No Stipend sanctioned to the students selected by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment
Free UPSC coaching scheme for eligible ST/SCs and OBCs (Feb 2021–2022 batch)
I am a student of Feb 2021–2022 batch of “The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment” Free UPSC coaching scheme for ST/SCs and OBCs. I, along with other 80+ students were selected by the ministry and enrolled in Samkalp Coaching Institute, Delhi for taking the course.
We were promised a stipend of Rs.6000 for the outstation students and Rs.3000 for the local students. A special allowance of Rs 2,000 was also promised for the students with disabilities.
But “No Stipend” has been sanctioned even after 1 year of enrolment under the scheme.
Our classes began from March 1st, 2021. The classes were initially running smooth. But on 24th June, 2021, we received an email from Samkalp stating that we all will be considered as localites and hence the promised stipend (i.e, Rs. 6000) will be reduced to half (i.e, Rs. 3000). Many of us had been waiting for the stipend and had left our jobs. Some of us even moved to Delhi, thinking that Stipend would help. We therefore expressed our concerns to the institute after receiving the following document via email.
Our coaching institute, Samkalp said that they are not responsible for the stipend, the ministry is. They did not provide us with the contact of the authorities, and asked us to take it from ministry’s website. We followed the instructions. But, our attempt to reach out to the ministry has all gone in vain. We are therefore trying to seek help with the help of this article.
This is the copy of the first mail that we sent to the email ids that we found on the ministry’s website and through other articles available on the internet.
Mail 1: Requesting for releasing promised stipend
Date: Tue, 27 Jul 2021
Respected sir,
We got a mail on 24th June, 2021 that we all will be considered locals and will only get half of the stipend that we were promised earlier as outstation students. The reason stated is the ongoing “online” classes due to the pandemic.
We all were ready to take offline classes and excited for the conducive environment we all were going to get for our further preparation. But due to covid, we couldn’t.
Reduction in the stipend seems unfair to us as the pandemic is not at all our fault. There was lockdown even during the selection period but we were not informed about the probable changes in the stipend.
This pandemic has badly affected the lower middle class to which most of us belong. Most of us are facing severe financial problems in our homes. Facing network problems has as if become a part of daily classes. We often miss classes due to the internet. And getting the internet for four long hours isn’t cheap at all.
We even came across few batchmates who had to leave their families and shift to a nearby town to get proper internet and study material. We were promised hard copies of the study material on the day of induction. We tried asking for the same many times in the ministry’s WhatsApp group. getting them printed will be very expensive for us. Even notes/soft copies of all the ongoing subjects have not yet been provided to us. My friend, Rashmi even wrote to Samkalp enquiring about the same but got no response. Amidst all these, this step seems very inappropriate.
We had put the issue of the stipend in front of Samkalp but they said it is the ministry that decides. My friend, Aditya tried to contact you by dropping an email but it seems we were not able to reach you.
At the time when we, students wanted to discuss these expenses, receiving an email stating a reduction in the stipend seems really unfair. Sir, on behalf of the entire batch we are writing to request you to reconsider the proposed changes. We shall forever remain indebted to you for the same. Thanking in anticipation.
Regards,
Ministry batch, 2021
This email didn’t bring us any help. So, we tried to put forward our concerns to the ministry via 2nd mail again that we sent on Feb 22nd, 2022 (i.e almost one year after the commencement of the classes).
Mail 2: Requesting for releasing promised stipend
Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2022
After continuously asking our institute, Samkalp about the stipend we have got either no response or just one reply “We are taking follow up. Your stipend is the responsibility of Ministry, not SAMKALP.” Therefore, on behalf of the entire batch, I am taking a risk to write to you again requesting you to reconsider the proposed changes about reducing the stipend to 50% (i.e from 6000 per month to only 3000 per month).
When we wrote you an email last time, we had to dig all over the internet to try to find the contact of someone from the ministry. Samkalp did not give us any relevant mail id whom we should have written to. They guided us on looking at the ministry’s website. We weren’t sure of who the right person was who could help us. This is the reason why we CC’d all of you hoping that some or the other person will reply guiding us to the right person. But in return, we got only one email from Samkalp stating how unhappy they were with us reaching out to you all and the ministry.
I remember, a friend calling me (she doesn’t want me to reveal her name) saying that she got a call from the coaching questioning her about the mail that I wrote last time. She said that she is not mentally strong enough to receive such calls scolding her for an act that she did for everyone’s good that that was her right.
Apart from the calls, this is a copy of the mail we received from Samkalp with an attachment last time:
We, therefore, followed the norms and asked for the updates from Samkalp first (Attached a screenshot and a document for your reference with the mail starting from feb 2021 to feb 2022)
And as it seems like they do not have any updates from the ministry, we are writing to you.
