New Delhi, Jan 21 (PTI) Junaid (named changed), a PhD scholar in Jamia Millia Islamia, was forced to sell his wife’s gold to pay his house rent since the stipend of Maulana Azad National Fellowship (MANF) was pending for over a year that pushed him into a debt trap.
Junaid is among the 103 scholars pursuing research in universities in the national capital under the fellowship grant from MANF meant for minority students. Many of these students are facing difficulties in managing monthly expenses due to this delay.
“I took a loan of Rs 15,000 from a friend to pay the rent, hoping that my fellowship would come by December 2022. After 15 months, I am still waiting for the amount to be disbursed. My wife had to sell her jewellery to pay back the loan,” Junaid told PTI.
His stipend has not come since November 2022. Being the eldest child of a single mother, he is juggling between family responsibilities and his dream to pursue research.
Abdul Nasir, who is a beneficiary of the last batch of MANF at Delhi University (2022-27), continues to battle with irregular stipends even after winning a case in the Delhi High Court.
The first-generation scholar from a farmers’ family, Nasir had moved the court over the grant of fellowship to a candidate who scored fewer marks than him. The court in May 2022 ruled in his favour.
He had to shift to a paying guest facility and send his spouse back to his hometown in Bihar to cut down on expenses.
“Despite the ruling, I have not received nearly four months’ stipend pending since September 2023 and HRA for the last one year. I am burdened with debt because of the delay in the disbursement of fellowship,” he said.
MANF provides financial assistance to research scholars from minority communities which include Christians, Buddhists, Sikhs, Parsi and Muslims.
The fellowship was discontinued by the Centre in December 2022 stating that it overlaps with other similar schemes. However, the existing beneficiaries of the scheme till February 2022 are supposed to get the stipend amount for five years under the fellowship.
The MANF Junior Research Fellows (JRF) get Rs 31,000 per month and Senior Research Fellows (SRF) Rs 35,000 per month. JRF and SRF stipends were last revised in 2019.
The amount should have been revised to Rs 37,000 and Rs 42,000, respectively as per the UGC hike implemented across other fellowships for higher education, the scholars said.
In a letter to Union Minister for Minority Affairs Smriti Irani, Lok Sabha member TN Prathapan requested to hike the MANF fellowship and disburse the stipend without delay.
“It has come to my notice that many fellowships such as UGC, JRF, NFOBC and NFST/SC have witnessed an increase in financial allocations. The Maulana Azad National Fellowship seems to have been overlooked in this regard,” the letter dated December 23 said, urging her to take necessary action.
An email sent to the Ministry of Minority Affairs and National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation (NMDFC), the body responsible for the release of the MANF funds, did not elicit a response.
Scholars from 30 universities across the country also claimed to have written to the Minority Affairs Ministry — the nodal agency for distribution of MANF and NMDFC – requesting to increase the fellowship amount and disburse it timely on a monthly basis.
The president of NSUI in Jamia Millia Islamia, NS Abdul Hameed, said he was forced to extend his PhD degree by two years because of a dearth of money. Due to the delay in payment of the scholarship, he is not able to concentrate on his studies. His studies have also suffered because he is finding it difficult to carry out fieldwork and arrange for books.
Sajid Imaandar is another MANF beneficiary at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) struggling to make ends meet while keeping his passion for research alive. He has four months of mess fees pending because of irregular disbursement of stipend.
The scholars said they are caught in a debt trap as they are forced to manage their daily expenses by borrowing money from friends.
Worries of passing another month trouble these students.
Delhi has a total of 103 MANF beneficiaries across the central universities, according to the government data presented in Parliament. The figure is around 1,500 across the country.
Many of these students complain that the fellowship amount has increased for all other scholarships, except theirs. This has impacted them and they feel demotivated, they said. PTI SJJ KSS KSS NSD NSD
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