Beg, borrow, work: How scholarship delays are impacting students
The pandemic has only increased disbursal delays, forcing research scholars and students to turn to kin for loans or do small-time jobs
Ketaki Desai, Manimugdha S Sharma & Ardhra Nair | TNN
15.11.2020
Kamalakar Shete, an MCom student from Ahmednagar, has been calling the social welfare department twice a week for months now. Eligible for the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Swadhar Yojana applicable to SC students, he is yet to receive the scholarship worth Rs 51,000 for the 2019-20 academic year. “I am already done with my final-year examinations but the scholarship amount is yet to come. The department says they have no funds due to the pandemic but not a year has passed when the scholarship amount was ever disbursed on time. It would always come after the academic year had ended,” says Shete, adding that he finds it difficult to keep asking his parents for money as they survive on farming a small one-acre plot with an annual income of about Rs 50,000.
Scholarship delays, both at the central and state levels, have become a regular feature of student life for many. Recently, Lady Shri Ram College for Women student Aishwarya Reddy died by suicide saying she didn’t want to burden her parents with educational expenses. Reddy was eligible for INSPIRE scholarship money but did not get it as, according to the department for science and technology, it had not received the requisite paperwork which, they say, is a simple process of submitting three documents.
Some students disagree. Vijay got an email this summer with an offer letter from the INSPIRE scholarship. A Delhi University student he says, “They ask for bank details. I have a minor account and when I uploaded those details, they asked for a joint account. When I uploaded the details for a joint account, they asked for a minor account. I have sent countless emails and always get the same response to change to the other type of account.” Another student who qualified for the scholarship this summer, Rinku, says the process of getting his marksheet attested in his college has been a painful process. “I live 100km away in Haryana, yet they keep asking me to come another day, delaying the process,” the 18-year-old says.
Scholarship issues predate the pandemic, according to many students and activist groups. Swati Moitra, now an assistant professor in a college in Kolkata, faced the same issues a decade ago as a research scholar in JNU. “I was a junior research fellow and the payments were regularly delayed by 5-6 months,” says Moitra, who eventually gave up the fellowship when she got a job at Delhi University because of the consistent delays.
TEDIOUS APPLICATION PROCESS
Getting scholarship money is not easy. Former JNUSU president and current AISA national president N Sai Balaji last received his JRF scholarship in August 2019. He hasn’t got it as he hasn’t been able to get his thesis synopsis cleared because of the pandemic. “The process is painful,” he says. “You first have to fill up a form, sign it and upload it, which then goes to your supervisor. He downloads it, signs it, scans it and uploads it. It goes to someone else in the administration. Finally, it’s uploaded on UGC’s portal.”
STUDENT TURNS WAITER
Many students are forced to find other sources of income. Vinayak Renewad, an MA economics student from Nanded, has been working part-time jobs since his graduation because of the delay in disbursal of scholarship amount. From working as a waiter to sleeping on shop floors, Renewad says he has done it all. “In hotels, I could get meals and also sleep there. In shops, food needs to be arranged, but there one can sleep on the floor, cutting down on hostel fee.”
Administrative staff are not of much help, according to law student Kuldeep Ambekar. While this widespread problem isn’t exclusive to the pandemic, it has worsened the situation for many. Lokesh Chugh, national spokesperson for NSUI says, “Attending 6-8 hours of classes everyday uses up 4-5 GB of data. That costs money.” Chugh is himself a PhD student whose scholarship money has been delayed for 8-9 months.
NO STIPEND BUT LOTS OF COVID WORK
Lalan Kumar is a senior research scholar at Central Drug Research Institute in Lucknow, which is directly run by CSIR. He has been working on the anti-Covid vaccine, but his dues of Rs 35,000 (excluding HRA) per month are pending since June. “When singer Kanika Kapoor had tested positive, there was much panic in Lucknow. I was working from 5am till 2am every day at the lab, doing tests and making sanitiser to overcome the shortage. I took no leave during this pandemic period. And yet my dues are held up for the last five months. How long can one borrow from friends and family?” Kumar says.
Priyanka Kushwaha from Bahraich is a PhD scholar at IIT Bombay. Her dues were held up for eight months and only recently five months of pending money was cleared. “As a teaching assistant, I have also been taking classes online while pursuing my research. My work hasn’t stopped, but the scholarship has,” says Kushwaha, who recently took to Twitter to complain.
