Women from minority communities have outnumbered men by a long way — 417 to 338 — in winning the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad national fellowships for research, prompting the government to drop plans for reservation.
Launched this year to help minority community students in higher education, this scheme offers integrated five-year fellowships in the form of financial assistance to pursue degrees such as MPhil and PhD.
Girls from all communities except Buddhists outnumbered boys. “That more girls than boys have received the scholarship is quite encouraging. More so, because there was no quota set aside for them. If the trend continues in the coming years, it would be a great achievement,” an official of the minorities ministry said.
Initially, a 30 per cent quota was fixed for women. “We had thought that the fellowship could be passed on to male students in case of shortage of women candidates. But once the applications started flowing in, we decided there was no need for a quota for women,” the official said.
A community-wise break-up revealed that Sikh girls who won the fellowship were almost three times the number of boys; Christian girls were less than double the number of boys; and Muslim girls, considered the most backward, had beaten boys 278 to 261. Among Parsis, the only fellowship has gone to a girl.
Aligarh Muslim University was the most popular, with 148 students choosing it as their place of research. Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) came second with 46 students, and Jamia Millia Islamia was third with 36 students.
Science was the most popular subject, with 194 students opting for it.
It was followed by social sciences (113), languages (109), business (77), engineering (20) and professional courses (9). Religious studies found only 17 takers. Two Muslim youths opted to study Sanskrit.
In science, chemistry and zoology were the top two picks. In social sciences, history, education and international relations were the most popular.
“The choice of subjects shows that the aspirations of Indian youths are the same, both among majority and minority students. That very few have chosen religious studies is also very encouraging,” the ministry official said.
The fellowship is on the pattern of the University Grants Commission fellowships given to research students pursuing regular and full time MPhil and PhD courses and covers all universities and institutions recognised by the UGC. Of the 75 students from Bengal who have won fellowships, only 18 have chosen education institutions in the state for research.