Centre under fire as communities come out against suspension of student scholarships

New Delhi: The Maulana Azad National Fellowship, a scholarship for students from minority populations, will no longer be offered starting with the current academic year, the Center announced on Thursday.

The decision was taken, according to Smriti Irani, Minister of Union Minority Affairs, since the fellowship overlapped with other programmes.

In 2009, the Maulana Azad National Fellowship was established. Students from the six designated minority communities—Buddhists, Christians, Jains, Muslims, Parsis, and Sikhs—were given financial aid to pursue MPhil and PhD degrees.

The programme was introduced as a part of efforts to put the Sachar Committee's recommendations into action, which looked at the socioeconomic situation of Muslims in India.

Karnataka unit of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) has slammed the BJP-led government at the Centre for suspending scholarships meant for students from Class 1 to 8.

Abdul Majid Mysore, State President of the SDPI, stated on Saturday that from the academic year 2022-23 all the students from classes 1 to 8 belonging to SC, ST, Other Backward Classes, and Minority communities will not receive any scholarship.

"This move of the PM Modi-led BJP government's cancellation of scholarships for students is part of a strategy to gradually deprive these communities of educational facilities and rights," he said.

India is among the least spending countries on education. The NEP commissioned by the government has recommended spending at least 6 per cent of GDP on education, he maintained.

But he alleged that this government is not providing even half of it to the education sector. Only 2.8 per cent in 2019-20, 3.1 per cent in 2020-21, and 3.1 per cent in 2021-22 are earmarked for education.

Majeed said that the SDPI strongly opposes the fact that needy children are being treated unjustly and the scholarships are being taken away from them.

He insisted that the Modi government, which is spending thousands of crores to propagate its lies, should not indulge in this kind of betrayal and immediately release the scholarship for all grades of children.

With agencies input