New Delhi: In February 2022, when Abu Sufyan learnt that he’d been selected for the Maulana Azad National Fellowship (MANF), he thought his living and educational expenses for the next five years — the duration of the fellowship — had been taken care of.
A year on, Sufyan — a first-generation learner from Bihar and PhD scholar at Jawaharlal Nehru University’s School of Languages — owes over Rs 1.5 lakh in debt to friends, has six months of mess (hostel) charges due and is racking his brains to figure out how to meet his expenses. His father is ailing and he has a younger brother who still needs financial support from the family.
MANF is one of several government scholarship programmes for minority students that now stand scrapped.
“I was assured when I saw a statement from the finance minister that the existing fellowships would continue, but the truth is that none of us has received the money since September last year and I have practically run out of friends to borrow money from,” Sufyan told ThePrint.
He added: “My mess charges for the past six months need to be paid at the latest by 15 March and I do not know where I will get the money from. Many people are facing the same quandary.”
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said in December last year that minority students who had been chosen for the fellowship till March 2022 would continue to receive it till the end of the tenure.
It was during the Winter Session of Parliament last year that minority affairs minister Smriti Irani had told the Lok Sabha that MANF had been discontinued from the 2022-23 academic session as it “overlaps with various other fellowship schemes for higher education being implemented by the government and minority students are already covered under such schemes”.
Under MANF, a minority student pursuing higher education was eligible to receive a sum of Rs 31,000 per month in addition to a periodic contingency amount and house rent allowance, provided the person was not a resident of a government hostel.
“It was similar to the JRF (Junior Research Fellowship) and came in very useful for people who had missed the JRF by just a few marks,” Sufyan explained. The JRF is a UGC scheme to support PhD scholars.
Following Irani’s announcement in Parliament, a notice on the website of the ministry said that pre-matric scholarships, too, would be discontinued for junior classes as they already stand to be covered under other laws.
“The Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009 makes it obligatory for the government to provide free and compulsory elementary education (classes I to VIII) to each and every child. Accordingly, only students studying in classes IX and X are covered under the Pre-Matric Scholarship Scheme of Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment and Ministry of Tribal Affairs. Likewise from 2022-23, the coverage under the Pre-Matric Scholarship Scheme of Ministry of Minority Affairs shall also be for classes IX and X only,” it said.
Academicians fear, however, that the scholarships being scrapped could lead to an increase in dropout rates at least in the short term.
The discontinuation of minority scholarships has also caused much consternation among Opposition parties, especially since the 2023 Budget, because the documents showed reduced allocations for scholarships. The ministry of minority affairs’ budget had been slashed by 38 per cent.
A former NDA minister for minority affairs who ThePrint reached via telephone declined to comment on the matter.
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‘Dropout rates will go up’
“I have full faith that there will be some alternatives to these schemes which were meant to support people from financially and economically weaker sections irrespective of religion. In the interim it is inevitable that dropout rates may go up,” said professor Najma Akhtar, vice chancellor, Jamia Millia Islamia (Central University).
She added: “It is our responsibility as a society to keep these kids in school. I do not know what the reasons were for this decision.”.
Academicians also pointed out that there was likely to be a gap period even after the alternatives come before people become aware about them.
Their fear is the story of 14-year-old Musib Ahmad Ashrafi’s life.
Ashrafi had been receiving the pre-matric scholarship. But as he filed a fresh application when he reached class VIII, it got rejected.
“I lost my father some years back. Another brother is in school and the eldest does odd jobs to support the family. If I do not get the scholarship I will have to stop studying,” said the Purnea resident.
He is, however, in a better place than younger students since he will become eligible for a scholarship if he can manage to reach class IX.
“Several young children in my family had applied for the (pre-matric) scholarship and got rejected. The issue is much more severe for younger children because they have to wait several years before they become eligible and (it) hurts the poor. The elite does not need this kind of support,” said Abdul Ghani, a resident of Araria.
Ghani added: “Even government school students need some expenses. (The) government does not pay for copies (exercise books) or conveyance charges. The logic that RTE meets the requirements is fallacious.”
Responding to Irani’s Parliament announcement, Congress leader P. Chidambaram had tweeted: “The government’s excuse for scrapping the Maulana Azad National Fellowship and the subsidy for education loans to study abroad to minority students is grossly irrational and arbitrary.”
The Government's excuse for scrapping the Maulana Azad National Fellowship and the subsidy for education loans to study abroad to minority students is grossly irrational and arbitrary.
— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) February 4, 2023
The scheme to study abroad that the former finance minister was referring to is the Pado Pardesh, a scheme that was launched by the Modi government in 2014 when Najma Heptulla was minority affairs minister. Under the scheme, the government provided an interest subsidy for minority students who wanted to travel abroad.
Similar voices have come from within the BJP too, with member of Parliament Pritam Munde demanding a rollback of the decision.
However last week, while replying to another question on the matter in Parliament, Irani also said that there was no plan to restore the scrapped scholarship programmes.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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