Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde Announces Scholarship For SC Research Students Protesting In Mumbai

A research fellow at BARTI is eligible for a monthly stipend of Rs 31,000 for the first two years, and Rs 35,000 a month for the next three years of the PhD course.

The eligible Scheduled Caste students had been staging a protest for 52 days at Mumbai’s Azad Maidan.

Source : ABP Live

New Delhi: Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Wednesday announced scholarship for all 861 students eligible for research after clearing the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Research and Training Institute (BARTI) exam. This comes a day after ABP Live reported that these eligible Scheduled Caste students had been staging a protest for 52 days at Mumbai’s Azad Maidan over non-payment of scholarship money.

A research fellow at BARTI, an autonomous organisation under the social justice and special assistance department, is eligible for a monthly stipend of Rs 31,000 for the first two years, and Rs 35,000 a month for the next three years of the PhD course.

Speaking to ABP Live, Principal Secretary, Social Justice, Sumant Bhange on Tuesday said the protesting students have been demanding that the scholarship given under the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar National Research and Scholarship 2021 should be given to all the students who passed the examination, which is not feasible. 

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"Out of 1,000 applications received by BARTI, 862 students have cleared the entrance exam, and the government has approved the fellowship for the first 200 students," Bhange said, adding, "...the students who are protesting at Azad Maidan are demanding that all of them be given the scholarship. The government has a quota of funds for the BARTI scholarship. We cannot fund more students than what we are currently giving scholarships to.”

Madhuri Taide, one of the protesting students, said her mother works at a brick factory for Rs 180 per day, and her father works in a flour mill for a daily wage of Rs 250. She had left home to pursue higher education, but does not have money to pay rent or buy food.

She said she is now considering giving up her PhD course and start working to support her family, as she is also under pressure to get married. Madhuri hopes to fulfil her parents' dreams, but without a scholarship, she may have to abandon her studies, she added.