A Dalit student who has made it to a premier educational institution in the United Kingdom has been denied scholarship after being awarded one by the Adi Dravidar Welfare (ADW) Department. This has come as a dampener at a time when Dalits are slowly moving forward and have started to enter the upper echelons of higher education.
K. Saravanan is a scholar selected by the School of Chemistry, University of Manchester, for Ph.D. research with a fellowship awarded by the department under a scholarship scheme for SC students for studying in universities abroad.
He was selected for the scholarship in 2009 (November 19, 2009), according to the documents obtained through the Right to Information Act. The scheme supports SC students for four years.
After his interview in 2009, he was declared successful and given confirmation letter to proceed for higher studies. However, until now, the ADW Department has not released any funds. The aspiring candidate was shocked to know that his scholarship was cancelled due to insufficient funds, after he had joined the course. Mr. Saravanan was chosen for the fellowship by the competent authority and his proposal went through an elaborate process. The University of Manchester admitted him to the Ph.D. Programme in Drug Discovery only after a rigorous test and discussion.
On November 19, 2009, the ADW Department held the interview for scholarship and Mr. Saravanan was one among the two candidates selected for the SC student foreign scholarship.
According to the endorsement letter issued by ADW Commissioner P. Sivasankaran, Mr. Saravanan was provisionally selected for the overseas fellowship scheme. Mr. Sivasankaran had sent a letter to the Head, School of Chemistry, University of Manchester, that the government of Tamil Nadu would cover tuition fees, maintenance allowance, and contingency allowance of Mr. Saravanan. Meanwhile, Mr. Saravanan was asked to join the university after producing the award letter.
The ADW Department, in a letter, had advised him to proceed with his visa formalities and asked him to join the course, making financial arrangements on his own, as it might take some time to get the administrative approval. As he was not in a position to mobilise the required funds, he had waited for the release of funds.
During 2011, on the request of ADW Department, again Mr. Saravanan submitted the admission letter and the approval was sought for the release of funds. On the belief that he would be awarded the scholarship, Saravanan got his visa to UK and proceeded on his journey by borrowing money from relatives, friends and teachers. The ADW Commissioner again wrote to Prof. Whitehead requesting that Mr. Saravanan could be allowed to join the University of Manchester to pursue Ph.D. However, the Secretary wrote to the ADW Commissioner that the time period to get the fellowship had been closed for the said financial year (2011-12) and also no sufficient funds were available. The information collected through RTI Act states that ADW Minister, N. Subramanian, had rejected his application on the ground that the candidate had not joined the said programme in September 2011. But Mr. Saravanan contends that the Department had sent the relevant files only in September 2011 to the Principal Secretary (Finance) and Chief Secretary, who signed the files in December 2011.
Appeal to Jayalalithaa
The RTI documents reveal that ADW Department had goofed up the whole issue as it had misquoted the tuition fee as 7,000 pounds, though Mr. Saravanan had clearly mentioned it as 17,000 pounds. The ADW Department cited it as a typographic error. As a last resort, he has written to the Chief Minister’s special cell seeking justice. He is awaiting a favourable order from the Chief Minister.
