Stipend hike, I would prefer a job!

Research Scholars of India (RSI) are protesting and requesting Government of India for the following demands-

1.  In line with their previous hikes, the recent hike be made from April 1, 2014 for all the scholars.

2.  Streamline a system to have annual increment in fellowship based on some formula (linked to inflation index) such that the process happens automatically. This should also be cooperation among all the funding agencies.

3.  The government must implement regular disbursal of fellowship for all the scholars in various institutions in India.

4.  There must be a slab implementation of JRF to SRF (1.3 fold of JRF) and SRF to RA (1.3 fold of SRF).

5.  Fellowship hike must be for all the scholars including Non-NET, Non-GATE, RA, Masters and all other professional courses. This should also be parity in the same.

6.  Contingency, medical and other rightful entitlements should be ensured for all the scholars in various institutions and must be same across funding agencies.

However, I am disturbed with the myopic vision of these demands. A pay hike may be required but research scholars have numerous more pertinent issues. The obliviousness to those is puzzling as I can confidently emphasize on the fact that in several institutions scholars receive a meager amount but work willingly. To me the issues that need an urgent attention are-

1.  The unexplained reason for limiting the Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) to the candidates below age of 28 years. If the idea is that young minds are more dynamic and brimming with ideas then how can extension of a retired scientist to an emeritus one is justified?

2.  The tenure of fellowship is fixed but the submission of thesis is not. If government awards fellowship to be translated into a thesis then why it shies away with responsibility of the completion of work? In other parts of the world there is a due date for the thesis submission, but in India the journey is endless.

3.  It is essential for Indian students to have a post-doctoral experience from abroad, as postdoctoral training in India is percieved as a potentially fatal career “dead end.” Therefore, India itself believes that students trained in India are less competent than their peers trained abroad.

4.  The PhD supervisor has the full authority over the scholar’s career, what to do if  diffrences occur? Quintessentially the supervisor-scholar relationship should be an equal one but in practise it is lopsided where supervisor has an upper hand. In the event of a disagreement the scholar suffers professionally.

5.  Government should think about the non-functional or unproductive laboratories that occupy space, consume resources and take students whose future gets doomed. Every institute has such labs where the scholar survives the brunt of being in such a lab. Why government allows such labs is uncomprehensible?

6.  No assurance of career options after attaining a PhD or a PDF.

There are many other issues but these are few that I believe to be of utmost importance. I am suspicious about the demands made by the students not because they are irrelevant, but because who allows them to jeopardize their lab work and go for the demonstrations. It is bizarre to find such supervisors who would allow their scholars to organize such events that too for the revision of scholar fellowship that they care about the least. 

I am simply trying to believe the intentions of the protests that it has no hidden motive or have benefactors who are catapulting the students on their behalf for their own reasons. As scholars should better prod the government for their recruitments than to appeal for a hike in fellowship. Because after 5 years your PhD can continue but your stipend will not.

A heart-wrenching fact is, the lack of jobs in India often prevents the post-doctoral scholars to relocate back to their home country.