The Honorable Minister of Human Resource Development, Government of India, Shastri Bhavan, New Delhi-110 115. Sub: To enhance the ICSSR Fellowship amount and tenure par with UGC research fellowship Dear Sir, We the research scholars of the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) affiliated to the 27 National Research Institutes and Universities across the Country would like to draw your attention to the protracted serious issue of the enhancement of ICSSR Doctoral fellowship. The doctoral fellowship provided by these institutes is inadequate to meet the needs of the scholars in the present scenario. This is also discriminatory when compared to UGC Research Fellowship. Realising this unjust discrepancy, review committees by many social sciences experts have repeatedly recommended for improving the ICSSR fellowship on par with UGC Research Fellowship. However, both the ministry of Human Resources Development and ICSSR protracted the issue without any seriousness. As a result, ICSSR research scholars had to face many distresses. This is especially difficult to those scholars who do research in many of the ICSSR Institutes that lacks hostel facilities and that too in the light of increasing cost of living. This is despite the fact that the research contribution of ICSSR institutes has been much higher than the universities, that is evident from the survey of research articles in reputed social science journals which shows that 40 per cent of authors were from research institutes and only a third from universities (Fourth Review Committee of ICSSR). At the same time the ICSSR fellowship offered is very meagre and of shorter duration (2+1 years) compared to UGC research fellowship and those offered by other institutes (5 years).The clause with respect to the contingency grant also makes things difficult for the scholars to undertake fruitful research. As of now the ICSSR Fellowship offered just Rs.6, 000/ only, which is really inadequate to sustain the living costs and that of research needs while only a revision can ease the misery of the ICSSR research scholars. Through this petition, therefore we demand the followings: (1) End the present discrimination of ICSSR research scholars. (2) Enhance the ICSSR Fellowship par with UGC Research Fellowship amount and tenure immediately. In case of any revision of UGC research fellowship, it should be applied to ICSSR Research Fellowship also. (3) Provide HRA to the ICSSR Research Scholar as well. (4) Make necessary arrangements for hostel and canteen facilities in all the ICSSR institutes. This revision will definitely help us do our work better. We earnestly expect speedy resolution to our genuine academic plea. If any solution to this petition is inordinately delayed we will be forced to protest to resolve this legitimate grievance. Research Scholars and Social Scientists

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