Students protest against end of fellowships

Since Tuesday last week, when news first broke out about the non-National Eligibility Test fellowship being discontinued for research scholars, students across universities have risen up in protest, writes Aranya Shankar for The Indian Express.

By the next day, the protest led by Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union had turned into an “Occupy UGC” movement, inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement of 2011. Friday was marked by paramilitary crackdown on students as some were detained. The movement is slowly turning into a pan-India movement with protests erupting in Hyderabad, Allahabad and Bihar.

Students protesting against the move are not demanding just the reinstatement of the fellowship but also its increase. The protest hinges on two basic interconnected planks. Firstly, protesters say this will adversely affect students coming from disadvantaged backgrounds who rely heavily on the fellowship to carry on their research. Secondly and more importantly, they see this as a part of the larger plan of the BJP government to make Indian higher education compliant with the World Trade Organization’s General Agreement on Trade in Services requirements.
Full report on The Indian Express site