A tweet shared by the Ministry of Minority Affairs (MoMA) on Thursday, February 2, bore good news for the research scholars availing the Maulana Azad National Fellowship (MANF), as it informed that the rate of the fellowship has been revised and is in tandem with the University Grants Commission's (UGC) prescribed norms.
"Pleased to inform that Ministry of Minority Affairs, GoI has revised the rate of MANF scheme at par with Department of Science & Technology and Ministry of Education in consonance with UGC Norms w.e.f. 01.01.2023," read the tweet shared by @MOMAIndia on social media platform X.
Previously, the fellowship rate for the MANF beneficiaries was Rs 31,000 for Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) and 35,000 for Senior Research Fellowship (SRF) but with the initiation of the revised scheme, beneficiaries of the MANF scholarship now will receive Rs 37,000 for JRF and Rs 42,000 for SRF respectively.
Is it the end of the struggle?
On October 19, 2023, EdexLive published a report after conversing with students availing the MANF scholarship. The students pursuing their PhD from various colleges of the country expressed their disappointment with the prolonged discrimination meted out to them, as they said that the other fellowship schemes were hiked as per the orders of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the UGC, but MANF had received no hike as such, given that it was clearly delineated that these fellowships will be at par with the UGC fellowship.
Issues still unresolved
Although this was a major issue that has been resolved by the MoMA, another problem hounds these students — the regular disbursement of stipends. When EdexLive reached out to the research scholars for an update, we were informed that they hadn't received their monthly stipends for the last five months, and are still waiting for it.
"Yes the announcement definitely is good news, but the message is posted via X and there has been no notification as of yet. Also, we have not received our stipends for the past five months," said Sani Prince Sarkar, a PhD Scholar from Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). Another student Ruksana Sirach, from Sardar Patel University, Gujarat iterated the same, that she too has not received any stipend as of now.
The official website of the Maulana Azad National Fellowship Scheme (www.nmdfc.org/MANFscheme) relays a few details pertaining to the outlay of funds and mentions that an amount worth Rs 25.34 crore for October to December 2022 and January 2023 has been released.
"National Minorities Development & Finance Corporation has released the fellowship stipend of ₹25.34 Crs to approximately 2000 scholars pursuing Ph.D./M.Phil. for the months of October, November, December 2022, and January 2023 under the Maulana Azad National Fellowship (MANF) Scheme of the Ministry of Minority Affairs," states the information bulletin of the website.
It also mentions that the fellowship amount has been released for payment requests up to January 2023, and not after that. There has been no such update of further monetary allotment to the MANF scheme on the website.
Previously, the All India Research Scholars Association (AIRSA) had put forth their demands for fair and equitable fellowship rates, revision of the fellowship and expedition of the release of the funds, and a proper timely addressal of the issue. Due to a vigorous campaign led by students on X with the hashtag #HikeInMANFtoo