It’s been one year now. I am glad I did not move to Delhi after getting selected for this coaching and getting to know about the stipend. But many of my friends did. They are all stuck now with neither any stipend nor any update about the same. Moreover, the news on reducing the stipend to half made a lot of them return back to their hometowns. And now that it has been a year and still our coaching has no updates about the stipend nor are they willing to give any contact of the right authority from the ministry, here I am struggling on behalf of the entire batch to reach out to the ministry to claim our rights over the promised stipend again.
Please help us. We shall forever remain indebted to you for the same. Thanking you in anticipation.
Regards,
Sakshi Kumari
What next?
After sending the first mail, we at least heard back from Samkalp. This time, we got no reply 😔.
Therefore, on students suggestions, we reach out to Ramdas Athawale sir (Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment). He heard us carefully and directed us to Praveen Moorey Sir with an application.
Awaiting for his reply and updates from him… It’s been quite some time now.
We now are left with no other option but to seek help online. With an hope to reach out to someone who can help us with getting the PROMISED STIPEND, we are publishing this article.
Update
So, we never got to hear back from Athawale sir or his PA whom we were in touch with. In fact, our phone numbers were also blocked.
RTI Report
In between, we also got a reply to our RTI on 11th April, 2022 which we filed on 22nd January, 2022 but it did not really prove to be helpful for us in anyway.
PMO Grievance
We also reached out to PMO on March 27th, 2022 but have not yet heard back from them.
Reply from the Ministry: A hope
We finally got to hear back from R Subramanian Sir (Secretary, MoSJE) in April 8th, 2022 stating that we should get the stipend before April 30th.
Message from Ministry: June 10th, 2022
After making a number of calls to the ministry and Samkalp, we dropped another email in the same thread questioning Subramanian sir (Secretary, MoSJE - secywel@nic.in)and Kalyani Chaddha ma’am (Under Secretary, MoSJE - kalyani.chadha@nic.in) as they are the only ones entertaining us. The mail was sent on 7th June 2022.
I am writing to you on behalf of our entire batch. We request you to help us with our issues. Following are our major queries.
1. How much amount will be given as stipend per month? We are still unsure whether we will get the promised stipend (6000 or 3000)?
2. Will we get the stipend for 12 months? And will the entire amount be given at once?
3. If 50–50% amount will be given, may be please know by when we can expect it?Also sir, for your information we were informed by Kalyani Chadha ma’am (Joint secretary) today that “due to administrative reasons, our batch i.e mode 2 (2021–2022) got cancelled”. Does it signal that we will get no stipend?
With this information we have lost all our hopes. We request you to get in touch with us (Sharad Sanjay Thorat — 837882xxxx; Sakshi Kumari — 870916xxxx) and give us the necessary details. We will be forever indebted to you for the same. Thanking in anticipation.
We heard back from Pravin Kumar Tripathi (pravin.tripathi@nic.in; Under Secretary, MoSJE) on June 10th, 2022.
Dear Student
Please refer to your trailing mail regarding stipend under Free coaching Scheme 2021–22. This issue has been examined and it is observed that during the year 2021–22, empanelled institutes under Mode 1 were conducting classes as per the guidelines of Local administration in respect of Covid protocol. In such situation it was not clear whether institute was conduction online classes or physical therefore this department decided to process 1st installment of scholarship proposal based on rates prescribed for online fee and stipend @ prescribed rate for Local students. At the time of processing 2nd installment, department will work out the due fee and stipend as per the actual period of physical and online conduction of classes.2. So far expected date for release of scholarship is concerned, 1st installment of fee component has already been paid to institute. However, stipend could not be released because at the time of processing stipend it came to notice that Samkalp institute forwarded proposal including a candidate belonging to Minority community, which is not permitted under this scheme. In this regard clarification was sought from the institute and response has been received recently. Now department is in process of release of 1st installment towards stipend 2021–22 and the same will be released soon.
At the same time, the only faculty who was in touch with us (GR Patil sir) guided us to three other people (Prasanna Kumar, Sandeep Trivedi and Santosh Dolayi) from Samkalp saying that henceforth, he will not answer any question regarding stipend.
Former Union Minister of State: Sudarshan Bhagat, Jharkhand
We also approached the Former Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, Jharkhand’s Sudarshan Bhagat after learning about the misery of the students asked the students to give him a written application and ensured that he will personally look into the matter and approach the ministry to immediately resolve the students’ problems.
On a Sidenote
Case 1: One of my friend from Samkalp called Sanjay Gupta sir (Joint Secretary, MoSJE) in April 2022 to enquire about the stipend. He said, he would give her the update but before that asked her to answer “What are the types of amendments mentioned in the constitution?”. Even after givng the answer, he asked her to focus on her studies and cut the call.
Case 2: Another friend of mine took help of an NGO and made them talk to Patil sir over a phone call on behalf of all the students. He requested Samkalp to try to disburse the stipend as the students are now incapable of staying in Delhi anymore and if delayed they would go to Jantar Mantar and sit for the dharna. On which Patil sir got offended and replied say that “I am also an IAS officer and I also have links”.
Conclusion
The stipend that was supposed to help the poor students has rather become a liability for them and also a source of mockery as evident from the above two cases.
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