When Shahid (identify modified) (30) lastly secured admission to a Ph.D. programme at Jamia Millia Islamia, it felt just like the end result of years of effort. The son of a modest household from Muzaffarnagar in western Uttar Pradesh, he was the primary individual in his family to attain higher education.
After finishing his Master’s in Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy in 2021, Mr. Shahid was decided to proceed his educational journey. He had already studied at Jamia for his bachelor’s diploma and dreamed of finally changing into an assistant professor. “I always wanted to be in teaching,” he mentioned. “For someone like me, becoming a professor meant everything.”
His doctoral research centered on the formation of Muslim Jat identities in western Uttar Pradesh after the nineteenth century, a topic rooted in the social historical past of his personal area.
Like many research students from minority communities, Mr. Shahid hoped to obtain monetary assist by means of the Maulana Azad National Fellowship (MANF). This programme helps minority students pursuing M.Phil and Ph.D. research. But the timing of his admission turned his dream right into a wrestle.
The closing of MANF
The yr he joined his Ph.D. programme, 2022-23, the federal government closed the fellowship to new candidates. “It was a dream moment to get selected for a Ph.D. at Jamia,” Mr. Shahid mentioned, smiling faintly as he checked out his college id card. “But from the very first day, I realised I would have to depend on borrowings to survive.”
Without a fellowship, Mr. Shahid started counting on small contributions from members of the family and loans from mates to proceed his research. He additionally tried to qualify for the Junior Research Fellowship (JRF), one other nationwide fellowship programme, however couldn’t safe it regardless of attempting 3 times. With no regular supply of earnings, he started taking freelance assignments with research organisations and NGOs.
“I can’t rely on my family every time,” he mentioned. “So I started working wherever I could.” But juggling work with research took its toll.
Mr. Shahid’s doctoral chapters are actually full, and he hopes to submit his thesis later this yr. Yet the trail has been far harder than he imagined when he first entered the programme.
During these years, monetary constraints compelled him to miss educational alternatives that might have strengthened his profession. One of them got here when his research summary was accepted for presentation at a convention at IIT Kanpur. Although his paper was prepared, he couldn’t afford the registration payment required to attend. “I had my paper prepared,” he mentioned. “But the fee was too high, and I couldn’t arrange the money in time.”
In 2023, he confronted the same state of affairs when a convention at Kalyani University in West Bengal required a participation payment of ₹6,000. “I had to let that opportunity go as well,” he mentioned.
Disappearing monetary assist for minority students
Mr. Shahid’s expertise displays a broader pattern unfolding throughout the nation as monetary assist programmes for minority students shrink or disappear.
According to the 2011 Census, spiritual minorities collectively account for roughly 19% of India’s inhabitants. Muslims, the biggest minority neighborhood, quantity about 172 million folks (14.2%), adopted by Christians (2.3%), Sikhs (1.7%), Buddhists (0.7%), Jains (0.4%), and Parsis (0.006%), and others in smaller numbers.
For hundreds of thousands inside these communities, a lot of whom are first-generation learners, scholarship schemes have traditionally served as one of many few pathways to higher education.
Data supplied by UGC exhibits that 6722 candidates have been chosen below the MANF scheme between 2014-15 and 2021-22 and fellowships to the tune of ₹ 738.85 crore have been distributed throughout the identical interval. However, the programme was closed to new candidates in 2022. The closure was a part of a collection of coverage modifications affecting minority education programmes.
In February 2022, the federal government diminished funding for the Maulana Azad Education Foundation, an organisation offering instructional and skill-development alternatives for minorities, by 99%, reducing its allocation from ₹90 crore to simply ₹1 lakh.
Later that yr, the federal government partially discontinued the , eradicating assist for students from Classes 1 to 8 whereas retaining it for Classes 9 to 12.
Another scheme, Padho Pardesh, which supplied curiosity subsidies on education loans for minority students finding out overseas, was additionally halted. Reporting by The Hindu Business Line in January 2023 mentioned banks had been knowledgeable that the programme would finish, though no formal public announcement defined the choice.
Budget paperwork additionally reveal steep declines in allocations for the remaining scholarship schemes. The Merit-cum-Means Scholarship, designed to assist minority students pursue skilled levels similar to engineering, drugs and administration, has seen its allocation collapse from ₹7.34 crore in the 2025–26 Budget to simply ₹0.06 crore in 2026–27, a discount of greater than 99%.
