The tata institute of social Sciences, Mumbai (TISS, estb.1936), widely acknowledged as the country’s best social sciences higher education institution, is floundering in a sea of troubles — particularly by way of student protests.
Students are up in arms because the institute’s management has written to students that it proposes to withdraw the credit hitherto given by TISS to scheduled caste (SC), scheduled tribe (ST) and other backward class (OBC) students, from the current academic year. The management of this liberal institute has been forced to make this drastic proposal because the Union ministry of social justice and several state governments have been interminably delaying reimbursement of post-matric scholarship (PMS) expenses borne by the institute for 1,060 SC/ST and OBC students between 2009-14. The arrears of PMS dues have risen to Rs.20 crore throwing the institute’s finances into disarray. Hence, the proposal to stop credit to affirmative action quota students.
As a Central government-funded university which has 5,000 students on its muster rolls across its campuses in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Guwahati and Tuljapur, TISS receives an annual non-plan grant (Rs.42 crore in 2015-16) from the Union government which is routed through the University Grants Commission (UGC). Until 2014, the institute was also being given annual grants by the ministry of social justice and empowerment, the ministry of tribal affairs and state governments to cover the tuition, board and lodging expenses of students admitted under affirmative action.
However, after 2014, following the introduction of the Central government’s direct benefit transfer (DBT) scheme, scholarship amounts are directly credited into the bank accounts of students admitted under affirmative action quotas. “When students fail to transfer the scholarship amounts to the institute, as expected, the institute loses the entire cost it has borne towards supporting the education of students eligible for the GoI (Government of India) PMS fund. Last year, less than 25 percent students returned the scholarship amount they might have received in their accounts,” says a written statement dated May 30 of registrar C.P. Mohan Kumar.
Exasperated by prolonged board and lodging payment delays, on May 25 the institute which levies below-cost tuition fees (Rs.1 lakh per year) in the public interest, sent out a notice signed by its registrar Mohan Kumar, expressing its inability to continue the arrangement of subsidising delayed payments of SC/ST/OBC students’ dining hall and hostel charges. The institute has asked the students to pay all but tuition fees at the beginning of each semester from the start of the academic year 2017-18. Under this proposal, affirmative action students will be obliged to pay Rs.31,000 per semester compared to the mere Rs.4,500 they paid at the start of previous academic years.
Even as they are silent on the issue of non-payment of their board and lodging fees, student representative organisations have criticised the TISS management’s demand for payment of these expenses upfront. The TISS-based Ambedkarite Students Association (ASA) has posted a statement on an online forum (roundtableindia.co.in) accusing the TISS management of being anti-Dalit. The association has asked for a complete roll back of the May 25 proposal, and demanded the mandatory presence of a Dalit representative when administrative decisions related to ST/SC and OBC categories are taken.
According to knowledgeable academics within TISS, the crux of the problem is that the BJP government at the Centre has been deliberately slow to release students scholarship amounts under the DBT scheme because of the “intolerable liberalism” of the TISS faculty and its students’ associations, and is hobbling this premier social science institute with a permanent cash flow crisis. Writing in TISSSAM 2017, the institute’s annual magazine, Rahul Advani, president of the TISS student council says: “The last few years have witnessed unprecedented assaults on higher education and related services by the government in the country. The attempt has been to not only suffocate higher education, particularly in humanities and social sciences, by drastically reducing funds and fellowships but also by dictating ‘who’ can pursue research on ‘what’, ‘how’ and under ‘whose’ supervision…”
If the students of this rightly venerated but beleaguered institute are truly liberal, they should unite with the management floundering in a sea of troubles including official hostility, instead of compounding its problems.
Dipta Joshi (Mumbai)