delay is much more for other fellows. The documentation process is very lengthy and tedious. Every fellow has to submit the documents regarding their financial status and other details before the 10th of every month to the respective university, government department as well as the respective labs they are working for. Then the departments take a month to send the funds to the bank accounts.
“It takes another month for us to generate a cheque. The officials themselves admit that the process causes delay, but they take no steps to improve it. The time we get for research is wasted in documentation work,” Mandeep said. “And if fellows are unable to submit the documents before the 10th, the delay extends up to five to six months for them,” he added. This affects the mental well-being of the scholars, he stated.
A few Good Samaritans
Somoshree Sengupta, a Post-Doctoral scholar from IICB (Indian Institute of Chemical Biology), Kolkata shared that when she approached the officials, they told her that the responsibility of disbursing the funds was being transferred from IISc (Indian Institute of Science) Bangalore to RCB (Regional Centre for Biotechnology) Ghaziabad. “If indeed this is the reason for the delay, they should have set up some backup mechanism for the disbursement,” she said.
“When a fellow scholar and I approached our Director with our problems, he arranged the funds for three to four months out of kindness. But this is no permanent solution,” she added. She informed that several scholars were facing issues trying to find a balance between maintaining their families and focussing on research due to this delay. “The government expects us to submit a research paper every year. But how can we do so without any funds? We cannot survive for months without any money!” she exclaimed.
Four years are up
AIRSA has sent several letters and representations to the PMO (Prime Minister’s Office) as well as to the individual government departments and secretaries in charge of disbursing the scholarship funds. Apart from demanding regularisation of fund disbursement, they have also demanded that the fellowship amount be hiked every four years. They also asked that they should be granted proper infrastructure for research and a strain-free work environment in which students can focus on their research work and not monetary issues.
“The government is not taking our issue seriously,” said AIRSA President and Post-Doctoral scholar Lal Chandra Vishwakarma. He informed that the scholars have had to resort to protesting for hiking their scholarship every four years. They did so in 2014 and in 2018 and only after that, did the government hike their scholarship.
“Now that four years have elapsed, this year, if the government does not listen to us, we will have no other option but to protest again. However, we don’t want to waste our time on such activities,” Mandeep said.
He states that on top of the reluctance to hike the fellowship amount, the government does not cease to hike the course fees in colleges. “Last year in Delhi Technical University, all of a sudden, the scholars were served with a notice that they won’t be receiving their fellowships anymore. They protested. IIT Bombay students were on strike due to fee hike,” Mandeep said.
The UGC (University Grants Commission), ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research), CSIR (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research), DBT (Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology), DST (Department of Science & Technology) and the department of Research and Development are some of the agencies which disburse the research fellowship funds.