The hole between allotted funds and precise spending is equally stark. The Post-Matric Scholarship for Minorities, which helps students finding out after Class 10, had an allocation of ₹413.99 crore in 2025–26, however revised estimates present that solely ₹0.06 crore was spent as of finish of February. The same sample seems in the Pre-Matric Scholarship, the place revised expenditure additionally dropped to ₹0.06 crore regardless of a lot higher preliminary allocations.
Taken collectively, these figures counsel that whereas ₹831.70 crore has been allotted for minority education empowerment programmes in the 2026–27 Budget, most of the schemes meant to ship that assist are shrinking in follow.
The monetary strain is felt not solely by research students like Mr. Shahid but additionally by students in earlier levels of education. Blessy Ok. Abraham, a 22-year-old sociology scholar from Kerala finding out at Dr B. R. Ambedkar University Delhi, says the price of higher education has develop into more and more troublesome to handle. “My semester fee is around ₹35,000 even though it is a public university,” she mentioned. “For a year, it comes to almost ₹70,000.”
The college provides inner benefit scholarships, however she claims, whereas exhibiting the revised scholarship coverage paperwork issued by the college for students, that the quantity has diminished over time. “Earlier, the scholarships were higher,” she mentioned. “Now they cover only a small part of the expenses.”
Ms. Blessy mentioned she had explored minority scholarship choices by means of the National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation however discovered that a number of schemes had already been discontinued. “To pay my fees, I have crowdfunded for the last two semesters,” she mentioned.
Opposition to affirmative measures
Experts say such monetary obstacles threat widening present inequalities in entry to education. Salman Khurshid, former Union Minister for Minority Affairs, in dialog with The Hindu, mentioned, scholarship programmes have been initially designed to handle structural disadvantages highlighted by the Sachar Committee report. “If everyone is expected to compete from the same pool without targeted support, then what was the purpose of having these schemes?” he mentioned.
He argued that scholarships performed an important function in encouraging students from weak communities to pursue higher education. “An educated minority student does not harm society,” he mentioned. “He contributes to it.”
Scholars finding out higher education coverage say the decline in such programmes might have long-term penalties. Zoya Hasan, Professor Emerita at Jawaharlal Nehru University, described the budgetary shifts as a part of what she calls a broader sample of “structural exclusion”. “The current policies reflect a fundamental opposition to affirmative measures that would increase minority participation in higher education,” she mentioned, noting that enrolment ranges amongst Muslim students have already declined in latest years.
“They talk about ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas,’ but there’s no evidence of this, as the government continues to sideline minorities,” she famous. Professor Hasan, who was a member of the National Commission for Minorities from 2006 to 2009, mentioned the state is more and more in search of to management universities and different higher instructional establishments by influencing the content material of instructing and research, in addition to the appointment of vice-chancellors and college.
The uncertainty going through students at present is unfolding alongside a coverage stalemate round scholarship programmes themselves. Investigations into alleged irregularities in the minority scholarship system, together with circumstances involving pretend establishments and ghost beneficiaries, have dragged on for years.
Reports by The Print and The Wire on a latest parliamentary standing committee evaluation, chaired by Bharatiya Janata Party MP P. C. Mohan, famous that whereas inquiries proceed, many schemes that when supported minority students have remained successfully dormant, leaving candidates and present students unsure about whether or not or when help will resume.
For students already navigating rising education prices and restricted household assets, the delay has meant dwelling in a protracted state of limbo, ready for selections that will decide whether or not they can proceed their research in any respect.
Back in Jamia’s research library, Mr.. Shahid continues to work on the ultimate chapters of his thesis. But the years spent juggling freelance work and research have left him unsure about his future. While freelancing and doing different jobs to earn cash have helped him survive, he says it has additionally affected the standard and tempo of his research. “It’s my fifth year, and I still haven’t been able to submit my paper because financial issues keep getting in the way,” he mentioned. “I can’t focus properly on the research.”
“I can’t demand anything now because my time in research has already gone,” Mr. Shahid mentioned quietly. “Now I am looking for a job to help my family.”
(Arsalan Shamsi and Mohsin Mushtaq are freelance journalists based mostly in New Delhi.)
