Initiate Post Doctoral Fellowship for OBCs, increase national fellowship slots: OBC students’ association

The All India OBC Students’ Association (AIOBCSA), in a letter to the Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Virendra Kumar, has urged the minister to initiate Post Doctoral Fellowship for OBCs and to increase the number of slots for National Fellowship for OBCs from the current 1,000 to 5,000 slots every year.

Reiterating that the National Fellowship for OBCs (NFOBCs) was introduced to help OBC research scholars to pursue MPhil and PhDs in various universities, the students’ association said that the number of slots allocated for NFOBCs by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment is only 1,000. While, the number of slots allocated for the National Fellowships for the Scheduled Caste (SCs) is 2,000, and it is 1,000 and 750 for minorities and Scheduled Tribe (STs) students respectively. As many students belonging to OBC categories are now pursuing PhDs, there is a need for increasing the national fellowship for them from the current 1,000 to 5,000 slots, AIOBCSA added.

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The students association, in the letter, also noted the fact that there is no post-doctoral fellowship for OBC students by University Grants Commission (UGC) as seen for SC and ST students. UGC allocates 100 slots of Post Doctoral Fellowships for SCs and STs every year.